Third Party Press

Polish WZ29 German Rework?

militarytorch

Senior Member
I got this rifle recently and I was wondering what you guys think about this one.
It has a huge 8mm on a side of the receiver and it is probably an importer's mark???
Could German's have stamped it with that ugly stamp?
There is a number 2 and 12 on the butt-plate, what are those?

Thank you very much.
 

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More pictures

Second set of pictures
 

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Third set of pictures
 

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Last 4 pictures I promise

Last 4 pictures I promise :)
 

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8mm

I doubt the Germans stamped the 8mm that large and on the receiver like that.
Likely applied by post-war user before export to US.

Normally the 50s and 60s imports will be marked with a small Germany stamp and /or a small 8mm caliber designation.
I have 2 Banners, one with 8mm stamped on the rear sigth base, and the 2nd with a small 8mm stamped on the barrel
between the bands. Also have several matched rifles with the small German stamp (one on trigge housing, the other
on the rear sight base).
 
As stated 1950 - 1960 imports often had a tiny 8mm stamped on the barrel or the rear sight base. With your gun I believe this is a "Billy Bob Job" done to prevent some one from trying to force a 30.06 into it.
 
Too bad someone did that. I think my 3 year old can do a better job than whoever put that 8mm there.
Other than that is it a correct polish wz reworked by Germans rifle?

Thank you
 
Other than that is it a correct polish wz reworked by Germans rifle?


It has a Nazi barrel..


attachment.php




..
 
It might be a German acceptance stamp, but the serial number matches the receiver, and the oval cartouche next to the eagle looks Polish. Does the barrel have a continuous taper (Polish) or a stepped taper (German)?
 
It isn't a German acceptance stamp, it is a German fireproof. The barrel was Polish in origin, and the Germans used it to re-barrel the rifle. When they took over the Polish state arsenals the German captured enormous amounts of raw materials and partially completed components. These were in part used to make the G29/40, but you see many parts cycled into other rifle reworks (JimP had a neat 98a re-barrel for instance). There is a interesting report I read about the capture of the Polish ammunition factory, Skarzysko-Kamienna,where the German technical team assigned to the factory (the Germans had special teams assigned to protect and investigate the Polish factories they took in 1939) found enormous numbers of machines and raw material, all intact, and the process with which they Germans planned to make use of the facility. All were given over as trusts for German firms to run, though still owned by the German government.

This is not usual, typically governments, even the US government in WWII, turned over government owned factories (financed by the US government- captured factories in the German case, although the German government also financed many large factories, especially in the aviation industry) for private firms to run, as they had the know-how to manage and operate the concerns effectively. Also in the case of countries the Germans conquered, when a firm was state owned, the property transferred directly to the German state, but when the companies were privately owned, the Germans generally tried to buy or manipulate ownership by legal means, usually through German banks. This was not needed in Poland, because Poland was in many ways as evil a state as nazi Germany.. they oppressed their minorities ruthlessly, Jews & Germans especially, they had nationalized most of the heavy industry and mining, increasingly so right before the war, and were essentially a military dictatorship who had never been on good terms with any of its neighbors. The plundered part of Czechoslovakia, a small but very important part, was hostile towards friendly Lithuania, and were as remote from a "democratic" form of government as nazi Germany was in 1939.

Anyway, I just find it ironic that both world wars were begun over two of the least worthwhile countries of their time, Serbia was a repugnant little nation in 1914, and Poland hardly better than nazi Germany in 1939.
 

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