Third Party Press

1936 bsw

flynaked

Repo Field Gear Collector
Sorry I figured that would be the only time I get to say that haha. So this one seems pretty interesting to me, but maybe these are simply common attributes of an early Bsw and I’m just a noob. I believe this is a January 1936 rifle, correct me if I’m wrong. It’s sort of a dual maker if you will even if they are basically one in the same. You can see that this started out as a Simson roll marked receiver and not only that but it was apparently completed and fire proofed! Notice the Simson legend scrubbed away on the left receiver, remnants of the roll mark on top, and the commercial proofs on the right receiver, which seems odd?? Aren’t Simsons proofed on the left? Those were the interesting and surprising features, then it of course has left over Simson marked parts as you’d expect, both the stock and safety, maybe more parts are marked but I haven’t broken it down. Has a neat but hard to look at double strike on the barrel and is Soldatenbund marked as many of these seem to be. Anyway, here are some pictures.
 

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Beautiful example! I've always loved these little claw extractor actions. Are they actually CRF? I've never had the opportunity to examine one or try one out.
 
Likely left the factory in the fall of 1935, actually. Simson-marked receivers were used in production until supply was exhausted and tooling for the new BSW name/logo was in place for further production. I can't imagine any reason why they would have changed a receiver marking on one, and have never witnessed an example of such (out of ? a few hundred ? I have seen). I don't see evidence of it here, from the photos. That said, it is a beautiful rifle and a keeper! Congrats on a good find, and thanks for sharing the photos.

Steve
 
Thank you for the info Steve. I know it’s hard to make out, it’s easier in hand though, here are some pictures that specifically detail it. It was scrubbed for sure, would be interesting to check other early BSW’s. Only the very corners of the roll mark itself show.
 

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Beautiful example! I've always loved these little claw extractor actions. Are they actually CRF? I've never had the opportunity to examine one or try one out.

Haven’t tried one out myself! I’ve got a Suhl that’s my shop action for doing d/c repairs, that I will stock one of these days and it’ll be my shooter. I’ve never actually chambered a round but it has a tapered feed ramp/trough that the cartridge sits in, milled into the bottom of the receiver, I imagine the taper there does make it truly CRF as the bolt pushes forward. I’ll get you some detail shots of the action tonight, they are neat!
 
Very nice! The scrubbed Simson rollmarkings are definitely cool!

Agreed. I also think this is both a beautiful example and a fairly significant variant from a historical perspective. IMO, we know the Simson to BSW move was blatant Nazi anti-Semitism. Seems logical to me that at some point one of the Nazis in charge at the facility had enough of seeing the Simson name and started having them scrubbed. Probably the last however many left so marked after the BSW dies were finished. Never seen before because there may not have been many. Definitely seems legit to me.
 
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Isn't that the truth HM. They pretty much wiped away what ever had to do with the name Simson. Almost like the company was BSW from the start and Simson never existed.
 
I would suspect this receiver may have been partially finished, but not completely engraved. It may have been in the bottom of the parts bin. The takeover of the factory occurred in early 1934, but that consisted largely of installation of a handful of upper management and directors. Almost all of the workmen who were assembling these rifles were the same people who had worked there for the Simson family for years. The first run of Simson-marked DSM receivers would have been turned out by March of 1934, but many were not used in assembly of completed rifles for months afterwards. They were used up until supply was exhausted, even after further production introduced newer receivers with the BSW markings. They didn't waste any parts or materials.

The Simson family had initiated a name change for the firearms portion of their manufacturing empire (they also made a variety of commercial goods, including automobiles) in September of 1933 to "WAFFA" in hopes of selling the firearms business before it was taken by the Nazis. The "WAFFA" address line even appears on a very, very few guns made during that fall, but examples of it are extremely rare. The name "Berlin-Suhler-Waffenfabrik" actually was in place prior to the Simsons being pushed out of the business and later arrested.

Steve
 
..It may have been in the bottom of the parts bin. ..They were used up until supply was exhausted, even after further production introduced newer receivers with the BSW markings. They didn't waste any parts or materials.

This is a theory we can totally agree on, not just at Simson. Each station had parts bins and not all employees worked at the same production rate. As the bins were refilled periodically 'older' parts languished at the bottom of the slower employees bins only later to show up in production if they were replaced by a faster worker or the parts were reallocated. I also have the 'clean-up' theory where parts that either fell in behind something or were somehow buried by newer parts and only came back into the production lines during a major clean-up at the facility. Certainly for my mind explains how older parts can show up in bursts in later production. Supply disruptions would also cause older or alternate sourced parts not normally a part of the facilities production to suddenly show up in short bursts. I actually seen this in practice.
 
Here’s a close up picture of one of the corners of the Simson logo, both sides show this corner (deepest points in the rollmark) what’s crazy to me is that there are scrubbed firing proofs on the right side as I pictured before.

Jeremy, here ya go buddy, interesting little action for sure!
 

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Clay, be interested to know what the diameter of the receiver is at the rollmark. How did they scrub the old Simson rollmark and still maintain the diameter necessary to fit in the DSM34 stock? The stock inlet around the receiver looks tight.

Did you end up getting that Simson DSM34 we talked about?
 
No I had to pass on it unfortunately. Good thought on the dimension, I was thinking about it before, but the scrubbing wouldn’t have to be fully concentric, it could taper off at the wood line and appears too seeing as the Simson legend and right receiver proofs still show better than the top does and they are at the wood line, no different than a Mauser 98 having just the crest scrubbed off, they are no longer concentric after that. Seeing as the markings at the wood line are still showing to a degree, it couldn’t have been more than a few thousandths off in these areas. The stocks are also somewhat hand fit, you can see that especially at the rear sight base, but also in the receiver area, a barrel channel scraper was used, you can tell tell by the marks left. I hate to take it apart but I might just to measure it, sort of pointless though as the side legend especially is clearly visible.
 
Here’s another less than 1k rifles apart that shows proof remnants on the right side too.
 

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