Merc_Pilot
Active member
Greetings from the Buckeye state, everyone. I've been on the forum for a few short weeks now and have greatly appreciated all the input and advice I've received.
My grandfather passed away several years ago, and as part of my inheritance, I asked that I could have the rifles that he kept in a box beneath the steps of his basement. All that was known about them was that my grandfather may have brought them back from the War, and that he also had a Ruger pistol for which we have war trophy paper work accompanying it.
The rifles were in a dry-rotted case, coated in cosmoline and tape. Fortunately for me, a close friend's father is an has been a avid collector and restorer of antique rifles for over 40 years, so I handed them over to him for restoration. He identified the rifles as a German K98k, and a Hungarian 98/40 Mauser, and the real gem was the third rifle: A G-43 stamped 870 C AC 44.
Unfortunately, a few things quickly came to light: The K-98's bolt was mismatched (fortunately the Hungarian is all matching), and the real bump in the road was that the entire upper receiver of the G-43 was gone. At the time, I scoured my grandfather's basement to see if the parts were squirrel away somewhere, but none could be found.
Both the K-98 and Hungarian had been fully restored and I'd managed to shoot both. It's only been within the last year that I had enough money in my pocket to put forth the effort to fully restore the G-43, which at the moment is rapidly nearing completion. It's been my privilege to put a lot of work into the G-43, and I think it's important that these weapons be restored and made range safe. My grandfather would probably roll over in his grave if they ended up hanging on a wall somewhere, just collecting dust.
My grandfather passed away several years ago, and as part of my inheritance, I asked that I could have the rifles that he kept in a box beneath the steps of his basement. All that was known about them was that my grandfather may have brought them back from the War, and that he also had a Ruger pistol for which we have war trophy paper work accompanying it.
The rifles were in a dry-rotted case, coated in cosmoline and tape. Fortunately for me, a close friend's father is an has been a avid collector and restorer of antique rifles for over 40 years, so I handed them over to him for restoration. He identified the rifles as a German K98k, and a Hungarian 98/40 Mauser, and the real gem was the third rifle: A G-43 stamped 870 C AC 44.
Unfortunately, a few things quickly came to light: The K-98's bolt was mismatched (fortunately the Hungarian is all matching), and the real bump in the road was that the entire upper receiver of the G-43 was gone. At the time, I scoured my grandfather's basement to see if the parts were squirrel away somewhere, but none could be found.
Both the K-98 and Hungarian had been fully restored and I'd managed to shoot both. It's only been within the last year that I had enough money in my pocket to put forth the effort to fully restore the G-43, which at the moment is rapidly nearing completion. It's been my privilege to put a lot of work into the G-43, and I think it's important that these weapons be restored and made range safe. My grandfather would probably roll over in his grave if they ended up hanging on a wall somewhere, just collecting dust.
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