A man working for me had a friend that needed cash and knew I restored WWII rifles. He mentioned "Mauser," so I said I'd take a look and buy the rifle if I could help him out. The rifle was a K43 that'd been started on a Bubba job, then stopped thanks to financial needs sitting in front of me. Not sure the value of the rifle in decent shape, I inspected the rifle and noticed the magazine was missing and one side of the receiver appeared to have the finish wire wheeled off. Didn't know the cost of parts for the K43, I offered the man a thousand cash. He took it.
Since then, I've gotten the rifle apart. Here's what I found:
Receiver missing half of finish on one side, looks like someone wire wheeled it. I think it may have been blued, but the rough bottom also looks like torn up paint, so I'm not sure. need help on this one. More receiver info:
Right hand front side of the receiver, under the sight base - The numbers 1,2 and what looks like an Eagle 359 stamp
Left hand front side of the receiver, under the sight base - K43, ac/44, 2705 q
Receiver bottom on flat area of trigger group screw hole - what looks like an 8, a 3, another 3 and z1? (The number is dinged, so it's hard to tell. that's a guess
Front sight base - smooth rear, no serrations, appears to be silver soldered on? not sure
Chamber and barrel were filthy dirty, but cleaned up shinny and good looking.
Handguard cap and front sight both rusty and appear to have been a different finish, perhaps parkerizing before becoming rusted
barrel - marked with bys 107 |61?| (hard to see, dinged) and a swastika eagle barrel finish shows wear, but barrel can be restored fairly easy with thalj
Stock - filthy dirty, hard to tell original finish, but the whole rifle was dirty, not the dirt of cosmoline, but field dirty and negligence. lots of greasy spots, this will need cleaning of nasty to see condition of stock. no marks visible, but condition is commiserate with age of rifle I'm guessing a linseed oil finish with perhaps some brown stain or something similar
Buttplate - pretty badly banged up, missing original screws, buttcap lid will not close I'll try to repair, but may have to resort to replacement. It's pretty bad
I'd like to get at least one correct missing mag, restore the rifle to working order, repair the damaged finish. Then get clone mags for the extra mags and not sure about pouches to protect the mags. I have a clone sling that looks decent until I can get something better.
Can you fellas help me out on correct finish colors, etc? The rifle deserves better than to be half #@(&(^^%'ed like this. I can restore the original finish without destroying or removing it. I normally do original restorations on Garands, Springfields and Enfields, but I can certainly clean up this old gal.
Since then, I've gotten the rifle apart. Here's what I found:
Receiver missing half of finish on one side, looks like someone wire wheeled it. I think it may have been blued, but the rough bottom also looks like torn up paint, so I'm not sure. need help on this one. More receiver info:
Right hand front side of the receiver, under the sight base - The numbers 1,2 and what looks like an Eagle 359 stamp
Left hand front side of the receiver, under the sight base - K43, ac/44, 2705 q
Receiver bottom on flat area of trigger group screw hole - what looks like an 8, a 3, another 3 and z1? (The number is dinged, so it's hard to tell. that's a guess
Front sight base - smooth rear, no serrations, appears to be silver soldered on? not sure
Chamber and barrel were filthy dirty, but cleaned up shinny and good looking.
Handguard cap and front sight both rusty and appear to have been a different finish, perhaps parkerizing before becoming rusted
barrel - marked with bys 107 |61?| (hard to see, dinged) and a swastika eagle barrel finish shows wear, but barrel can be restored fairly easy with thalj
Stock - filthy dirty, hard to tell original finish, but the whole rifle was dirty, not the dirt of cosmoline, but field dirty and negligence. lots of greasy spots, this will need cleaning of nasty to see condition of stock. no marks visible, but condition is commiserate with age of rifle I'm guessing a linseed oil finish with perhaps some brown stain or something similar
Buttplate - pretty badly banged up, missing original screws, buttcap lid will not close I'll try to repair, but may have to resort to replacement. It's pretty bad
I'd like to get at least one correct missing mag, restore the rifle to working order, repair the damaged finish. Then get clone mags for the extra mags and not sure about pouches to protect the mags. I have a clone sling that looks decent until I can get something better.
Can you fellas help me out on correct finish colors, etc? The rifle deserves better than to be half #@(&(^^%'ed like this. I can restore the original finish without destroying or removing it. I normally do original restorations on Garands, Springfields and Enfields, but I can certainly clean up this old gal.
