Third Party Press

Punch marked bolt handle flats

BigShell

Senior Member
I’ve seen a few of these, particularly from one seller on fleabay who claims they are “rack numbers for a service academy” on otherwise matching bolts/rifles. This Oberndorf bolt showed up on a bolt MM BCD43 q block. Just curious if there’s some significance. The bolt flat has obviously been renumbered.
 

Attachments

  • 799D227F-2C35-412A-A25A-30772680A0CC.jpeg
    799D227F-2C35-412A-A25A-30772680A0CC.jpeg
    433.6 KB · Views: 79
  • 697D9DA0-911F-4536-9E92-1BF2D34D8735.jpeg
    697D9DA0-911F-4536-9E92-1BF2D34D8735.jpeg
    452.8 KB · Views: 80
  • D9894FE8-F52C-43C8-94E8-FEC3400FEB3D.jpeg
    D9894FE8-F52C-43C8-94E8-FEC3400FEB3D.jpeg
    379.4 KB · Views: 64
  • 5AB8D368-7E67-4B4F-9F19-EDFFEB004237.jpeg
    5AB8D368-7E67-4B4F-9F19-EDFFEB004237.jpeg
    292.4 KB · Views: 59
  • D2D2792C-5381-49AF-8EB7-C38A4F064143.jpeg
    D2D2792C-5381-49AF-8EB7-C38A4F064143.jpeg
    454.8 KB · Views: 80
The ones on Ebay from the seller in WY are, I believe, from Norwegian-reworked rifles, the "punch-number" being the last 3 of the Norwegian-applied serial. I bought one as a "spare" and it is a dead ringer for the original-as-rebuilt bolt on my K98KF1. In my research I found a thread on this forum where a member tried to communicate this fact to the seller... but he evidently hasn't changed his description.
 
Yeah, Norway renumber for sure. I've had and sold maybe 50+ of them. That seller is being less than honest. I've told him, he doesn't care. Good parts but descriptions are lacking. No longer able to get the bolt bodies from Norway so having one for a spare is a good thing.
 
I believe that all the parts from the guy in Wy. are Norwegian. I bought a TG/FP from him and it was stretched to use 30-06 ammo. I complained to ebay (and him),
now he won't take any bids or offers from. I told ebay that he "black-listed" me, but they won't do anything about it. so, watch out for those Norwegian parts.....
 
The punch mark before the SN is a very common Norwegian thing. You see this on Norwegian Krag parts too (bolts, sights, bands, etc.). Not sure why they did it.
 
Sounds like this guy is better known than I thought, and not in a good way. But to be clear, this one didn't come from him, that's just where I've seen these most often. For some odd reason he has a lot of them.
 
I believe the punch mark was to check whether they had ground enough of the original case hardened surface off to safely apply the new number without ruining their number stamps. Kind of a quick and easy Rockwell test. I've seen a few cases where original German reworks used this method but this one is definitely Norwegian like the guys have pointed out. :) (y) That jerk ball on ebay seems to have a virtually endless supply of these bolts. o_O 🤪
 
Last edited:
I believe that all the parts from the guy in Wy. are Norwegian. I bought a TG/FP from him and it was stretched to use 30-06 ammo. I complained to ebay (and him),
now he won't take any bids or offers from. I told ebay that he "black-listed" me, but they won't do anything about it. so, watch out for those Norwegian parts.....

That's because epay is generally shite, though not as bad as payscam, the shite they own. They care about getting paid, commissions, clicks, getting you paying them predatory credit rates, click bait, and peddling your data. That's it. Anything or anyone interfering with those goals is gassed by them.
 
The ebay guy likely has more stocks coming. Several were recently acquired in Norway, headed to the US and it's not me. He strips all matching metal off and sells near my price for complete matching stocks. But people buy them.
 
That's because epay is generally shite, though not as bad as payscam, the shite they own. They care about getting paid, commissions, clicks, getting you paying them predatory credit rates, click bait, and peddling your data. That's it. Anything or anyone interfering with those goals is gassed by them.
Yes, I was leaning towards that way...with ebay it's all set up for the seller. Not too worried about what happens to individual buyers.
 
The ebay guy likely has more stocks coming. Several were recently acquired in Norway, headed to the US and it's not me. He strips all matching metal off and sells near my price for complete matching stocks. But people buy them.
Of course, because then he can price gouge all the metal bits as well as the stocks themselves. :mad::mad:
 

Military Rifle Journal
Back
Top