Humped BNZ 43. Swung for the fences and struck out.

[BigShell]

Okay a little back story on this piece. I was browsing a regional auction from an auction house that deals in higher end guns, militaria, and western stuff. Had never bought from them but they had some really good stuff, seemed very professional. I came across this Steyr with a few zoomed out, generally unhelpful pics, but the description sounded like a nice honest non import example with the old "visible numbers match". It also mentioned a small dented area AROUND the waffenampt (singular).

I dropped a $600 bid with a 15% internet premium, which I was comfortable with, not having the rifle in hand. These WaA's have been peened to holy hell and back, and some of the bolt pieces have been straight up ground.

Is there any saving grace for this one? The stock set is nice, albeit not matching the action. But even that is suspect (stamped on the left side?????). RC with a swapped stock???

 

[kampfy]

Looks like a Romanian capture with all the peened waffenampts. If that’s the case yours is unusual in that it has most of its finish left. What does the bore look like?

 

[BigShell]

Looks like a Romanian capture with all the peened waffenampts. If that’s the case yours is unassailable in that it has most of its finish left. What does the bore look like?

Gray with good, sharp rifling, might clean up to better. 6/10.

 

[nirvana]

Original eagles were peened off, so someone cleaned up the areas and then stamped shitty replacements. Get rid of that thing. Even if you have to take a 50% hit try to return it to the auction house.

 

[Pisgah]

I wouldn't say you struck out. A better analogy might be that you were hit by a pitch. You didn't make any money. Maybe you lost $100-200 at worst. You learned a lesson and you have a shooter. No worries about cracking the stock or somehow damaging it.

 

[BigShell]

No worries about cracking the stock or somehow damaging it.

Would you agree the stamp on the stock is fake? For sure won't be doing business with this place again. It was clearly mis-represented.

 

[BigShell]

Thing is, I feel like some of the rifle does match, such as the rear sight, bands, floor plate and trigger guard. I'm by no means an expert, just judging by the consistency of the stampings.

Can anyone ID the stock? Should the barrel be numbered as well?

 

[Pisgah]

The stock has plenty of wear and signs of refinish but the stock eagle/WaA135 appears new. Yes. A fake stamping. It is possible that the auction house did not know anything about this rifle.

The firing proofs are fake and were added, likely on top of where the original firing proofs had been removed. The numbering on the bolt flat and bolt sleeve was done to deceive. The safety has been scrubbed of a serial number. Some of the other parts appear to have original numbers but the rifle has been messed with to the point where there is no real collector value remaining. You have a shooter. Or you could take it apart and sell every piece to see how much of your money you could get back.

 

[Kammerjaeger]

Is there any saving grace for this one?

No way, not in my opinion. It’s bad.


KJ

 

[Loewe]

No way, not in my opinion. It’s bad.


KJ

Hate to say it but I agree, even parting it out would probably not recoup the outlay... I do agree about learning a lesson, this one would teach anyone a lesson. I did a similar mistake many years ago, probably 1999-2002 or so, I bid on a Kar.98a from a fairly well-known auction house in New England, suspiciously I won it for my max bid and when it arrived it was very much like this, not a fraud, but a Turked 98a that was clearly not described accurately. Luckily PeterK got me a refund for the rifle as he is connected up there.. I learned a cheap lesson, do not bid unless you know what is being offered.

You can take the word of a collector with a solid reputation, no one worth knowing will jeopardize their reputation by over describing a rifle (usually the are overly critical) and not accepting a full return, - I can't think of many dealers that this can be said of.

 

[jbmauser]

Are those welding spots on the barrel under/around the fake firing proof?

 

[flynaked]

Sure is, barrel, receiver and sight base all were welded, you can see HAZ’s on all three, scary. Someone tried to spruce up a peened rifle

 

[jbmauser]

Personally, I would be reluctant to shoot it with the welding. Probably didn't get hot enough to hurt anything but.....

 

[kampfy]

Wow, now that I actually looked at the photos that is bad. This is also why I don’t place bids on auction items from auction houses unless I can see things personally, usually there is to few pictures provided and the descriptions are vague at best.

 

[nirvana]

Yea. That’s welding.

 

[heavy_mech]

I wouldn't say you struck out. A better analogy might be that you were hit by a pitch. You didn't make any money. Maybe you lost $100-200 at worst. You learned a lesson and you have a shooter. No worries about cracking the stock or somehow damaging it.

I kind of agree but... was it 600 plus 15% ($90) and then shipping, fees whatever or $600 all in? If it's the latter not too bad. If the total ended up north of 700 not so much. I guess it would depend on the hit for returning it too. If I were to lose 50% or so I'd probably just keep it and use it.

Btw that auction house sucks. If they think this is original, matching they're either idiots or crooks. I don't think you need to be a Mauser expert to see this one is bogus.

 

[Pisgah]

If it can be returned, I would return it. I should have stated that originally but assumed it wasn't a possibility if it came from an auction house.

 

[BigShell]

Strict as-is, no return policy. Which I knew going in. I wanted to believe they knew what they were talking about so I took the chance without seeing it. Oh well. I’ll probably take a hit and move it along to someone else, with full disclosure of course.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MikeR]

It’s just my 2 cents but I don’t think the rifle has anything going for it unless you are looking for something to hang on the wall or maybe hold up a tomato plant. With all that has been screwed with I would never attempt to shoot it. In fact if I was going to keep it I would probably drive a rod down the barrel so that it could never be shot. Just my 2 cents

 

[mto7464]

Looks like they filled/welded/or ground down the penned eagles so they could re stamp them. Should not have hurt the receiver. Hard to tell in the pic which they did.