Third Party Press

BSW DSM Restore

H

halygon

Well-known member
As mentioned on the G43 forum, I inherited a duo of German rifles that my grandfather brought back from WWII. One is a Gewehr 43 and the other is a BSD DSM. Both got covered in flood water for 5 days inside a gun safe and are in need of cleanup/rust removal. I am working on that already -
I’ll post some pics when I get to the DSM after the G43.

Rifle details:

Make: Berlin-Suhler-waffen
Model: Deutches Sportmodell
Caliber: KAL22 LANG FUR BUCHSEN
Serial: 126783
Stamps: crown,B, Crown, U 5,4mm
Stock Cartouch: NSDMB

First Q: I am missing the cleaning rod and front band. Where is the best place to get original parts like these?

Second Q: I cannot pull the bolt back. The handle comes up but will not slide back. Any thoughts?

Last: I am planning on using kroil along with soft (fine brass/plastic) brushes to remove rust. Hope this will leave most of the original finish, which is a nice bluing. Thoughts here? Also for the stock, I don’t have a good way to clean it. Any suggestions?

I expect that once finished it will be a good little rifle again.
 
I have been meaning for some time to do a write up for the members concerning rust removal and preservation methods. It is a hotly debated subject, while I am by no means an expert, I do have somewhat of a background that helps. I will PM you for your email address and send you a few notes concerning some practices. Metal is much more my area of knowledge, unfortunately, wood is not. I will send what I can.

By the way, congratulations on your inheritance. I had several family members in World War Two. One that captured several items lost them all to rear echelon troops after he was badly wounded and flown from Europe to the United States. Payback, possibly, for some of the horrible things he did to those rear echelon troops. War is hell as they say... One other built several crates and carefully shipped home a quantity of rifles that he had captured during the war, and purchased, post war. I found out a month or so after he had passed that his family had already disposed of his collection without inquiring to any other family members.

So, I would say that you are of the lucky few. I hope that you were able to spend some time with your grandfather, maybe he told you a few stories, maybe not, but please, short of your family starving on the street, I hope you cherish those rifles and pass them to your children.
 
Fal Grunt said:
I have been meaning for some time to do a write up for the members concerning rust removal and preservation methods. It is a hotly debated subject, while I am by no means an expert, I do have somewhat of a background that helps. I will PM you for your email address and send you a few notes concerning some practices. Metal is much more my area of knowledge, unfortunately, wood is not. I will send what I can.

By the way, congratulations on your inheritance. I had several family members in World War Two. One that captured several items lost them all to rear echelon troops after he was badly wounded and flown from Europe to the United States. Payback, possibly, for some of the horrible things he did to those rear echelon troops. War is hell as they say... One other built several crates and carefully shipped home a quantity of rifles that he had captured during the war, and purchased, post war. I found out a month or so after he had passed that his family had already disposed of his collection without inquiring to any other family members.

So, I would say that you are of the lucky few. I hope that you were able to spend some time with your grandfather, maybe he told you a few stories, maybe not, but please, short of your family starving on the street, I hope you cherish those rifles and pass them to your children.
Click to expand...

Thank you for any help you can PM.

Yes I grew up knowing my grandfather who was in the army since volunteering during WWII. He was a translator on the front lines. He sent back a number of guns and swords and bayonets in a crate but these are the ones that went to my side of the family.

He never spoke much of the war but was a great grandfather.
 
The only thing I'm pretty adamant about is methodology (mostly from learning the hard way). You can't put the genie back in the bottle so once you've removed finish or scratched something it's over. That said I've learned to use the least invasive method first and then gradually escalate (if required). For example the item may look quite rusty but if a clean cotton cloth like a t-shirt or wash cloth with some Kroil and a bit of elbow grease removes the rust then I'm down. This usually happens when the rust is relatively new or light and hasn't had a chance to tooth or form pits. A soft nylon brush (the Army's look like green toothbrushes) for tight areas and crevices. I like white cotton cloth because you can literally see how well and much rust and crud is being removed. Over the last several years the harshest thing I've used is a bronze brush or the edge of an copper tool as a scraper. Some have suggested a penny. Unless you go nuts?? you won't remove or scratch the original blue underneath. Good luck!
 
Take the metal out of the wood as soon as possible. Wipe all of the metal down in oil. It can be 10w-30 for all that matters. Using your hands or an old tooth brush make sure to work the oil into all the small places.

Will write up a detailed process and send it to you.
 
Fal Grunt said:
Take the metal out of the wood as soon as possible. Wipe all of the metal down in oil. It can be 10w-30 for all that matters. Using your hands or an old tooth brush make sure to work the oil into all the small places.

Will write up a detailed process and send it to you.
Click to expand...

That's the plan. I have a couple cans of Kroil and a number of brushes, bronze-wool, Big45 Frontier pads for that reason. Still no plan for the wood/stock though -- need some help there.
 
Apparently I am missing the rear screw that goes from the trigger guard to the back end of the barrel/chamber. Probably not easy to acquire?
TriggerGuard_B2Arrow.pngBolt_T1_Arrow.png
 
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Bob in OHIO said:
I have dsm parts and will look and likely can help... Also, filling a PVC pipe with Kroil (one end sealed, naturally) allows the whole barrel action to slide into the oil for days or weeks. Did with a k98 with success. May have to drift out a pin to remove the trigger to reduce the diameter of the PVC required...

Here's the one I worked on...

http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?3702-Bustin-byf-rust&highlight=rust
Click to expand...

Thank's Bob, let me know what you got.

I got the brass punch set to separate it all out without damage. I hope the pins "want" to move - guess we will find out.
 
Bob hooked me up with the missing screw, but I am still missing the rod and front band. Any ideas (or spares) around?
 
Fal Grunt said:
I probably have the front band. Did you get the barreled action out of the stock? Any additional pictures?
Click to expand...
heavy_mech said:
+1. Love to see some more of it.
Click to expand...
I did. I originally was going to do the G43 first, but figured I'd go with the simplier restore before I go to the more complex one. So DSM first it is.

I'll post some pictures of the current state. I am putting together my own PVC oil bath with 3" pipe and I realized that my two 8oz cans of Kroil isn't enough, so I ordered a gallon earlier this week. Apparently if you order it directly from Kano, it is $20-30 cheaper than anywhere else.

I'll dual use the bath into a multipurpose tank -- which will be useful for any bluing I do on other projects.

Haven't told my wife yet that a 4ft long pipe is going to be a permanent fixture in the shop area of the garage -- better to ask for forgiveness...

PM me about the front band if you have one.
 
Getting ready to start on one of the rifles.
Both_Rifles_Pre_Work.jpg

Here is the DSM all apart.
Parts.jpg
Parts1.jpg
Parts2.jpg
Parts3.jpg
Barrel_Chamber.jpg
Barrel_Under_Action.jpg
Bolt.jpg
Trigger_Guard.jpg
Inside_Stock1.jpg
Inside_Stock2.jpg
Inside_Stock3.jpg

Side Note: So the issue I had with the bolt - It appears that the ejector does not stay in place and twists up slightly, which prevents it from going down its rail. By manually pushing the ejector down as I lift the bolt, it allows it to slide backwards.. Probably something I'll need to dig into.
 
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Tried out this Big 45 Frontier pad on part of the barrel rusted but that gets covered by stock. Pretty impressive and no scratches to finish/barrel. Probably going to be my go to for the wide open stretches of metal. Detailed stuff will still need to be brushes me thinks.

Testing_Big45Frontier2.jpg
Testing_Big45Frontier.jpg

Will take more as I progress along.
 
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