Third Party Press

Trainers w/o property marks

Bob in OHIO

Senior Member
I am trying to wrap my ahead around who actually used these rifles. I get the HJ, school, and SA marked rifles in their "training" capacity.... but what about rifles that lack a property stamp... Who used these guns?

If I was a 30 year-old conscript into the Wehrmacht in 1941 .... did I ever train with a .22 ?
 
I was wondering if any of the German American Bund camps here in America had 22 rifle training programs?
 
Not really a mystery. Although few individuals at the time could afford to own one, some could and did. More importantly, there was no requirement to property mark them. Many purchased in small lots by sporting clubs, businesses with company shooting teams, schools, or even smaller SA units were never given any such marks but were still used by numerous people for marksmanship training. The SS even required their members to qualify with the .22 trainers, but how many SS-marked trainers do you see? And check out period photos of the trainers in use, and note how many rifles show no property marks. There are photos of military instructors directing training for youth groups and civilians, but military purchases or use of trainers was almost non-existent, or you would see WaA acceptance stamps to show that. A 30-year-old draftee might well have had some small bore training prior to induction, but not always.

Steve
 
All of those procured for the Allgemeine SS were issued with the RFSS stamp. but wouldn't you think that many of the trainers with SA and especially the RFSS property marked were destroyed after the war? Thus the relatively few encountered by collectors. Of course except for those returned as trophies by our vets. The markings would have been verboten in occupied Germany.

The Heer used the EL24 for training with the Kar98k didn't they? No .22 trainers.
 

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