Restoring a K43

Yarf said:
I did exactly the same job as OP is looking at for a badly sportered QVE45. I used one of the Fox stocks and it was a perfect fit. I was lucky in that the durafol handguard was still with the rifle, here are some pics of the restoration. The guy before me had put it into a bad Walther type repro stock. IMHO it turned out pretty sweet.

https://kiwimedals.com/rebuilding-the-k43/
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It need to be dragged around your yard behind my att to get the wood to match the action tho! I’ll be out when it’s warmer.
 
So after a full month, USPS finally decided to find my Sarco magazine and get it to me. As expected it needed some fitting in order to actually engage.

A couple questions, just how much do these hate soft-point ammunition? At the moment I only have some SP on hand. It seems to get fed directly into the feed ramp. I haven't decided if its the repop magazine or that the rifle was made for FMJ.

One of these days i'll get an original magazine for it, unfortunately that day isn't today right now

Is it ok to post links to ebay auctions? I hope so. if not someone yell at me...

one of the harder parts to come across seems to be the front barrel band.

is this guy selling repro or original ones: https://www.ebay.com/itm/German-Front-Band-G43/124125568551?hash=item1ce675de27:g:taoAAOSwPwVedk5J

How good are the reproduction ones? Its something I'd prefer to do once since the front sight post has to come off for it.

Thank you!
 
As far as ammunition, I only use SP in the G43 and G41 that I shoot. No problems whatsoever with the modern commercial PPU 196 gr SP.


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TitleSeventeen said:
A couple questions, just how much do these hate soft-point ammunition? At the moment I only have some SP on hand. It seems to get fed directly into the feed ramp. I haven't decided if its the repop magazine or that the rifle was made for FMJ.
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Unless the bullet ogive of your SP ammunition radically differs from the form of a FMJ spitzer (i.e. blunt nose), your magazine will likely give the same results if it were charged with service ball. If you've decided to keep the mag rather than return it for a refund, you've nothing to lose by making some judicious adjustment to its feed lips. Essentially you'd want to straighten (or "unbend") them in small increments, testing for proper feeding as you proceed. Smooth-jawed parallel pliers are among the makeshifts that you can employ, working from front to back naturally.

If you proceed cautiously and with common sense, you'll likely be able to get that magazine to feed SP as well as FMJ. But while adjusting/testing, you should use FMJ dummies.

Richie
 
yeah, its mine now for sure. already modified it to actually fit in the magazine well. Guess more modification isn't out of the question now.

Anyone have an idea about those barrel bands being sold on ebay from france?
 
I bought three of those repro magazines for mine. They all had to be modified just to lock in the mag well. After that they only worked well with FMJ ammo.
 
Intruder196 said:
I bought three of those repro magazines for mine. They all had to be modified just to lock in the mag well. After that they only worked well with FMJ ammo.
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I've not yet had one on the bench, but it sounds like a relatively simple matter to get those magazines to feed. Essentially you just need to charge the mag with three dummies, and adjust the feed lips until the nose of the top cartridge assumes a slightly higher attitude.

Once that's done, they'll probably feed anything.

Richie
 
I'll say that your best chance to get an original mag is to watch all the ones on ebay and gunbroker and bud according to your price range. I've gotten lucky with finding two under the $180 range, albeit they weren't the best cosmetically, but functional originals nonetheless.

Mike
 
I'll for sure be doing that in the future as for now I have time to play with this repro till I get it to feed reliably.

Finding FMJ 8mm seems to be on of the harder things at the moment :facepalm: but for now I'll probably find some inert rounds to use to make the current magazine feed right. Then I can finally take it and put some rounds through it.

In the meantime I'm trying to piece together all the missing odds and ends that it has. So far a front barrel band and a butt plate are the parts i'm having the most trouble finding original of.

Still no word back from that eBay seller if the band he's selling is original or not
 
Finally got it to feed, Though I'm at the point where I'm questioning why I even bought a reproduction magazine in the first place. But such is life
 
mike44f said:
I'll say that your best chance to get an original mag is to watch all the ones on ebay and gunbroker and bud according to your price range. I've gotten lucky with finding two under the $180 range, albeit they weren't the best cosmetically, but functional originals nonetheless.

Mike
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Early last year I picked up an original pair of gcb mags at the local gun show. A vendor had a German soldier mannequin carrying two G43 mag pouches. I squeezed the pouches and felt mags inside. "Hey, are these mags for sale?" "Yes, but they are not cheap, $100 each." "Uhhh, OK, sounds reasonable to me, I'll take them."
True story. There are still some deals out there.
 
GunKraut said:
Early last year I picked up an original pair of gcb mags at the local gun show. A vendor had a German soldier mannequin carrying two G43 mag pouches. I squeezed the pouches and felt mags inside. "Hey, are these mags for sale?" "Yes, but they are not cheap, $100 each." "Uhhh, OK, sounds reasonable to me, I'll take them."
True story. There are still some deals out there.
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That's a great story, I love it when things like that happen. Especially when they happen to ME!:laugh:

Richie
 
R.W. Parker said:
That's a great story, I love it when things like that happen. Especially when they happen to ME!:laugh:

Richie
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I was surfing the web, looking for German rifles... because being a member of this forum and community I get mad jealous when you all flash your stash--I mean I want to be cool too!!--when I saw a picture for an auction that had some rifles in it. As always the pictures were from far away, blurry and dark. But damn, I swore that looked like a k43 sitting on the kitchen table. Called up the auctioneer, typical--doesn't have a list of the rifles, can't get me pictures of the one I'm interested in because they won't be in possession of the rifles until the morning of the auction. To say he didn't have a clue about anything he was doing is overstating it. So I got up at 330 am and drove 4 hours to the auction in the middle of no where Virginia. When I got there I learned that a lady was going into an assisted living home and was donating her late husbands military collection to the local volunteer fire department (where auction was being held at).

Sure enough, sitting on the table was an AC45 dual lug C block with a GCB mag. Let's just say the crowd wasn't super informative as to what it was so I got super excited, started shakin' !!! So to calm myself down I went and looked around at the other stuff. As auctioneers tend to be lazy... and this one was no exception, crap was thrown on tables and in rubbermaid containers and even in trash cans. I sat back down, but thought I better go have a look again at the trash cans. Sorted through a trashcan full of random junk... newspapers empty boxes trash etc... and what do I find, 3x K43 mags 2x GCbs and 1x AYE. What do I do? I sat back down and when the rifle came up only 1 other person bid... I didn't even lower my hand and eventually got it for 1200 (no tax and no buyers premium), stock was duffle cut and heavily sanded and lacquered, but metal was perfect and all matching (finally found an unmolested and unsanded correct late war Walther stock!). When they paused the auction for a break I went up to the auctioneer and said I found these 3 mags in the trashcan and they go with my rifle I bought.... you sure he said? I said, "uh, yea pretty sure" he shrugged and said, "okay you can have them."

I finally got a win Suckers. :moon:
 
WreckTangle said:
I was surfing the web, looking for German rifles... because being a member of this forum and community I get mad jealous when you all flash your stash--I mean I want to be cool too!!--when I saw a picture for an auction that had some rifles in it. As always the pictures were from far away, blurry and dark. But damn, I swore that looked like a k43 sitting on the kitchen table. Called up the auctioneer, typical--doesn't have a list of the rifles, can't get me pictures of the one I'm interested in because they won't be in possession of the rifles until the morning of the auction. To say he didn't have a clue about anything he was doing is overstating it. So I got up at 330 am and drove 4 hours to the auction in the middle of no where Virginia. When I got there I learned that a lady was going into an assisted living home and was donating her late husbands military collection to the local volunteer fire department (where auction was being held at).

Sure enough, sitting on the table was an AC45 dual lug C block with a GCB mag. Let's just say the crowd wasn't super informative as to what it was so I got super excited, started shakin' !!! So to calm myself down I went and looked around at the other stuff. As auctioneers tend to be lazy... and this one was no exception, crap was thrown on tables and in rubbermaid containers and even in trash cans. I sat back down, but thought I better go have a look again at the trash cans. Sorted through a trashcan full of random junk... newspapers empty boxes trash etc... and what do I find, 3x K43 mags 2x GCbs and 1x AYE. What do I do? I sat back down and when the rifle came up only 1 other person bid... I didn't even lower my hand and eventually got it for 1200 (no tax and no buyers premium), stock was duffle cut and heavily sanded and lacquered, but metal was perfect and all matching (finally found an unmolested and unsanded correct late war Walther stock!). When they paused the auction for a break I went up to the auctioneer and said I found these 3 mags in the trashcan and they go with my rifle I bought.... you sure he said? I said, "uh, yea pretty sure" he shrugged and said, "okay you can have them."

I finally got a win Suckers. :moon:
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Wow... awesome story!
 

That's a hard story to top Will, but I'll try.

About 35 years ago, I had a friend who was really into the hi-buck, high end German stuff. He was about 25 years my senior, and had an 01 FFL just to support his wheelin' and dealin'. The FFL was completely unrelated to his normal vocation.

Anyway, he called me on the phone one day and asked if I'd like to see his latest acquisition. Naturally I said yes, and drove over to his house.

So he lugs out this hard case. As I remember, it had a canvas cover on it but I could be wrong. Then he slips on a pair of white cotton gloves, and hands me a pair as well.

"Are you kidding?" I asked him. He answered with a look that assured me he wasn't.

So he opens the case and inside there was a MINT Luftwaffe survival drilling. No kidding, this thing had 100% case colors on the sling swivels. COMPLETE outfit, right down to the unopened cartridge boxes. Absolutely untouched, pristine. The Luftwaffe eagle in the stock was so sharp you could've cut yourself on it.

Turns out that he went to some little Podunk auction the day before, and the only worthwhile item on the list was that drilling. So naturally there were about a dozen interested buyers, all well-armed with cash. The bidding was expected to go high on that thing, and rightfully so. It was immaculate.

Everyone sat there for hours, while the auctioneer went through the tables and lamps and all the other junk. Finally they brought up the drilling, but before the bidding started the auctioneer made an announcement: "On all firearms, it's our policy to only accept bids from licensed dealers."

My friend said he thought the other guys were going to burn the place to the ground. Apparently some of them had traveled from several states away, just to bid on that drilling. The FFL prerequisite was never mentioned in the auction flyer. Since the auction was in New Jersey, the auctioneer just assumed that anyone bidding on a firearm would have every license known to man.

Thankfully my friend remembered to bring a copy of his, so he was the only one who could bid. And he got that rig for the reserve, which was a thousand bucks.

Richie
 
TitleSeventeen said:
Does this look like an original part???
https://www.ebay.com/itm/German-Fro...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
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Like mentioned above, its a repro. Notice how "new" that rust is, and the sling section doesn't look right to me. I saw this guy selling a barrel band a few years ago, minus the rust and I had my doubts. Luckily I found an original that needed some help with its original shape. You can find good things out of Europe on these, but you just have to be careful. Check here first for sure.

Mike
 
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