1935 Weimar Eagle marked MG34 barrel

[Thefirearmsvault]

So I won an auction for a MG34 German barrel and this is what showed up. I paid under 100 for this and was expecting a standard wartime marked German barrel as advertised but instead I got what appears to be a 1935 Weimar marked barrel. I have never seen a barrel as early as this one and thought it was interesting enough to share. It’s in pretty decent shaped with strong grooves.

 

[Thefirearmsvault]

Photo of markings

 

[Thefirearmsvault]

.

 

[biggymu]

That’s pretty cool. Can’t be many of those around. Nice early Simson stamps.

 

[heavy_mech]

That’s pretty cool. Can’t be many of those around. Nice early Simson stamps.

Not skimping on the inspections here.

 

[mostpeople]

Wonder if it was used during testing and development?

 

[Thefirearmsvault]

Thanks everyone for the replies. The earliest shroud date I’ve seen was a 1936. This blew my mind.

 

[heavy_mech]

From Chris McNab's book... "Before large scale production commenced, 2,300 MG 34s in two main early versions, slightly more complex and different from the final design, were produced between 1935 and 1939."

If this is factual the number would be very low in '35.

 

[mostpeople]

This pre-war era I don’t know much about so I’ll defer to the experts here. My question is when did Germany stop using the Weimar stamps? Weimar as far as I can tell ended in 1932/33?

 

[biggymu]

You may encounter an overlap of Weimar proofs until @1935

 

[Thefirearmsvault]

This pre-war era I don’t know much about so I’ll defer to the experts here. My question is when did Germany stop using the Weimar stamps? Weimar as far as I can tell ended in 1932/33?

I saw this 1936 mg34 with Weimar stamps everywhere (picture is not mine nor is the gun)