Third Party Press

swp45 with Sheet Metal Rear Sight

Absolut

Senior Member
I thought this rifle needs to be shared here, if it's not even worth to put it in the pic stickie..

This is how I like the K98k rifle the most: it was even in 2017 when this rifle was unveiled for the first time since WWII, hidden on an attic in Austria and just covered in oil soaked clothing. It can't get more untouched than that - and the icing on top is the fact that it is a sheet metal rear sight!

Aside of the sheet metal rear sight note that this rifle has various blueing speckles, which are a result of the long storage with just oil clothing wrap. I don't even dare to remove the barrel bands to check how it looks below that! The trigger guard screws aling perfect with the staking, assuring it had never been opened before.

Looking very close at the pictures it appears that the rear sight had been painted black, probably to enhace the contrast. Has someone ever encountered that before? Also note that this rifle consists of both phosphated and blued parts all over - and yes, it is fully matching numbers.

Having read that this simplified rear sight was common starting around 74.xxx serial number, I wonder if there are serial numbers known below this rifle (71.xxx serial) which also feature the sheet metal rear sight?
 

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Second and last set of pictures. And yes, in some pictures the fishing line is visible next to the barrel band and the buttplate. I was too lazy to digitally remove those and preferred them to not be reworked too much.
 

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Great photos.. I really like the heavily struck barrel markings.. 45/6 dot barrel. Never seen that before.
 
Earliest sheet metal rear sight guns are in the 68,000 range that I have seen.
 
Short of a museum, it doesn’t get any better than that. Absolutely fantastic, literally, what dreams are made of for most of us. Certainly me. :thumbsup:


KJ
 
Needs to be stickied asap. Mine is the other swp45 that was attic fresh too. I did not turn a screw on it and never will. NICE FIND!!!!!!!!!
 
Awesome rifle, I somehow missed this the first time around. I picked up a project one last year, just BR, always seems to be my luck haha. It’s about 70% complete now. Can’t imagine finding something straight out of the attic, so cool!
 
I don’t know the estimated production, but the standard rear sight is less common on an Swp. Any pictures of your rifle? Any original Swp is nice to see, many are RC.
 
when you think about it---- smart place hidden in the attic

interesting rifle. thanks for posting the photos. I 'll buy the next one I see at a pawn shop : < )
poor folks went through a war, lost everything......dang sure too late to take a last stand. Assuming the soviets aren't coming it would have been insurance or something to swap for a bag of potatoes or a couple loaves of bread.
gil
 

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