Dual Code bcd / bnz 4 from the attic

[Benzeen1]

Very Interesting...

[Absolut]

First of all, many thanks for the kind comments! I also really love this rifle, it is hard to upgrade such a piece. And I rather have those with some traces of their history, than a mint rifle without any story!

Re the pictures, I have a light box which is large enough for rifles. In this light box I'm using a steel rod (those who go fishing for pikes know what I'm using here!) in which the rifle is being hung. The steel rod at the front and rear then is digitally removed with Photoshop. This way helps avoiding minor background shadows, but has the disadvantage that during taking pictures the rifle might very little be swinging around and therefore very tough to get extremely high size pictures without even the smallest movements. But I'm already working on a different idea, more when I'm successful...

The cocking piece is not serialized at all. It however has rust pittings that match exactly the rest of the rifle. Could it be that they used this at the factory, or would it had been swapped in the field? Since it was completely untouched, a post WWII repair could be excluded.

What I forgot to ask in my starting post, the barrel shank of this rifle is rather unique in that it is rounded and not with a sharp edge. Was this a special supplier or something else?

[Loewe]

It's probably the original barrel and probably SDP made, kind of need to see the barrel code to identify the maker (or the waffenamts), but by the L-block SDP was pretty much back into using their own barrels. Earlier, they did have a spell using other makers due to the bombings and the dispersal program disrupting SDP-Steyr barrel production (SDP-Steyr only made barrels and stocks and the rest came from Poland, this changed after the bombings and threat to Radom and Warsaw.. though none of rifle production was moved back to Steyr, rather all went to KL Gusen and stocks and assembly to Molln, Steyr was far to busy with important things to take on rifle production, which was originally moved to make room in the first place..)

Anyway, not surprisingly, SDP steepest decline in quality was when this occurred, moving any production line, even component mfg, to a KL was going to create more problems than it solved. Parts, including critical receivers and barrels show considerable lessening of quality.

As you will need to disassemble to fix the cross bolt, you might as well check the barrel code. Unless you want to leave the crossbolt backward.

[momok98k]

Hi,

Very nice rifle....

[heavy_mech]

You sure have been having some luck (or great connections) for finding some great pieces. Congrats and thanks again for sharing and the great photos.

[Absolut]

Paul, thank you. I hope I'll find time to get the stock off today and check for additional markings on the barrel. Re the crossbolt, not sure if I should change it. It was not touched since 1945, why should I now try to make it more correct?

[Absolut]

These are only poor quality mobile phone pictures, but they show the markings that are present on the barrel below the wood line. Note how nice the finish is where it was covered by the wood.

And I tried to make the serial number in the barrel channel better visible with chalk - to my surprise it unveiled something that looks like an eagle, which I for sure would not had seen, had I not used the chalk. Did someone else in here ever find such a marking too?

[mrfarb]

C stocks have an Eagle/1 in the the stock channel. I’m going to add your rifle to the army column of the single rune database.


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[jack944]

Great pictures...great rifle..I would leave crossbolt as it is...cocking piece gives us another clue to late war expedience.

[Absolut]

Thank you - I'm always trying to do nice pictures showing all details. A gun like this not only deserves it, but it is also a great reference for others here. And dual codes are very rare too, so maybe this one will make it to the Picture Reference too.

Thanks for the information re the marking in the barrel channel. I've never seen those before, therefore great to have learned something new!