K98k duv42 WaA749

[Absolut]

Since this variation is pretty rare to find I thought I should do some pictures of my rifle and post. I know it is very rough outside, especially towards the muzzle, but on the other hand it is all matching numbers.

The handguard is matching numbers too - contrary to the stock, which has the serial including suffix stamped to the barrel channel, only the digits though. And yes, I did notice the rear band was sitting upside down on the rifle - that is why I took it fully apart and pictured also the inside stuff, since I anyway had to pull that band to get it correctly installed afterwards .

 

[Absolut]

... rest of the pictures. Ink stamp on the inside of the buttplate (brg coded, btw) survived pretty well, compared to the rest. Also did some pictures of the barrel code, maybe someone can educate me on those.

 

[Peter S]

If I'm not mistaken. It was assembled by bcd in 1943 using leftover duv 42 receivers so it will have all the characteristics of a bcd 43

 

[Loewe]

Peter I agree with here BLM/42 e/WaA749 are bcd/43 production, generally this starts in the p-block, but so far is consistent through the s-block (p-s blocks)

** BLM/42 seems to have ended in md k-block of 1942.

 

[heavy_mech]

... rest of the pictures. Ink stamp on the inside of the buttplate (brg coded, btw) survived pretty well, compared to the rest. Also did some pictures of the barrel code, maybe someone can educate me on those.

This would be bys for the blank supplied by Ruhrstahl AG, Witten. They were quite prolific and supplied several manufacturers. avk is also Ruhrstahl AG, but in Brackwede who was the finisher and the 3 x e/13 is acceptance for those finishing operations. 93 is the steel lot code for QC tracking and 41 for the year.

 

[Mike2994]

Pretty scarce variation Georg. It is a chore to get a matching one in any condition, very good find.

 

[Stephan98k]

Normally I would say something about the K98k, in this case I have to start differently and I'm not asking the owner, but you collectors for your opinion.

My question is about the condition. The rust is quite strong in some areas and in others (also not covered by the stock) the surface still looks very good. It's rather unusual when I look at other rifles. What do you think, how could such a partitional rust attack occur? Your guesses are extremely important to me, thank you for your help.

I also have a assumption and I will say it later so that I don't influence somebody before.

 

[skearns]

What do you think, how could such a partitional rust attack occur?

My WAG: Could it be from blood or salt water spray?

 

[tsmgguy]

My question is about the condition. The rust is quite strong in some areas and in others (also not covered by the stock) the surface still looks very good. It's rather unusual when I look at other rifles. What do you think, how could such a partitional rust attack occur? Your guesses are extremely important to me, thank you for your help.

High humidity can account for the condition of the metal work.

 

[Cyrano4747]

My guess is that it was stored long-term in a gun sock, soft cloth case, or just wrapped in an old blanket. Something porous that let water in and held it close to the metal. The wrap or whatever got wet, the water stayed against the gun, and that's the end result.

I've got a friend who's dad was more than a bit of a hoarder and kept an M1 carbine in a soft case inside an old chest freezer in his garage along with a few cases of "collectable" Pepsi. Might have been some special issue of Pepsi for an olympic games? Either way, the pepsi ate its way out of the cans over the decades, leaked everywhere, and the (stored nose-down) carbine's case wicked it right up. Everything north of the barrel band was a nasty, corroded mess, just a blob of rust. I'm pretty sure he ended up having it re-barreled as a shooter when he found it cleaning the garage out.

That was a worst case (long exposure, fabric to hold it tight against the metal and keep it wet, highly acidic liquid - pepsi has a PH in the 2's) but the general principle holds out.

On a less extreme example I can't count the number of hunting rifles I've cleaned up for people where they put it in a foam case at the end of the season, it got trapped in there with ambient humidity, and then they pulled it out next year to find a very impressive freckling of rust all over everything.

 

[a j s]

I recently was lucky enough to pick up these treasures of an old vet.The reason for the poor condition is that they lay untouched for 60 years under the Vets bed.Its like new inside.

 

[skearns]

My guess is that it was stored long-term in a gun sock, soft cloth case, or just wrapped in an old blanket. Something porous that let water in and held it close to the metal. The wrap or whatever got wet, the water stayed against the gun, and that's the end result.

Would that humidity also affect the metal under the wood?

 

[Cyrano4747]

Would that humidity also affect the metal under the wood?

Could if it seeped between the metal and the wood. It's not like there's a watertight seal there.

Of course in that situation you're also usually looking at water damage to the wood.

 

[skearns]

Yeah, I’d think humidity would corrode everything, including below the wood line. The one above doesn’t appear to have pitting (or much of it) under the wood.

 

[Dave Roberts]

What a shame to allow this to happen , I can just imagine how nice this rifle once was . If the metal was as nice as the stock this would be a killer piece .

 

[mauser99]

If I'm not mistaken. It was assembled by bcd in 1943 using leftover duv 42 receivers so it will have all the characteristics of a bcd 43

this is interesting as its an Astrawerke receiver based off the step in the receiver an not a true BLM receiver. What makes this odd is Duv used bcd marked receivers to help wrap up their run in 42 only to see these duv42 receivers used in bcd43 standard production.

 

[Stephan98k]

Thank you all for your opinions and I'm quoting the following one, because I thought something similar.

My guess is that it was stored long-term in a gun sock, soft cloth case, or just wrapped in an old blanket. Something porous that let water in and held it close to the metal. The wrap or whatever got wet, the water stayed against the gun, and that's the end result.

Now I will tell you a story in short from 1943 that has been independently confirmed by several people involved:

"A pit was dug in the coal cellar of a house and lined with bricks. A total of 24 K98k (factory new) were wrapped 6 pieces each in sacks and blankets. The weapons were placed in the pit, wooden planks were placed over them for camouflage and a pile of coal was placed on top. Some months later there was a burst water pipe that flooded the weapons in the pit. When they find out, the K98k were removed from this hiding place and rehidden at another nearby location. Before they were hidden again, Hans P. dried them, removed the rust and preserved them. They were then walled up in a dry room and taken out of this hiding place after around a year."

In my opinion, this story could fit well with the state of the K98k, or what do you think?

 

[Stephan98k]

this is interesting as its an Astrawerke receiver based off the step in the receiver an not a true BLM receiver. What makes this odd is Duv used bcd marked receivers to help wrap up their run in 42 only to see these duv42 receivers used in bcd43 standard production.

Very well observed with the Astrawerke receiver and that is very important in this case. I agree with you and it's very odd, what is your explanation for this strange circumstance?

 

[Cyrano4747]

Thank you all for your opinions and I'm quoting the following one, because I thought something similar.



Now I will tell you a story in short from 1943 that has been independently confirmed by several people involved:

"A pit was dug in the coal cellar of a house and lined with bricks. A total of 24 K98k (factory new) were wrapped 6 pieces each in sacks and blankets. The weapons were placed in the pit, wooden planks were placed over them for camouflage and a pile of coal was placed on top. Some months later there was a burst water pipe that flooded the weapons in the pit. When they find out, the K98k were removed from this hiding place and rehidden at another nearby location. Before they were hidden again, Hans P. dried them, removed the rust and preserved them. They were then walled up in a dry room and taken out of this hiding place after around a year."

In my opinion, this story could fit well with the state of the K98k, or what do you think?

Maybe? Poor storage is poor storage at the end of the day, whether it was wrapped up in blankets for someone's end of the war resistance cell or just tossed in a horse blanket for a few decades by a dead vet's wife.

It's one of those thing where unless you have solid evidence tying the damage to a specific event you can get into lots of fun conjecture, but you'll never really know.

See also: "blood pitting." Man oh man have I ever seen a ton of pistols sold with corrosion/pitting on one side that the seller insisted was because of all the blood it got on it before a GI pulled it off that dead officer. Or, you know, it could have just been stored under a bed in a leather holster for decades, like that one up-thread. Which, as an aside, Nazis were horrible and sucked but they didn't have acid for blood like the bugs in Aliens. Blood will sure as hell cause rusting but I suspect there are tons of nice condition pistols and rifles in our collections that had a bit of it on there at one point or another and the guy who picked it up just rinsed it off with a wet rag, as one would do with a thing with another person's blood on it.

In short, buy the gun, not the story.

 

[heavy_mech]

Very well observed with the Astrawerke receiver and that is very important in this case. I agree with you and it's very odd, what is your explanation for this strange circumstance?

First thought I had was they were sending Astra supplied bcd marked receivers to be built out and then started sending them directly to BLM without the bcd rollmark and they ended up with a quantity they couldn't complete. Later they were sent to Gustloff to be built out. It would seem to fit the circumstances.