1939 Steyr 660 questions

My lovely bride and I operate a military museum on the grounds of the Dayton Ohio VA Medical Center ( Please note that although we are located on federal property, we receive NO funding from the Veterans Administration - we operate entirely "out of our own pockets" and with the help of unpaid volunteers. We are a 501(C)3 non-profit Charitable Organization ID 46 - 0835261).

A local gentleman has been donating the military weapons from his gun collection, and today we received a Spanish Ruby pistol, a pre-war German .22 trainer rifle) AND a 1939 dated 660 marked rifle. It has some light rust overall which I need to remove and the sling and cleaning rod are missing, but is otherwise matching throughout, including the stock (serial number is 40b) and parts WA'ed "623". The stock is pretty nice, with only a few minor dingers on the underside of the butt. In spite of some rust, the action is nice and crisp. What's odd is;

- There are NO eagle proofs, nor any signs they were removed;
- There are two VERY small (maybe 1/16 of an inch??) circles with what looks like a "T" on the left side of the receiver
- There is one VERY small (maybe 1/16 of an inch??) circle with what looks like an "A" on the right side of the receiver
- There is a small "PH" on the left side just forward of the receiver ring.

If I can get some clarification on these markings, or lack of, that would be groovy. Thanks in advance for the help!

Mark sends

Photos are an absolute necessity ...

DaveDavis said:

Photos are an absolute necessity ...

Click to expand...

I'll try to take some today...I posted this late last night at the end of a long day.


Mark sends

use a coarse olied cloth only!!!!!!!!!! to remove the light rust, do not under any circumstance use STEEL WOOL leave the wood alone.

resist all attempts to make this and other firearms to LOOK pretty

sprat said:

use a coarse olied cloth only!!!!!!!!!! to remove the light rust

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I don't even go that far. White or light colored old facecloth soaked lightly with Kroil. You can literally see what you're removing and what's happening. Go slow. Definitely take the metal out of the wood first.

Here's some photos...pardon the editing job; I didn't have a white background available so I had to photoshop out the back ground....also, i checked with the donor to see if I could get some history on it, but I misunderstood him...the guns he's donating are from his deceased father's collection so getting the history isn't going to happen...anyhoo, here's an overall shot...

...and the markings....

...more...

I'll post the .22 sporter/trainer in that section....

Mark sends

Looks like this may be an odd reject rifle. BLM made some "Circle A" rifles out of rejected parts, and that looks like that may be what is going on here.

Can you image the rest of the rifle? Are any other parts Circle A marked? Any stock inspections on the side of the butt?

It would also help if you could break it down to look at all markings on the receiver and barrel.

RyanE said:

Looks like this may be an odd reject rifle. BLM made some "Circle A" rifles out of rejected parts, and that looks like that may be what is going on here.

Can you image the rest of the rifle? Are any other parts Circle A marked? Any stock inspections on the side of the butt?

It would also help if you could break it down to look at all markings on the receiver and barrel.

Click to expand...

pardon my ignorance...who is BLM? There are no other parts with the 'circle A", and no inspection marks on the stock that I can make out. I'll take pther pictures when it comes to to disassemble it for cleaning. The only other visible markings are the WA623 and each part marked with "40"...


Mark sends

Very cool, I look forward to the discussion on this one. The circle T certainly is a mystery. It probably isn’t, but that “almost” looks like the corner of a KM proof below the wood.

once you take possession

I would soak the metal in oil bath for a few days-week, long plastic bag works or plastic flower pot, then revisit with cloth and wipe down the oil and light rust. then take a few pictures for further advice

NO STEEL WOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don' t touch the wood for now, someone will around to tell you, how to properly clean it

mvmhm said:

pardon my ignorance...who is BLM?

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Berlin-Lubecker. Manufactured rifles with the code 237 or duv. Search "Circle A" here to see the reject rifles they apparently assembled.

sprat said:

NO STEEL WOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don' t touch the wood for now, someone will around to tell you, how to properly clean it

Click to expand...

Let me second this. Do not use steel wool! NEVER. Careful use of Bronze wool if you must.

Wood on this looks fine. Gently dust with a cloth and leave it alone. Doesn't need to be cleaned or oiled. It's perfect just the way it is.

This rifle reminds me a lot of a rifle that I've had a longer time ago. Back then I posted pictures of it here: http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?23416 . My rifle also had a serifed letter in a circle, such as your rifle has. But on mine the letter was L.

May I ask, which parts of your rifle are serialized? And yes, that rifle would need a very good cleaning, then a few more pictures. I wonder if the serial on the receiver is also with the b suffix, as on the stock.

Yes, all parts are numbered "40"....the receiver, like the stock, is marked "40b" although it's pretty low on the side and hard to photograph.

Mark sends

Oh duh, that is a B under the woodline, I missed that it had a suffix.

sprat said:

once you take possession

I would soak the metal in oil bath for a few days-week, long plastic bag works or plastic flower pot, then revisit with cloth and wipe down the oil and light rust. then take a few pictures for further advice

NO STEEL WOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don' t touch the wood for now, someone will around to tell you, how to properly clean it

Click to expand...

PVC pipe just large enough to accept barrel/action. Cap and fill with oil, Kroil works best, good old Marvel Mystery oil almost as well and its easy and cheaper to get. Smaller parts in bags. Old tooth brush to loosen up stubborn areas and tight spots

sprat said:

once you take possession

I would soak the metal in oil bath for a few days-week, long plastic bag works or plastic flower pot, then revisit with cloth and wipe down the oil and light rust. then take a few pictures for further advice

NO STEEL WOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

don' t touch the wood for now, someone will around to tell you, how to properly clean it

Click to expand...

what sprat said, adding to soak the barreled receiver in kroil, when I buy flowers at the market for my wife, they have long plastic bags to put them in. I use these for oiling or keeping long objects, oiled. (barrels, fork tubes.....)

So I made time to strip down and clean this rifle. The buttplate screws simply would not budge so it was carefully cleaned in place. Unfortunately some of the rust has been there long enough to make some minor pits here and there. However, compared to what it looked like when we received it, it's much sexier now.