= dhd gew conversion

other than the unique dhd and a couple other oddities it’s pretty standard. The wrist is very worn and doesn’t show any remains of a head. Replacement barrel and upgraded to full K98k configuration. Bolt mm with an early bolt.

Because of indexing, the lazy S head and 0,2 end up hidden when the stock is on. I have another conversion with the same barrel supplier and lazy S stamp near the barrel acceptance as well. That one is a lazy S/ss2 conversion. This makes me wonder if the lazy s and the = were the same shop.

035 on the receiver bottom and stock internal. Perhaps an assembly number and if I remember correct Hercules rifle has a similar marking but a different number.

As of today I’ve seen three of these and all appear to have used a broken stamp. Maybe the stamp broke early on and they abandoned it and that’s why these aren’t common.

Thanks to Ken for passing this one along to me.

A few more.

Nice rifle and thanks for posting. I had heard of the = Death Head, but first I had seen.

Same, first I have seen, that’s cool. That Ken fella is a good guy huh? I could be completely off base but knowing the number “35” is prevalent on SS stuff and also used to indicate a rejected part in some instances, does anyone think there might be a correlation? Possible scenario; old G98 going through a depot for potential 98m upgrades of which there were many occurring in this time frame and then deemed too worn for a second military acceptance and so thrown to the side and scooped up by the scavengers? Just thinking out loud. Neat rifle thanks for posting it!

flynaked said:

Same, first I have seen, that’s cool. That Ken fella is a good guy huh? I could be completely off base but knowing the number “35” is prevalent on SS stuff and also used to indicate a rejected part in some instances, does anyone think there might be a correlation? Possible scenario; old G98 going through a depot for potential 98m upgrades of which there were many occurring in this time frame and then deemed too worn for a second military acceptance and so thrown to the side and scooped up by the scavengers? Just thinking out loud. Neat rifle thanks for posting it!

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Yup, Ken really is a great guy!

I believe the 35 on most examples are an inspector stamp that is also common on commercial rifles and pistols. Usually found on rear sight parts and I think also trigger components. I assumed on mine that it’s an assembly mark because of the rifle that Hercules had has numbers in the same spot, but different numbers.


I’m open to any concerns or criticism people may have about this rifle. I like it, but I’ve been wrong lots of times before!

Pretty cool piece and nice pics!

Slowburn said:

Yup, Ken really is a great guy!

I believe the 35 on most examples are an inspector stamp that is also common on commercial rifles and pistols. Usually found on rear sight parts and I think also trigger components. I assumed on mine that it’s an assembly mark because of the rifle that Hercules had has numbers in the same spot, but different numbers.


I’m open to any concerns or criticism people may have about this rifle. I like it, but I’ve been wrong lots of times before!

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Yeah they maybe totally unrelated. I think I should have stated that number differently, perhaps as being an acceptance of a previously rejected part is more correct, but I still don’t remember where I came to this notion, maybe it’s in the books. I agree the placement of the numbers is definitely more along the lines of assembly numbers anyhow. Not just ss depots but across the board that seems to be fairly standard at depots, Mike first told me that and sure enough you start pulling depot rifles apart and that’s how they’re numbered. I’ll see if I can dig up pictures of one of my depots for comparison.