Third Party Press

G.29/40 660 1939 Radom Crest Kriegsmarine rifle

All match, e/77. Front band has a wider eagle and is weakly struck, but it is e/77. "N" on take down disc.

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Excellent information as usual Stephan, thank you :happy0180: Will pic sticky this for cool rifle and info.

Last "Variant 3":
http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?3427-G.29-40-660-1940-(pics

Stephan, I had thought that these were intermixed with respect to serial letter blocks. Do you believe the German receiver marked G.29/40 were their own new production run?
Cheers,
HB

You are very welcome Craig!

That was my mistake, I should have gone further into the details and describe what I meant. But please keep in mind I'm not a Steyr expert, Paul and Mike are the true experts and I'm curious to hear their opinion.

Some people still believe the German receiver marked G.29/40 were their own new production run, but I think that's a wrong assumption. In my opinion there was a serial rollover, Steyr had a continous serial number run from the beginning of G.29/40 production in 1940 until the end of production in 1942.
In addition we can't say Variant 1 or Variant 3 are early/late production, because Steyr intermingled the receivers and you find Variant 1 and Variant 3 intermingled in "NL", "a", "b" and "c" block.
The Variant 2 can be classified as late production, they start either in very late "c" or very early "d" block and they are intermingled with the Variant 3. In the late production I couldn't find the Variant 1 anymore. I assume the assembly of Variant 2 rifles started around September 1941.

According to my present observations we have around
33% Variant 1
11% Variant 2
56% Variant 3 receivers.

In the Steyr chapter in Volume II are great informations about the G.29/40 production and some very interesting documents. One Heereswaffenamt document from April 1940 shows the projected production of G 29/40 for the Heer, 20,000 rifles in the time frame from July until October 1940. Another Heereswaffenamt document from December 1940 shows the projected production of G 29/40 for the Kriegsmarine, 60,000 rifles in the time frame from December 1940 until May 1941.
If we would assume the rifles marked "660 1939" with Radom Crest (Variant 1 & 2) would be a production run and the German receiver marked G.29/40 (Variant 3) were their own new production run, then we would have about 92,100 produced G.29/40 rifles. But we have to keep in mind, these are projected production numbers in the Heereswaffenamt documents and not actual production numbers.

According to the book “Rüstung in Österreich 1938 - 1945” by Norbert Schausberger, the factory numbers reported for Kriegsmarine and Heer was 54,500 rifles:
- 1940 production 12,500 rifles
- 1941 production 38,000 rifles
- 1942 production 4,000 rifles

The highest G.29/40 serial number, which I know, is "9803d" and it's a Variant 3 rifle. If there was a serial rollover, a continous serial number run from the beginning of G.29/40 production (Variant 1, 2 & 3), then we would have about 49,900 produced G.29/40 rifles. This number is already pretty close to the factory number with 54,500 rifles. I have never seen a "e" block, but I don't want to exclude their existence.

In addition there are the variations of the Kriegsmarine depot builds, they get often reported as standard Steyr assembled G.29/40 rifles. The majority of these rifles have the G.29/40 designation on the siderail, only a single e/77 acceptance on the right receiver and these odd looking Kriegsmarine firing proofs. We can't count them to the Steyr production numbers, they was assembled from spare parts in a Kriegsmarine depot. Another fact is interesting, you find Variant 1, 2, & 3 at the Kriegsmarine depot builds, the "bnz.41" coded Radom receiver are not so common. Because of the "bnz.41" receivers, the barrel codes and in particular the presence of Variant 2 receivers, I assume the assembly of Kriegsmarine depot rifles happened late 1941 - 1942.

I nearly forgot it, I noticed something about the G.29/40 rifles. We all know the mysterious "Radom Glyphs", as example on the receiver below the wood line. One glyph catched my attention, a little triangle on the receiver over the wood line, below of the serial number. In the "NL" block almost all rifles (Variant 1 & 3) have that symbol and in the beginning of the "a" block the little triangle disappear. What is your opinion about it?

Regards,
Stephan
 
I have made a table in different colors with some G.29/40 rifles, therewith you can easily recognize how intermingled the receivers are.

Unbenannt.jpg

Variant 1: Blue
Variant 2: Green
Variant 3: Yellow

Maybe somebody want to add some rifles to the table, new data would be very interesting.
 
Oh boy. They sure didn't do many things 'systematically' at Steyr did they? Just looking at how random the evacuated receivers are built out into rifles over more than a year time span is kind of mind boggling. I can almost imagine the unloading and stockpiling of the parts. At least the use of the small parts seems more orderly and as they run out they don't often reappear. Great stuff again Stephan!
 
G29/40

Stephan there is another variation - the lined out wz98a/40.
Some wz98a receivers were also assembled into G29/40s.

The two examples I am aware of were both dated 1937.
B.
 
Thank you very much Bruce, I wasn't aware of the lined out wz98a/40.

Do you know the serial numbers of the two examples?
 
I have made a table in different colors with some G.29/40 rifles, therewith you can easily recognize how intermingled the receivers are.

View attachment 183220

Variant 1: Blue
Variant 2: Green
Variant 3: Yellow

Maybe somebody want to add some rifles to the table, new data would be very interesting.

Outstanding Stephan, thank you. You have a gift for making threads excellent :happy0180:
 
lined out wz98a/40

Stephan the serial number of the rifle I used to own is 8288b.

I have one other logged as 1164d.

The assembly date for 8288b is 4.26.40 (pencil date inside barrel channel).
The rifle has a 'dot' subcontracted stock and Kriegsmarine issue (E/M).
Receiver is Polish crested F.B.Radom 1937 with '660' stamped above the Polish crest.

B.
 

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