Late war Byf trigger guards

Hey guys,

I am looking at purchasing a Byf45 locally. Unfortunately I do not have all my reference material with me and I’m mostly a J.P Sauer collector as many of you know. From what I know it’s sitting in a kriegsmodell stock and it’s all blued. The serial number is in the 358XX no letter block range (sorry I don’t have the exact serial yet). The trigger guard has me a little suspicious because it’s blued but the finish on it very worn compared to the rest of the rifle which has a fairly nice deep blue. The trigger guard is byf stamped with two E/135 and the floorplate appears to be unmarked. I may pick it up regardless because of the Kriegsmodell stock and the bore which is supposedly mint.

I guess my main question is when did Mauser “O” start building rifles with triggerguards with no locking screw provision?

Was there a concrete cut-off point or do both kinds (with/without locking screws) of TG’s appear to the end of production?

Thanks in advance

The non locking screw trigger guards start showing up fairly early in the byf44 l block serials and the locking screw trigger guards disappear around the same range.

At least from my limited data.

I have a C stock byf45 that came with a lock screw guard, all the screws and lock screws were phosphate. But generally they all have non-lock screw guards as JB points out, but I wouldn't change it if you though it was original.