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ax 1940

balkslak

Senior Member
I'm getting this rifle in a a couple of days and it is the first time I have seen an ax coded rifle. These poor pictures is all i have at the moment. The seller says the barrel is mismatched and I hope the rest is matching.
 

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I got the K98 yesterday and I took some pictures of it. It's matching except the barrel and the stock is Luftwaffe marked. Some parts like the extractor and the butt plate is marked E/37. The stock is also marked with a P above the serial number, any ideas to it's meaning? The stock is in a pretty poor state at the business end of the rifle but overall I really like the rifle.
 

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More pictures
 

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Third batch of pictures
 

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Nice Luft rifle despite someone's very rough treatment of her earlier. The e/37 parts are very normal IMHO. Both mine are but like yours serial and block matched to the gun. One of my band springs is also e/37 and again serial matched. I'd like to see others think about the barrel. I can see the 7,9 is not at 12 o'clock and it looks like e/655 finished? I can't make out the acceptance on the 2 stamps immediately behind the trigger guard but based on their size and location I can take a reasonable guess. Not a bad grab for a difficult to locate matching rifle. Congrats! I'm sure Jordan will be along shortly to drool. :laugh:
 
I got a feeling this barrel is matching but the barrel is set in the rifle where you can't see the numbering. I can almost see numbering at the stock line. Best course of action would be to remove the action from the stock carefully. Rifle is also interesting having a Luft marked stock. Have only seen one AX Feima Luft marked stock. And that is the one I have in my collection and its an AX41. Will have too see what letter block it is. Could fall close to this AX 1940. All I know is Luftwaffe contracted K98k rifles made by Feima was very low. Was glad too see that rifle of mine be put into the vol II book to show that.

So great find to say the least. :thumbsup:

Why I think its the original barrel is the sight base is still marked for Feima/Erma production, it is made in 1940, and the overall condition matches the rest of the rifle. It would not make sense to me that someone would replace the barrel with another 1940 made barrel. And made sure too have a Erma/Feima rear sight added on to it. Also check the front sight for 280 mark as well.
 
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I got a feeling this barrel is matching but the barrel is set in the rifle where you can't see the numbering. I can almost see numbering at the stock line. Best course of action would be to remove the action from the stock carefully. Rifle is also interesting having a Luft marked stock. Have only seen one AX Feima Luft marked stock. And that is the one I have in my collection and its an AX41. Will have too see what letter block it is. Could fall close to this AX 1940. All I know is Luftwaffe contracted K98k rifles made by Feima was very low. Was glad too see that rifle of mine be put into the vol II book to show that.

So great find to say the least. :thumbsup:

Why I think its the original barrel is the sight base is still marked for Feima/Erma production, it is made in 1940, and the overall condition matches the rest of the rifle. It would not make sense to me that someone would replace the barrel with another 1940 made barrel. And made sure too have a Erma/Feima rear sight added on to it. Also check the front sight for 280 mark as well.




This may be the case. When it's disassembled we can see the barrel s/n. It might also be that the rear sight assembly is original to the rifle and was reused as well. Do the rear sight components all match the rifle? Seems like about the third barrel-clocking thread in the last few weeks!
 
This may be the case. When it's disassembled we can see the barrel s/n. It might also be that the rear sight assembly is original to the rifle and was reused as well. Do the rear sight components all match the rifle? Seems like about the third barrel-clocking thread in the last few weeks!

That's kind of my question Stan be even stranger if the front sight base matches the rifle as well. If Barrel is mismatched it would seem weird to keep the original matching front and rear sights.
 
Barrel is off a very late 42/1940, or very early byf/41, it should be serialed for sure and have a "D" on the barrel shoulder. Really can't be ERMA, or any other maker, as Mauser was greedy with barrels. They generally do not share barrels with others.
 
No one knows the meaning, at least so far as i know or that have revealed it publicly... (lot of sharp fellows that do not do forums, least of all share hard earned research)

All that can be said is that it is seen on almost all laminate stocks during early production. It tends to drop during the early phase of the war, though well into 1941 (which encompasses all of ERMA production, - the "P" can be found till the very end of ERMA production, on laminate stocks). It was probably one of the casualties of the Hitler directive to simplify production and lessen the inspection protocols.

I suspect it is some German identifier used to identify the stock as laminate, similar to what was done in WWI with the use of substitute woods (B=beech etc..); though some have suggested it may be a sub-contractor. I disagree with the latter, but no one really knows, unless Mike and Bruce discovered a meaning in their book research.

The stock is also marked with a P above the serial number, any ideas to it's meaning?
 
Thank you all for participating in this interesting discussion. The rear sight is matching the rest of the rifle and the front sight is marked WaA280. The stock a bit fragile so I’m not sure if I’m wanting to take the action out of the stock.IMG_3644.JPGIMG_3643.JPG


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Now that's even stranger. A Mauser made barrel with Erma/Feima rear and front sight bases. And judging by the condition of the stock I could understand why you don't want to remove it from it. If you don't mind could you do a close up picture of the barrel on the left side of the stock?
 
just a guess, but after the rifle got the firing proofs, maybe the factory decided to improve the headspace, hence the hidden serial number and firing proof. i suppose there would be another proof mark after they did that so i guess it's not likely.
 
Barrel is off a very late 42/1940, or very early byf/41, it should be serialed for sure and have a "D" on the barrel shoulder. Really can't be ERMA, or any other maker, as Mauser was greedy with barrels. They generally do not share barrels with others.

I noticed on this 1940 dated u block 42 K98 I owned previously the barrel is marked very similarly to this 1940 ax.
 

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There is really little doubt that this barrel is 42/1940 or byf/41, it can't be otherwise, - certainly not ERMA made.

This 8290 42/1940 could be a u-block, but it is far more likely a "LL-block", they look the same when the suffix hugs the stock line like this (which is common for Mauser, they typically obscure the suffix on the barrel due to this tendency)

The serial on the barrel is the only way to say whether this is off a 42/1940 or byf/41, in either case it would probably fall in the range of a barrel shoulder "D", but the serial will tell what exactly it came off of, though it is next to impossible for it to be anything other than a Mauser barrel.

I suspect the rotation was intentional, this being a modern re-barrel, probably to restore a deactivation or change out a Norwegian barrel perhaps. All designed to make it more collectible.



I noticed on this 1940 dated u block 42 K98 I owned previously the barrel is marked very similarly to this 1940 ax.
 
..I suspect the rotation was intentional, this being a modern re-barrel, probably to restore a deactivation or change out a Norwegian barrel perhaps. All designed to make it more collectible.

That's quite plausible and certainly doable of course. I can't see any other real reason and in both those scenarios the RSB and front sight would still be there.
 

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