BCD 4 discovery...Many pics!

[Valleysniper]

Fantastic find, thanks for posting pictures. If I were you I would buy a lottery ticket this week as well.

 

[Wolfsburg]

Thanks, Valleysniper! The thought did occur to me!

 

[Stephan98k]

The sling appears to be an old piece of webbing but I have no idea if it's some sort of ersatz German sling or something a GI added. It is not nailed to the stock, nor does it have any markings. It is inserted into the sling slot in the stock and tied into a knot to keep it from slipping through. It looks like it has been on the rifle for a long time. I've heard the topic of German web slings is controversial so I'm not sure what to make of it.

Your sling appears to be a gas mask cannister sling- I've seen these used as rifle slings before, even misidentified in books as late war slings. It's probably the one the vet placed there though.

My advice

Don't touch, feed or add anything. I think it is interesting in the current configuration. Maybe it didn't cut the mustard as a sniper and was issued as you have it.

I am not a fan of "adding things". Enjoy as is..

This thread is older, I only saw it now and a late congrats from me.

I hope you listened to jack944's advice and you didn't clean the rifle to much. A very important thing is the sling, be sure to leave it with the weapon !
In my opinion the sling was not added by the American GI, it got captured that way in 1945 from the German soldier.

I think in this case it did have a mount- the pin you see sticking out was only done on the guns that had mounts on them, as the holes were drilled when the mount was added. I'd just like to point that out- the ones without the pin holes were never built into LSR's.

That's a very good point from Mike and I agree with him, that K98k had a mount. If a German soldier had used this K98k as a standard rifle without a scope, then a standard sling would probably have been used. Maybe they didn't have others available and that's why this sling was used, but I suspect it was used intentionally.

In the late war there was an order that snipers were not allowed to wear the normal leather belt. Only the woven version (African clothing) was permitted. If there is no Afrika Korps belt, then a simple rope should be used, the black leather belt was forbidden.

My grandfather was a former Luftwaffe soldier, he was seriously wounded and used in armaments production from 1943 onwards. In October 1944 he was drafted again, this time to the Heer and was deployed on the Western Front as a sniper.

Regards,
Stephan

 

[mdarnell19]

This thread is older, I only saw it now and a late congrats from me.

I hope you listened to jack944's advice and you didn't clean the rifle to much. A very important thing is the sling, be sure to leave it with the weapon !
In my opinion the sling was not added by the American GI, it got captured that way in 1945 from the German soldier.



That's a very good point from Mike and I agree with him, that K98k had a mount. If a German soldier had used this K98k as a standard rifle without a scope, then a standard sling would probably have been used. Maybe they didn't have others available and that's why this sling was used, but I suspect it was used intentionally.

In the late war there was an order that snipers were not allowed to wear the normal leather belt. Only the woven version (African clothing) was permitted. If there is no Afrika Korps belt, then a simple rope should be used, the black leather belt was forbidden.

My grandfather was a former Luftwaffe soldier, he was seriously wounded and used in armaments production from 1943 onwards. In October 1944 he was drafted again, this time to the Heer and was deployed on the Western Front as a sniper.

Regards,
Stephan

Any idea why there were not allowed to wear the leather belts?

 

[Wolfsburg]

Haha! No worries! I never did anything with the rifle. It's still tucked away as I found it!

That's really interesting regarding the sling and web gear for snipers. I had never heard that!

 

[Stephan98k]

Any idea why there were not allowed to wear the leather belts?

Yes, they should be used because the camouflage was better than the standard rifle sling. The High Command covered this in the same section as gloves, tent squares, etc. with other orders.

 

[mdarnell19]

Yes, they should be used because the camouflage was better than the standard rifle sling. The High Command covered this in the same section as gloves, tent squares, etc. with other orders.

Ok. So I understand, they were not supposed to use the leather rifles slings? I thought you meant the leather belt around the waist for holsters and ammo pouches.

 

[Philip]

Haha! No worries! I never did anything with the rifle. It's still tucked away as I found it!

That's really interesting regarding the sling and web gear for snipers. I had never heard that!

This was written about back in Senich’s book of the late 1970s/early 80s. A few points of fact however would be based on “tons” of photograph evidence and good old common sense tells us that this and many other suggestions and even directives were not even largely much less mostly complied with when it came to sniper personnel camouflage techniques and equipment. As for the rifle that is the subject of this post I agree it was most likely a January or February 1945 build. The good news is the the supply routes were very short for most German soldiers by February or March 1945, so this rifle may have actually been issued and used, at least for a few weeks. The gas mask canister strap looks cool to collectors and fits the camo bill of web equipment but anyone who has tried to carry a 9lb rifle on a sling like that would not find it very cool. These straps, for example, do not compare to a Garand web sling in terms of width or support.