Third Party Press

Bulgarian reissue?

S/42

Thunda from down unda
Does this butt serial seem consistent with Bulgarian/Balkan reissue? A bolt-mismatch only S/42 rifle. No other markings, acceptance birds nearly invisible on the stock, well used rifle but with a very good bore. Doesn't seem to fit Yugo scrape and vomit rebuild or Russian Recycle Rubbish (The 3 R's...or Third Reich? :) )

Price is a little nuts, but the rifle appears honest enough.

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I know the Yugoslavians numbered their stocks in that fashion. Not overly familiar with Bulgarian rifles, but all of the other Balkan imported K98k's I've seen from back in the 1990's had no added numbers to the stocks. In any case, if the number is not matching the rifle, a re-used stock from somewhere.
 
The stamping actually looks too small to be post-war Yugoslav. They also didn't stamp alpha prefixes on the reworked K98k rifles.

Pat
 
Pat makes a good point on the numbers. Is the number the rifle s/n? I would expect an S/42 K98k to have a 4 digit s/n....or is it an A1 prefix to 7096?
 
I know the Yugoslavians numbered their stocks in that fashion. Not overly familiar with Bulgarian rifles, but all of the other Balkan imported K98k's I've seen from back in the 1990's had no added numbers to the stocks. In any case, if the number is not matching the rifle, a re-used stock from somewhere.

Stock is original to rifle (keel serial, channel and buttplate). This rack (?) number matches nothing else.

It is reminiscent of Vz24 serials, and I have seen Bulgarian stocks sold separately on eBay marked similarly.
 
Interesting. I've never seen a 5-digit rack number before. Might it be a Australian veteran service ID number for a bringback? I have seen such various service ID numbers, or Social Security numbers stamped, or etched on the metal of brinbacks before here in the USA as a form of ownership ID.
 
Here are 2 examples of Bulgarian reissue K98 stocks I took from a Bulgarian eBay seller.

All on the left butt side (some have them also on the right)
 

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It may be that the Bulgarians added the rifle s/n to the buttstock on the K98k's they had. Other countries certainly did. However in your rifles case, the number seems to be not connected to the rifle in any obvious way, since the internal stock # matches the original rifle s/n. Rack numbers can also be found, but are usually only 2 or 3 digits. It may remain a mystery!
 

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