Headscratcher G.29/40?

All,

An individual shared this rifle with me on Facebook for ID, and honestly I am a bit flummoxed and G29/40’s are not my area of expertise. However from the few G29/40’s I have seen, it doesn’t “check all the boxes”.

Receiver: The receiver is from a Polish Wz.29 dated 1938, but the handguard retaining lip of the receiver has been machined off. It has original Polish markings and a Polish firing proof, suggesting Polish issue. However, it does have a German reichsadler on the left side of the receiver, which is very odd, and wouldn't make sense unless it was a parts receiver captured from Radom and then put together into a K98k pattern rifle at Steyr with K98k parts. In all the cases of those rifles, designated the G29/40, the "Wz.29" on the side of the receiver is defaced and changed to "G.29/40" or similar, the crest is overstamped with a "660" code for Steyr, and I would expect to see a K98k bolt swapped in place of a Polish Wz.29 straight bolt, to be consistent with all other G29/40's. Certainly there are plenty of captured Wz.29's that were reissued to 2nd line troops with minimal changes (I have a few examples), but I don't see any of those features on this rifle, and the Germans wouldn't stamp a reichsadler on the left side of the receiver for those.

Bolt: The bolt is an original Polish Wz.29 bolt, in the white, so it is in original Polish configuration. If it was a German capture bolt that was reworked, the Germans would have blued it and serialized all the small parts.

Triggerguard and Floorplate: These appear to be Polish in origin (for a 1938 rifle, these would be blank), the serialization font looks German to me.

Barrel: I recall asking the owner for photos of barrel markings on FB but I never got additional photos. Based on a lack of Polish markings in the photos above and the front sight and rear sight arrangement, I have to assume it is a German K98k barrel.

Remainder of parts and stock components are from a K98k and appear to be matching from the photos.

Admittedly, I am not an expert of G29/40's, as they really aren't part of my collecting scope (more K98k variant territory), but from a Polish Mauser perspective (i.e. a German Capture rework perspective), it doesn't sit well with me. It may be authentic, but it doesn't align with trends of what I have seen before. I hope an expert can chime in.

Buttplate numbering is from a Norwegian rework. Interesting rifle for sure.

We know the KM received a quantity of the P35(p) and believe they also got a number of ex-Polish rifles and possibly G29/40s as well. Have also seen two German occupation built Wz29 bayonets w/KM property numbers. bnz41 mentions a Norwegian connection to the buttplate, which also plays into this, since there was a substantial KM presence in Norway right up to the end of WW2...

You should better stay away, it's a bad fake. Somebody took an Norwegian stock, the Sn 30039 is the Norwegian post war Army inventory number and numbered all the other parts to make it look like matching numbers.

Stephan98k said:

You should better stay away, it's a bad fake. Somebody took an Norwegian stock, the Sn 30039 is the Norwegian post war Army inventory number and numbered all the other parts to make it look like matching numbers.

Click to expand...

Eh, I don't know. The receiver has its original Polish SN, and the chances of someone finding a Norwegian stock that matches a wz29 seems unlikely. I could believe someone over stamped the original Norwegian number to force match the stock, as you can clearly see an older number under it.

As for the rest of the numbers I don't hate them. Could be some sort of depot rework, or it could be a fake. Can't really tell from these pics.

Just to clarify, it is not my rifle. Some other dude already bought it, and was looking for clarification as to what it was on social media (the last place I’d go to for help like this). I think he said grabbed it for only $700, so it’s not the end of the world if it’s a fake.

RyanE said:

Eh, I don't know. The receiver has its original Polish SN, and the chances of someone finding a Norwegian stock that matches a wz29 seems unlikely.

Click to expand...

Happened all the time when we had tons of surplus parts coming in. I can remember threads on boards where people posted all the numbers they had off of RC's so they could try and swap bits to get more "correct" guns (with as many scare quotes as possible, numbers seemed to be the big thing people were chasing as opposed to correct late/early features or correct factory), and I can remember sales listings for Norwegian stock + metal kits that called out the SN pretty prominently.

The other thing that would mitigate against it being a Norwegian gun would be the fact that it was never converted to .30-06. That said, I don't know if they were maybe exporting some of the guns they didn't convert back in the 50s or 60s.

To me, occam's razor would point to the stock not belonging to this rifle.

Humped turd. Someone took a barreled action of some variety and dropped it into a Norwegian stock. They then restamped the numbers over the Norwegian ones. Look closely and you’ll see.




Having cleared that up, it’s like doing an autopsy on roadkill, as pretty much everything else could be faked as well. A waste of time to dig further. Hopefully the owner doesn’t have much money in it.