BNZ 4 - i-block

[hatrick]

I was asked to post a full set of photos of the bnz4 i-block I just picked up. Seems like a pretty nice un-messed with bring back. Aside from a buggered floorplate screw and some dings on the comb of the buttstock it is in really nice shape with a mirror bore. It did take a hit somewhere along its travels to the extractor and you can see that that same hit also nicked the stock. It looks like a bnz sight hood and while drilled for a cleaning rod, the hole is about 1/4” short of making it to the nut in the stock so a cleaning rod doesn’t screw in. Nice that it came with a really great condition original sling.

Hopefully all looks good to the experts. I guess i-blocks for some reason aren’t seen that often.

 

[hatrick]

More pics

 

[hatrick]

More pics

 

[hatrick]

More pics

 

[hatrick]

More pics

 

[waffenmeister]

Very nice rifle. I like the way the cocking piece is numbered and the sleeve without a number, typical Steyr.

 

[swjXE]

Very nice rifle. I like the way the cocking piece is numbered and the sleeve without a number, typical Steyr.

As far as I know the sleeve is typically numbered on a Heer contract rifle. I love the extra number on the sight leaf . Great rifle, needs to go in the pic. reference index!
Thanks Hatrick!

 

[mrfarb]

It’s actually the correct bolt suffix “i”. The barrel code is very interesting too, you should research that. Unnumbered gas shield is atypical but people need to realize with late Steyr you see anomalies in serial numbered parts due to mistakes or perhaps repairs during the final acceptance phases.

 

[swjXE]

It’s actually the correct bolt suffix “i”. The barrel code is very interesting too, you should research that. Unnumbered gas shield is atypical but people need to realize with late Steyr you see anomalies in serial numbered parts due to mistakes or perhaps repairs during the final acceptance phases.

Oops, I thought the bolt would have a dotted " i " of the same style as the one on the barrel. However, I do of course bow to your omniscience in such matters.

 

[mrfarb]

Look closely amd you can see the dotted “i”, it just has that weird tail on them.

 

[hale1940]

I really like this rifle. Thanks for sharing. Perhaps the missed gas shield serial was because who ever was punching the numbers had spent too much time serializing SS contract rifles.

 

[swjXE]

Look closely amd you can see the dotted “i”, it just has that weird tail on them.

Well, there it is, plain as day. Even a blind man would have see it. Thanks Mike!

 

[Aaron]

Fantastic example, I have a sporter rescue i-block so this helps me a lot to see what parts I need to restore it.

 

[MrB]

Very nice Eric. Nice pictures too!

 

[swjXE]

Hey Hatrick, I'd wager that your cleaning rod hole is drilled all the way through, but something is clogging it up.

 

[hatrick]

I was thinking the same thing but when I tried screwing in a cleaning rod it keeps coming out with wood in the cleaning rod threads. So unless someone jammed a wood plug all the way down I’d have to think it was never fully drilled out. It certainly would be easy enough to finish drilling that last 1/4” but I want to leave it in it’s original state and not modify anything Since the rifle seems to be in untouched condition.

 

[swjXE]

Wow, That's crazy, even for Steyr!

 

[Absolut]

Despite I can only congratulate to such a nice rifle, I've experienced it that wood got into the cleaning rod channel and plugged it. Someone pushing it in not in the full correct direction or the stock soaked up and frequent pulling/entering can result in the cleaning rod moving material deeper into the channel and therefore plugging the channel. Maybe worth pulling the nut and see if you could push everything out?

 

[hatrick]

Absolut... you were spot on... I love the sage knowledge and wisdom everyone has on this forum!!

So I ran a small brass rod down the cleaning rod hole and it hit the metal cleaning rod nut. So there was definitely some wood scraps jammed in there. Got it all cleaned out and a cleaning rod screwed right in.

 

[swjXE]

Imagine that! I'm glad you didn't try to pull out the nut because they can be a challenge sometimes because of rust and gunk buildup and you can cause damage to the stock.