Third Party Press

Lets talk SS Deaths Heads

Very helpful diagram. Nice to finally see trends starting with these. Mike, if you want a date for a = head, just see my thread down the page.

http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?35811-dhd-gew-conversion

Also, I believe one of my lazy s rifles is an early ‘37. I’ll check when I get a chance and add pics.

Ahh, there it is. Got it - it really seems like the "lazy s" skull marking on barrels is some kind of inspection of loose barrels, maybe sent to other SS depots? But, the depot at Oranianburg was huge, not sure how many people worked there. It's entirely possible that all of these odd skulls like this "= " one were just inspectors within that system. This is the most basic research, I don't have enough examples to make a definitive call. I guess I can dig deeper and see what shakes out.
 
Mike you have obviously put a lot of thought into this. Thanks for sharing.

Do you agree the Sniper Conversion process took place at SS2, which ended up being Dachau? Every SS Conversion Sniper I have seen has the SS2 stamp. Of course that does not mean SS2 did not do other stuff to the rifle as well. I’m just thinking the snipers were routed through there and SS2 put the scope on it in addition to band configuration as well as other ect. type items.
 
Notice the circle marking on these receivers. SN 484 also has a similar circle on the buttplate and in the barrel channel, the other rifle doesn’t have the original buttplate. Rifle 1006 is a single SS skull. I don’t remember the dates on these, but I can pop them apart and check. This isn’t an Imperial marking, is it?
 

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Notice the circle marking on these receivers. SN 484 also has a similar circle on the buttplate and in the barrel channel, the other rifle doesn’t have the original buttplate. Rifle 1006 is a single SS skull. I don’t remember the dates on these, but I can pop them apart and check. This isn’t an Imperial marking, is it?

I saw that circle marking on another one as well. I think it was the SS Conversion Sniper that had the stock that was cracked in half posted a few years ago.
 
I saw that circle marking on another one as well. I think it was the SS Conversion Sniper that had the stock that was cracked in half posted a few years ago.


If it’s actually an SS conversion stamp, then perhaps it’s depot specific or shows a link between the lazy s and the SS dhd’s.
 

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This is my earliest one by a long shot. Feb ‘37. Note the lazy S head on the wrist instead of just a standard head. Always wondered if this was an early trait, I’ve seen at least one other ‘37 with the symbol above the wrist head.
 

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I thought I’d open this one up because I forgot the conversion date. I forgot how early it was! The double stamp on the date is because the first strike was upside down. This one is just a barrelled receiver. Note the 030 on the receiver bottom, I wish it had the original stock to see if it also had that number.
 

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I may as well add this one to this thread for date reference.
 

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Bumping this to catch up to the thread rifle Rob posted with the "circle S". Thanks to Slowburn for posting these. I clearly got busy at the end of this post and moved along (I have still been harvesting information related to this, I will clarify/update the thread to reflect that). Your pics show the "Circle S" on the bottom flat of the receiver, similar to the one posted by Rob. Coincidence or? Might be the marking of a commercial firm doing conversions, could be for "Sachsenhausen", could also be random WW1 marking (it would take a lot of cross research of WW1 to determine that), I have no idea. Its just neat to see them on the 2 different situations.

Brian aka Hercules - to your question about whether the SS-Waffenwerkstatt Dachau had anything to do with making the SS short side rails, I personally am beginning to doubt it. I really believe now that the SS short side rail rifles were assembled for the SS by commercial firms. I believe also that the bulk of the SS Gew conversion rifles were also done by commercial firms, and the SS deaths heads are simply depot acceptance of the rifles --- but, the SS Short Side rail rifles have NO SS acceptance on them as can be confirmed by comparing non-sniper to sniper rifles of the type.
 
Brian aka Hercules - to your question about whether the SS-Waffenwerkstatt Dachau had anything to do with making the SS short side rails, I personally am beginning to doubt it. I really believe now that the SS short side rail rifles were assembled for the SS by commercial firms. I believe also that the bulk of the SS Gew conversion rifles were also done by commercial firms, and the SS deaths heads are simply depot acceptance of the rifles --- but, the SS Short Side rail rifles have NO SS acceptance on them as can be confirmed by comparing non-sniper to sniper rifles of the type.

This is the case with the SS Double Claws. Makes sense that Short Side Rails are the same.
 
SS SSR mounts are most often HWZ or with the full name Weihrauch marked. Plus some SS Gew98 conversions have the small letters HW stamped on the barrel step (others have a Star stamped in that location). ALL original SS SSR snipers btw have the SS2 Deaths Head on them.
 
Brian aka Hercules - to your question about whether the SS-Waffenwerkstatt Dachau had anything to do with making the SS short side rails, I personally am beginning to doubt it. I really believe now that the SS short side rail rifles were assembled for the SS by commercial firms. I believe also that the bulk of the SS Gew conversion rifles were also done by commercial firms, and the SS deaths heads are simply depot acceptance of the rifles --- but, the SS Short Side rail rifles have NO SS acceptance on them as can be confirmed by comparing non-sniper to sniper rifles of the type.

Yes. A lot of time has passed since I asked this question. Almost 2 years. Since then the info. came out on the SS Double Claws, Single Claws and also have obtained an Objective Mount with the commercial marking on the rear scope ring.

One marking that would identify a SS SSR is if the rail was numbered in the similar number font/style to parts of the rest of the rifle or the scope matches. There are some SS SSR rifles out there that don't have the rails numbered. Not sure why some scope rails on rifles are numbered and others are not. Maybe different commercial firm.

All the SS SSR I have seen have a SS2 marking. I have not seen them all. The commercial theory makes sense though.
 

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SS SSR mounts are most often HWZ or with the full name Weihrauch marked. Plus some SS Gew98 conversions have the small letters HW stamped on the barrel step (others have a Star stamped in that location). ALL original SS SSR snipers btw have the SS2 Deaths Head on them.

It makes sense that a lot of SSR rifles have the "SS2" SS-Waffenwerkstatt Dachau inspection, nearly all of the rifles in inventory were sent there for reworking to bent bolt/band spring configuration. Some have TS stamped on the shank as well, or a small SS2 skull. To me all of these barrel shank markings are probably clues to who did the original conversion to K98k length - I've yet to see any markings on an SSR that carries over to all of them. As time goes on I'm more convinced the majority of the conversions were done by commercial firms for the SS- I say majority because as with anything reworked there is no set boundaries. More likely you have "typical" and "atypical" as some depots could have installed K98k replacement barrels without marking them. A common misconception to me is that people think the skulls are some kind of property mark, they are depot marks or depot inspections much like in the Army system.
 
There wouldn't be a need to additionally mark the rifle with their name if the sniper conversion was outcarried by Weihrauch. Their name was already stamped either fully or abbreviated as HWZ on the scope mount.
 
It’s just as possible they did the work as anyone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The more I read this thread the more it makes me realize I should stick to Heer rifles until later. I have much to learn. So are the only real rune receiver rune rifles the ones that went through a refrub at dachau and all the others without the rune need to be identified by a serial range and or special SS identifying waffen mark from steyr production?
 
The more I read this thread the more it makes me realize I should stick to Heer rifles until later. I have much to learn. So are the only real rune receiver rune rifles the ones that went through a refrub at dachau and all the others without the rune need to be identified by a serial range and or special SS identifying waffen mark from steyr production?

Your question is so convoluted I can’t even understand what you are asking!!!! So I agree with the first part of your statement - you have a lot of studying to do. First and foremost is learning what the actual major variations of SS rifles actually are. Try here:

SS Rifle Research Threads
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/to...wthread.php?t=27&share_type=t&link_source=app


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sorry I'm late to the party but wanted to share my 98a to k98k that's a Russian capture. Hopefully it helps with the expanse of research.
 

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