Picked Up Interesting 1939 ERMA Depot Re-work....HZaGw

Picked up this 1939 ERMA this weekend at the first gunshow of the season...took a look at it Friday night, and decided to jump on it Saturday morning. The first thing that caught my eye was the marking on the buttplate, looked like an HZa mark, but it was pretty rough...otherwise seemed like a straight up bolt mismatch.

I had a 1939 ERMA, an "l" block, but it was a bolt mismatch too, plus some other mismatched stuff, so I figured I would upgrade...

Anyway, got it home, took it apart, cleaned it up a bit, and here is what I found...

So it appears to be a Depot Rework...barrel and stock replaced. The barrel has a different font for the letter suffix, and also the 0,2 mark under the woodline.

The stock is interesting...buttplate numbered to match, marked HZaGW, and an E/GW3 WaA...takedown lug is marked on both sides SUWW 1942, and E/Su29...that might be a single small Eagle WaA on the side, but its to worn/badly stamped to tell, but it sure looks like one. It is serialed to match on the keel and in the channel....note the grease still along the edges between the stock and metal...I did not remove it...

Interesting stuff going on with the bolt. Its all mismatched, but the safety and shroud were ground and re-numbered, looks German done to me, they match each other. The firing pin, cocking piece, and extractor all match each other, none of it matches the bolt body, but all are E/63 marked...don't think it was part of the re-work (since I would think they would have numbered it all to the rifle..) but interesting nonetheless.

Odd right receiver too, looks like at least one overstamped proof, and there is a "7" at the end of the string...

Barrel code is Geco 31 40 Ru...

Rear sight parts are all numbered to match...would they have numbered them on the replacement barrel, or strip them off the original barrel? They are all E/280 marked...

Front sight post is also numbered to match.

She is a little worn, and the receiver seems a little pitted, I am wondering if it was a battlefield recovery after/during one of the early campaigns....and the barrel and stock was trashed?

In any case, I thought it was an interesting piece with a story to tell, and while my other 1939 ERMA was in better cosmetic shape, this rifle is an upgrade...

Plus I sold the other one for $600 Sunday morning, and used the $$$ to pick up a real, matching, USGI Stevens 520-30 Trench gun...someone sanded the crap out of the buttstock, so it need to be replaced, and its missing the handguard/adapter but it came with a repro adapter that is very well made, and will do for now. $550 total...which was a steal...

Anyway...pics....

More pics...

Last pics...

nice one!! A tough depot to get!

A very interesting piece indeed! Nice find!

Yes, very hard to find! The '7' on the receiver was probably depot done. Seen with some of the other depots also. Its also not uncommon to find original matching sight parts on new barrels.

This is a Spandau rework for sure, buttplate supplied by Güstrow (that's the depot denoted by Gw). It's hard to find Gw marked reworks (or parts), must of the work I've seen by them is on Gew.98's or early dated 98ks.

OK, Spandau with supplied parts makes sense.

I take it the Su29 and SUWW marks point to Spandau...

Like I said, was pretty happy to find it, don't have many depot re-works, even if it is a bolt mismatch....

And a crazy bolt at that...

Any thoughts on the re-stamped RR proof? And did the "7" mean anything, or was it maybe just some sort of mark meaning the receiver was ok to re-use?

OK, I am resurrecting this old thread for a couple of reasons, I will post some info on a couple of other ERMA's I have for Stephan (hopefully you see this Stephan), and thought with what seems to be much newer research done on Depot Re-works, it might be good to re-visit this one, with some more detail that may or may not be helpful with Depot Research...

Still have this one, though the stock data won't help your trends Stephan as it is a re-work with a replaced stock. I covered thing fairly in detail in the original post, but here are more stock details...

So stock was what I assume was an armorer replacement...stamped both in the channel and keel with the s/n but no letter suffix. It has a "P" behind the pistol grip, and has on odd stamp right on the pistol grip...don't know if it means anything, but wanted to include it.

Stock completion date is faint, but appears to be BO or BU 3 20 41. Right side of but is blank except for what may have been an single acceptance, but very hard to tell now.

Not sure what the Weimar eagle stamp is on the recoil lug, and bayo lug is E/280 marled, but looks like the s/n was overstamped…

Barrel was covered previously, does have 3 E/26's after the barrel code, and 0,2 stamp is below woodline.

Rear sight seems to be the original put back onto the barrel.

I'd like to get some opinions on the bolt re-numbering...while it has nothing to do with the rifle, I am curious whether ot looks period German done or not...

Any other thoughts or input on this one is welcome too...I dig the HzA mark on the butt, and depot marks on the bolt takedown lug...

Also curious as to the Overstamp on the right receiver acceptance....

Stephan, I must have sold off my "l" block, but I have some data or you on it...

It was a 1939 27 code, s/n 2789 l, stock was laminate, red glue, and stained. On the bolt side butt it had a Weimar Eagle over "H", and 2 E/280's under that...channel was serial 2789, and it was marked "P", I also noted a "B" and a "Vi", but didn't know where it was stamped with those.

Stock disc and recoil lug were both E/280 marked. Flat buttplate was E/280 marked. I didn't note any stock completion date at the time, back then didn't think of recording it likely...

Barrel band was 466 39 Do, and 3 E/280's...

Let me know if you need anymore data from this one...

I'll get you the 38 data too, I'll take the butt off of one for the completion date....

The renumbered bolt parts appear to be reworked period, but don't go with the action as you suspect. There was a LOT of reworking done on K98k rifles. A lot.

The rifle is for sure a Spandau rework, I suspect about 43 based on the quality of the firing proof on the barrel (later firing proofs are missing pieces). I say later ,none are numbered so I base that on the quality of whats left of the work. The HZaGw buttplates are pretty common as far as depot parts, but still nice to see them. Like you said, a legit bolt mismatch rework. One thing about reworks, every single one is special.

Thank you very much, I have seen it. You are right, it won't help my trends because it's a rework with a replaced stock, nevertheless it's very interesting and I appreciate it. I agree with Mike, it's a Spandau rework.

I would say the stamp on the recoil lug is a E/63. The stock is definitely a Mauser Oberndorf stock, usually it would be used around the "p" block in 1941.

First time seeing this one posted I appreciate Mike doing it though. It really is a cool Depot marked 27 code Mike, glad you have it for your collection.