Gewehr reworks question

[DogDoc]

I am trying to understand a process and am probably overthinking this. When The SS would build Kar 98's from Gew 98 receiver/barrels, my understanding is this was with leftover WWI Gewehr's. If this is true, why are there no manufacturer stamps on the receivers? I understand the "scrubbed" theory, but why bother? If it is from stores of surplus, wouldn't those still have manufacturer stamps on top of the receiver?

Thanks,
Jay

 

[mrfarb]

Its not a dumb question, best I can say is I don't know for sure. You can make some guesses - at this point in time I believe the SS Gew conversions were done by commercial firms in the Suhl region for the SS. Using leftover military parts for commercial hunting rifles was pretty widespread, and it was normal course to remove the military markings for these commercial rifles, either to obfuscate the military ownership connection or for cosmetic purposes. I suppose these 2 reasons are possible for the SS guns as well, and some of the SS rifles were from the hidden stockpiles of the Weimar era. If you study the political situation surrounding the SS you get an idea that not too many other people were keen on the armament of the SS, and any "ammo" the Heer could use to undermine the SS was probably fair game. Although, I'm not suggesting the scrubbing was a defensive measure against the Army pressuring the SS, that was done on the political front.

We know the recievers are WW1 receivers, we see slight evidence either under the woodline or ghost images of inspections and proofing that isn't always completely removed. So it isn't as if these were made using new components.

 

[RyanE]

According to Höhne's standard history of the SS, Hitler promised to provide sufficient weapons for the creation of 3 regiments of the new SS-VT from caches seized from the SA after the purge of 1934. Virtually all of those would have been rifles hidden away immediately after WWI. I suppose there could have been some stolen 1920 marked weapons in there, but probably not.

I do think Suhl firms probably modified barrels for the SS, it is really the only way I can come up with to make sense of the barrel shoulder markings, but I don't know if they actually did all of the work. It's certainly very plausible though.

As for the scrubbing, I agree all we can do is speculate. I don't think the SS really cared to hide these were ex-military weapons. It's not like the Army wasn't fully aware of what they were doing. I suspect like commercial guns, it was to simply remove any connection to the Army at all. Maybe for legal reasons?

 

[DogDoc]

Absolutely fascinating! I've always thought of the SS as organization that operated on the fringe doing things their way, not worried too much about what anyone thought of them. It is a paradox for me. The more I learn, the less I know. The WWI era proofs on my gun, combined with the Eagle N on the barrel and another Eagle N on the receiver intrigue me.