Third Party Press

Pawn shop find, opinions?

mattbhm

Member
So a friend of mine just picked this up for me at a local pawn shop. The original stock was cut down, but the metal was all intact. Now it is in what I believe to be an armorers replacement stock that I had from a recent purchase.

It's a large font BNZ 44. Serial number 8958K. Everything I can find matches the rifle. The floorplate(will get a picture) is a BYF but does match.

I have an un-numbered late war front band on the way, I just need to find a correct rear band and bayonet lug.

Any opinions on it or on what parts to get? Thanks for any input!
 

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Any way you could post a photo of the codes on the barrel? Also any additional markings on the receiver under the wood? We could tell you more about it. This is a very early use of a bnz44 marked receiver in army production.


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Any way you could post a photo of the codes on the barrel? Also any additional markings on the receiver under the wood? We could tell you more about it. This is a very early use of a bnz44 marked receiver in army production.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Apologies, I thought I had them up. Thanks!

If I missed anything, just let me know.

Added Floorplate too.
 

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This is a pretty interesting rifle, even though the bands/stock are missing and not original. Granted, the value isn't in the rifle but rather in the information is supplies. This is one of the earlier Army contract rifles built using the "bnz 44" marked receivers made at Gusen. Originally, these Gusen made receiver were to be used by the SS in their separate contract for Steyr, but after the loss of Radom to the advancing Russians the Heereswaffenamt began inspections of these receivers for use in Army production. You can see this one has "623" inspection on the right, and has a "k" letter suffix, which makes it Army contract. It was about this time the SS contract was cancelled and all 98k production at Steyr was strictly for the OKH.

It's actually a very confusing subject at Steyr in this timeframe, it may not make sense to you if you aren't up to speed studying Steyr rifle production. Here's a link to the SS contract research thread, I've added your rifle to the lower data collection in the Army contract range, to show you where it fits in production with other rifles around it. It may be a good time for you to really research Steyr, lots of good info on the forum about this time frame.

http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?308-SS-Contract-and-Single-Rune-serial-study
 
Pictures of the bolts details would also be useful, it should be waffenamted under the bolt handle and i would be curious if this is e/623 also, probably too early for that inspection, but possible. Anyway, how the bolt is marked is equally of interest.

This rifle was made at a critical period, amid many other significant changes, - those Mike mentioned, but also the dispersal program as a whole caused great confusion and really is behind the crudeness SDP exhibits later in the war. This rifle is on that cusp, actually it was well under way already, but the real degradation would come later, it was just snowballing at this point. It could be argued, and often is, that this was the most interesting time for SDP, the bombings, the advance of the Red Army, the loss of Polish based component production, the dislocation of the operations at Steyr, dispersal to crude facilities at Gusen and Molln, the essential abandonment of operations as the Austrian nazis tried to distance themselves from German nazis,- which was quite successful in Austria generally, not because the Americans and English were stupid, but because the battle for Austrian hearts and minds was clearly at hand once the Red Army evacuated to their occupation zone (Steyr on the Enns was the border at wars end, SDP factory was on the Russian side, but the demarcation line gave Steyr and Graz to Americans and English respectively, - the Reds looted and plundered both before departing, unlike what America did when they evacuated Skoda, where very little was taken and all the niceties followed)

As Mike stated, this is early use of this type of receiver (for Army production), only a couple earlier, the L-block would continue this pattern and introduce a wild array of receiver types, presumably because SDP had run out of SDP-Radom receivers. This would continued through the o-block, with the n-block generally settling into SDP last pattern, which is basically your rifles receiver type. Anyway, regarding your bands, they could be either stamped or solid milled (stamped is more common for both in this range, but milled are possible), but both would have been serialed in this range. This would change very soon after this rifle was made, but it is clearly within the range for serialing.
 
I apologize for not getting back here! Life got busy and I completely forgot.

Thanks so much for all of the info! I guess I have a lot of research to do! Haha. Once I get it assembled with the new parts I'll get some pics up.

EDIT: Also, I will get bolt pictures up.
 
Yes please. Bottom flat with the inspection! Might as well do the FP on the rear flat too I suppose. Thanks for taking the time to photograph this.

I am not seeing any markings except for serials. On the bottom flat there is what looks like a small imperfection but it could have been a marking?
 

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Outstanding and fascinating rifle, thank you for sharing it! I see three of the “Circle V7” markings in your photos, are there any you didn’t show? Are there any markings on the underside of the receiver, on the flat bottom area normally hidden under the stock?


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Outstanding and fascinating rifle, thank you for sharing it! I see three of the “Circle V7” markings

Interesting talking about this. I can already see the crudeness that would become standard later on the RR in photo 5, post 1 and the RSB in the area of the acceptance in photo 7. I can only imagine some of the Army inspectors looking at some of this stuff. Even under the black goop you can really see how poor the metal finish is.
 
Thanks for the extra pictures, they are helpful, as you can imagine detailed examinations of the bolts are the most difficult data to collect, most rifles have mismatched bolts and among those that do match, it is rare that sellers or even collectors bother to detail them adequately. So, there is a lot that we do not know or little that can be said with absolute certainty... Typically the bolts are acceptanced (waffenamt) in this range, most common probably e/77, but this is a transition point for SDP and e/623 start becoming more common in the late k-block and L-block, most of the e/623 bolts in the L-block are handstamps receivers, though too few to make much of the trend so far. It is possible this is a e/623 that is defaced/poorly struck, or that it was unmarked, - if so this would be a Steyr (e/623) bolt either way. Radom (e/77) would have received its waffenamt regardless. They are almost universal through 1944 production up to the k-block. (Only in-house parts can be sterile/ non-waffenamt, though in this range, so far as our meager trends suggest, SDP did mark bolts e/623, but the nature of SDP at this period was such that anything is possible, or nearly anything...)

Anyway, because this is the most difficult detail to collect, your efforts were very helpful.



I am not seeing any markings except for serials. On the bottom flat there is what looks like a small imperfection but it could have been a marking?
 

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