Weird crap you find in old guns

I'm about 75% of the way through tearing down and detail cleaning a fairly crusty Belgian m1889. Actual '89 configuration, not the 30s rework, barrel shroud and all that.

I assume from the general condition that it did some time in a colony, stuff like vice marks and damage that is consistent with a bad armorer. It could be collector damage, but the gouges and scratches have a heavy enough patina over them that I figure it's at least 75 years old.

So I'm disassembling the magazine, unscrew the screw that holds it together, and as the follower is coming out a piece of metal plops into my lap. Oh crap, I'm thinking, the spring was broken on the inside or something similar. Right about as I'm pondering whether or not Argentine m91 parts will work to fix this I take a closer look at the bit that fell out:



Is that. . . a barrel band spring?



Yes. That would indeed appear to be a barrel band spring. Snapped off at the end.

I'll point out that the rifle has a fully intact barrel band spring where it should be, so I guess someone once upon a time decided to throw a bit of scrap in the magazine of this gun for reasons of their own.

Magazine functions and feeds fine without the scrap metal in there too, so this wasn't a case of someone stiffening a shot mag spring with what they had on hand to get it to feed etc.

Your discovery reminds me . . . . .
I had a Plymouth Valiant with a “slant-six”.
When I had to remove the water pump for service, I discovered a 6” long, yellow-handled screwdriver within the water jacket of the block!

I’ve got a Remington Model 8 …made in the 1930’s I think…I always strip them down because you don’t want that firing pin to be stuck in the forward position in hardened grease…
Anyway, under the butt plate there is a hole bored into the stock..not unlike a some of the military rifles that have storage holes for oilers or parts etc.
Inside the hole is a piece newspaper rolled up and inside that are some string, matches, a hook and a small sheathed knife…the newspaper is from the 1930’s…I put it all back like I found it.

I’ve found a couple of things of little significance, but the last find was a piece of silk panties holding the bayonet lug on my zf41

I found drill shavings inside the bolt stop on a bcd 43, they did interfere a bit, possibly the rifle stood next to a drill press somewhere? It didn’t seem they were from original fabrication……..

I found a brown recluse in the butttrap of one of my g43s. Pretty shocking and still not sure how it got in there.

A .380 projectile inside of an Argentine Mauser magazine….

chrisftk said:

I found a brown recluse in the butttrap of one of my g43s. Pretty shocking and still not sure how it got in there.

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That's interesting, it was dead right?

Jdt said:

That's interesting, it was dead right?

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Nope, alive.

Bruh......NOPE!! That is a nope for me cause I seen what a fiddle back bite did to my uncle and it was scary. Thankfully he had enough fat on him to keep the toxin from getting to his stomach lining etc and causing complications.

So far, I've only found dried grease when I take actions out of stocks. Weirdest thing I saw though was an AR lower mated with an M16A1 upper that someone managed to install the hammer spring backwards in on the lower.

chrisftk said:

Nope, alive.

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Jesus, that had to be terrifying.

flynaked said:

I’ve found a couple of things of little significance, but the last find was a piece of silk panties holding the bayonet lug on my zf41
View attachment 412647View attachment 412648

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Years and years back I found a scrap of mystery fabric in the buttstock of a Garand. It was one of the Blue Sky imports from S. Korea. I always figured it was someone's cleaning rag.

Cyrano4747 said:

Years and years back I found a scrap of mystery fabric in the buttstock of a Garand. It was one of the Blue Sky imports from S. Korea. I always figured it was someone's cleaning rag.

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can you tell if its synthetic or cotton? at 1st glance, I thought synthetic, like a remoil wipe, & those holes are melt spots that hold the fibers together, but I can see it’s actually knit fabric with a pattern of holes. thinking woman’s blouse or maybe a curtain?

Muncher 1953 said:

can you tell if its synthetic or cotton? at 1st glance, I thought synthetic, like a remoil wipe, & those holes are melt spots that hold the fibers together, but I can see it’s actually knit fabric with a pattern of holes. thinking woman’s blouse or maybe a curtain?

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Don't have it any more. I sold that rifle sometime around 2008-2009 or so and I sent the rag along with it.

That said, I do remember that it was absolutely some kind of natural fiber. I was curious enough to snip a little piece and burn it and it burned like cotton. Maybe linen, I don't know fabrics that well. But it burned without any melting, so not a synthetic. It was fairly thin, my assumption at the time was either clothing or maybe a table cloth.

I'll have to see if I can find the picture. I got a batch of bolts in, and inside the bolt was a dead bug. Apparently it had hatched in the bolt, but became to large to crawl out?

In regards to finding metal shavings, I have FREQUENTLY found metal shavings in parts. More times than I can count. I would almost call them common.

In regards to the pipe wrench marks, etc, I genuinely think there was someone in europe, gunsmiths, depot, someone somewhere, that was what we would call a bubba. I have handled FAR too many rifles with even faint remnants of pipe wrench marks. Guns that were clearly not touched in the US.

I have one g98m, that it looks like it has faint pipe wrench marks on the Weimar marked barrel, and the recoil lug looks peened like it was beaten with a hammer. Seen many this way. Interesting part is it was finished, blued, after the hammering. I'd bet a significant amount the finish is original to when it was rebuilt as a G98m.

in my instance, I’d only had the rifle a short time, but noticed the lever didn’t ‘feel right’, & so withdrew the screw & found the drillings. Color-wise they might have been 1943, maybe too easy to assume that. if I noticed it, I’d guess the soldat it was issued to would have also & investigated.
OT: I found a mouse-sized wad of very blue (as in got hot) turnings inside the swingarm of a 1970 BMW R75/5 motorcycle I was rebuilding into a race bike. the lathe operator who cut the seat for the bearing left the turnings in the cavity, & the assembler put the grease shield over them & pressed in the bearing. They still smelled like sulfur from Feb ‘70 til ‘03.
my 1st Mauser is a sportered 1909, the cartridge box was “drilled out for lightness” about a hundred 1/8” holes through the 2 sides. the stock was cut down milsurp for a model 98, but had later had a rem model 700 action bedded into it, as I’d had one of those & the proof marks could be seen in the bedding. the rifle is my rainy weather deer rifle, in a Chilean M1912 short rifle stock that fits it perfectly. I have photos of the t gard, try to post them later.

I have a Finnish M39 that had a bunch of old dry, short pine needles under the hand guard when I took it apart.

merrick

A small sand dune sits in my back porch area where I have cleaned up some RTI jewels. I can travel to Ethiopia and never leave the farm.

merrick4 said:

I have a Finnish M39 that had a bunch of old dry, short pine needles under the hand guard when I took it apart.

merrick

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I did as well.