I've been following this thread and find it very interesting & informative. Just curious, were the blued parts such as both front & rear bands serial #'d after bluing?
Here are some I dug up.
Hope they help.
Two questions, if I might ask?
First, assembly numbers are pretty normal for the Suhl gunmakers, though I have never studied their military production to know if that also carries over. One would think the processes would not change given the rifles being manufactured. Being much more knowledgeable about the military side of production, do you think that these components could have been fit or assembled by a third party, similar to the processes used in the Suhl guntrade?
Second, do you have a hypothesis or idea yet as far as this applying to greater DWM production or do you think it strictly applied to the Gew 98 production? Just curious? I may tear down a few DWM rifles to see. Thinking 1908, 1909, etc contract rifles.
Loewe, please feel free to use any pics of mine that are relevant anywhere you might need them.
Here is another (I don't believe I have posted elswhere) of the stock and I noticed what looks to be an 8 just to the left of the disk. I do not recall seeing another stock with a similar stamp in that area and it may just be incidental but thought I would post it.