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Help with my AC44 G43

Hi guys first post, great info here on these rifles...

6 months go I bought myself this G43 locally from an antique gun dealer, and I severely overpaid ($4k), I'm not good at deciding how much to pay on the spot. Isn't it funny how no matter how much you like a gun you can never stop thinking about how much you paid for it?

Anyway I'm actually just looking for some help in making this baby a little more pleasing to the eye...

I was told when I bought it, and from my research I believe it's true, that this one is 100% original, and the story was basically that it was an attic find, it came with the original sling attached too.

However, there are some stains on the wood and metal that I'd love to find a way to clean up, but I know that doing anything to an original rifle is a bad idea.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, there's a lot of them, but maybe some of you guys have some ideas?

The only thing I tried so far is soaking the metal parts in CLP for a few days, but very little is coming clean. I also bought some #0000 steel wool and rubbed some of the problem spots extremely gently but still nothing came off.

Is there a better product to remove the rust and staining? Is there anything safe to use on the wood stock to give it some life or reduce those stains?

Thanks for any help, here's the pics:

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There's a few more pics that didn't fit inside this post
 
Very nice rifle you have there!!
There will be way more knowledgeable people then me that will tell you all you want to know about that rifle.
 
Far from an expert, but bronze wool and a lot of oil will remove surface rust with out harming the bluing. Be gentle, take your time. On the butt plate perhaps soaking in mineral spirits will loosen that stuff, and again the bronze wool for rust. Don't do anything too aggressive as it will kill the collectability and originality. Think of this, it survived just fine for 75 years with out you, the less you do the better!

I took a shooter grade AC45 and dolled it up, but its worth only what it's worth, my matching K43 (qve 45) has dark wood stains and other imperfections and I leave it be....
 
Maybe that is some kind of urethane on the metal and and the mineral spirits will dissolve it.....possibly it was put there to protect the metal and has degraded with time and might come off easier than one would think.
 
Hopefully the firing pin housing and both locking lugs match. If they do, PLEASE!!!!!, please, don’t try to clean or do anything else like that. And please don’t shoot her either. If you bust a numbered part or that stock, you will kill the value and history of this rifle. She’s gorgeous like she is. Thank you for showing us this one. We ALWAYS like to see original ones like this.

She’s rare IF she’s all original (“if” because we don’t know about the locking lugs or firing pin housing). They are hard to find like that. Resist all temptation to clean her. More damage has been done to these by new owners trying to clean them or somehow make them look nice than the what the war did. The stains on the stock are just fine.

She might be ugly, but it’s original. You are very fortunate to have found this one.

$4k is not super bad for a totally original rifle. For this one and the condition (again, it’s not bad) it’s probably a $3,500 to a $3,800 dollar rifle.....right now. They are going up in value.

Realistically, I would take a little RIG grease and clear Hoppes gun oil and caefully oil up the outter metal; like the barrel and bolt complonents......but that’s it. Oh, and maybe run a slightly oiled patch down the barrel too.

If you absolutely MUST make her look better, the only real way to do it is to find another totally original one, a nicer one in condition (good luck with that) and buy that one. Then sell this one to re-coup your money. You will look long and hard to find another totally original one, and might have to pay more.
 
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I defer to more experience certainly, just curious what your best guess is on the barrel and receiver, from the photos it seems like some form of coating, especially on the front site ramp and hood?
 
Listen to Tiger 2 Tank, he is very, very knowledgeable on these.

That is a great rifle, as Tiger says, I don't know if I would do much to it, it looks great as is...

Another word of warning, if you look at the pic of the rear of the receiver, with the triple hole pattern (looks kind of like a Mickey Mouse), it looks like it is cracked on the lower most part...this is a known weak point, and if it is cracked, I certainly wouldn't consider firing it.

I have exactly one G-43...never fired, never will, have no desire to. I just enjoy it for what it is....not worth damaging it just to hear it go boom.

ETA To me, that staining on the butt plate and how it extends onto the wood....looks like blood staining to me...
 
Listen to Tiger 2 Tank, he is very, very knowledgeable on these.

That is a great rifle, as Tiger says, I don't know if I would do much to it, it looks great as is...

Another word of warning, if you look at the pic of the rear of the receiver, with the triple hole pattern (looks kind of like a Mickey Mouse), it looks like it is cracked on the lower most part...this is a known weak point, and if it is cracked, I certainly wouldn't consider firing it.

I have exactly one G-43...never fired, never will, have no desire to. I just enjoy it for what it is....not worth damaging it just to hear it go boom.

ETA To me, that staining on the butt plate and how it extends onto the wood....looks like blood staining to me...

Thanks pzjgr! I was thinking it looked like blood staining too. Just by the way it looked as you were explaining. Might have been in a fight somewhere and the vet picked it up like it was and this is how it made it home and now for us to see. Unfortunately, that explaination has been over used to explain bluing loss a lot, so it’s dismissed most of the time.

What does the right rear/inside under the butt stock plate look like? Is it stained in there too?

Check out the 6 point star on the bolt. That little inspector mark is found on a lot of Walther P.38’s too. A lot on the locking blocks on the Walther P.38’s have those.

Not sure what the stamp is in the stock sling eyelet is.

Has the approved field modified automatic dust cover.

Did it have the butt stock “giblets” in it?

So far, this is a really cool rifle.
 
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Thanks pzjgr! I was thinking it looked like blood staining too. Just by the way it looked as you were explaining. Might have been in a fight somewhere and the vet picked it up like it was and this is how it made it home and now for us to see. Unfortunately, that explaination has been over used to explain bluing loss a lot, so it’s dismissed most of the time.

What does the right rear/inside under the butt stock plate look like? Is it stained in there too?

Check out the 6 point star on the bolt. That little inspector mark is found on a lot of Walther P.38’s too. A lot on the locking blocks on the Walther P.38’s have those.

Not sure what the stamp is in the stock sling eyelet is.

So far, this is a really cool rifle.

Does that bottom web on the rear receiver look cracked to you?
 
Yes, that is a seam, not actually a crack from wear.

“Hitler’s Garands”, page 161 (The Action Cover) states:

The process of roll-stamping the body left a manufacturing gap, noticible from the rear of the carrier at the 6 o’clock position. This gap varies from barely noticible to as much as 3mm and does not represent fatigue or structural defect.
 
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Excellent, answered at same time I posted. I see a lot of people worry about the seam when it has not split open yet.

Yep. I gave more precise info added to my response above. Didn’t know if you saw it or not as I did it after I posted.
 
Here we go again. NO steel wool!!!!!! Ever on anything. leave it alone if you must

Bronze or brass wool. Brownells sells it

In the fifth picture near the serial number are there two proofs pawned out? If so could you take a close up
 
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Echoing what Tiger 2 Tank said - Leave it alone. Unless you feel rust will ruin the integrity of the rifle, don't mess with it. There are ways to clean it up but light rust like you showed there is just part of its character.

This is coming from someone that did have a rifle in a condition that needed to be cleaned up.
 
Thanks guys for your help and insight, very much appreciated. And thanks Tiger, I had a feeling from reading around on here that you're an expert on these.

I'm glad it looks original to you and that I didn't grossly overpay. I took some more pics of the parts you asked about, check them out below.

Whatever the stain is it did go down underneath the butt plate, it kind of looks like whatever those dots are on the stock was something splattered across it?

On the butt plate it almost looks to me like some plastic material got melted onto it, but that doesn't explain the matching stain on the adjacent wood, or the staining underneath.

Also weird, the parts you asked about pictured below are only numbered with 848 instead of the full 6848 serial#

Did you guys notice on the inside of the stock there looks to be a script letter L written in pencil into the wood? (pic on last page)

Unfortunately nothing was inside of the butt of the stock, it was empty.

I tried to take some pics of the inside of the barrel but it's hard... the rifling looks pretty good but if you look real close there may a little pitting inside? I'm not an expert on barrel condition.

I couldn't resist and I have shot this one a few times over the last few months, probably about 100 rounds total. Last time at the range a guy started telling me about how these rifles "self-destruct" over time because of the overpowered gas system, and that if I want to keep shooting it I should install the shooters kit gas system.

This one will be retired from shooting now after I put it back together, it's a beauty to shoot but it's not worth messing it up, I have an old beat up k98k to get my 8mm fix (not matching).

Also, I won't be scrubbing this one or applying any more cleaners to it, I'll just leave it as-is like most of you suggested. If that's possibly blood on it then it can stay, lol.

I think I hit all your questions but anything else I'd be happy to provide, thanks again for your help.

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Did you use WWII ammo or modern ammo? If you used WWII ammo, that crap is corrosive. So, use a patch and Hoppes clear gun oil and run a cleaning rod in the barrel and lightly oil the gas system and bolt components (especially on the bolt face and all in and around the extractor).

Yes, on the firing pin housing and both locking lugs there should only be the last three e-penciled serial number on these. Is the other locking lug matching? Looks good! Bore is okay with a little minor pitting. Not a problem. The “L” penciled is normal. Some stocks had letters penciled in and I’m not real sure what they mean. 98k rifles also sometimes have that going on too.

Doesn’t look like anything was damaged firing the rifle. So, that’s good. Doesn’t look like any damage from the cleaning you did, so that’s good too. You’re very fortunate. Some people go too far to clean these up and they aren’t able to go back and re-do the damage they did.

You can get a decent shooter and blast away with a non-collectible shooter. Just need a shooter’s kit to install so the rifle won’t self destruct (sounds like you know that, just emphasizing it for future readers).

It’s neat that you got a very collectible one right off the bat like that. Some usually gamble and get into one without knowing what they are getting and end up with a less than collectible rifle.
 
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Thanks again Tiger for your help and all the info you provided!

I can’t remember where but I saw the list you have going of all the G/K43 serials, very cool.

Model I’ll give what you said a try thank you.
 

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