bnz45 Volkssturm rifle - Stock original?

[Absolut]

In a recent silent auction to my surprise I've won a Steyr Volkssturm rifle for a very good price. It was correctly advertised as having been reworked. It clearly is original ("heavy" contour barrel, correctly made up front sight, no model designation on receiver, etc.), but also clearly heavily refinished.

On two things I was not sure on it. First and mainly I am not sure on the stock. Since the whole rifle is refinished, I am not sure if the stock also was refinished - or if a reproduction stock was added. Please let me know what you think on it. Also note that it must had carried a sling, note the two drilled holes in the stock where a kind of emergency sling must had been affixed to it.

Second, the bolt. It is matching numbers to the rifle and does not look ground at all. But of course refinished, as is the rifle. The font used on the bolt looks identical and authentic so generally spoken I would not doubt it. I'm however asking for additional opinions on this, based on the fact that the bolt assembly does not look to be of the late Steyr type, but is "just" an unserialized assembly.

Finally, I'm open to suggestions on what to do with it. Should I strip off the new blueing and leave it blank/without blueing so that it only looks to have been heavily cleaned? Or should I leave it as it is now because it can't get better/worse anyway? The barrel is surprisingly nice inside.

 

[Absolut]

Second set of pictures since I can only attach 10 pictures per post.

To have it mentioned, follower is marked lxr and stamped, therefore sounds correct for a late rifle.

 

[mrfarb]

I believe the bolt and stock are probably original pieces, but everything is heavily refinished as you said. The bolt has the notch to aid disassembly which is not something people remember to fake, but the gas shield shouldn’t have the plunger. I’d say strip all of it and parkerize or otherwise replicate phosphate on it, it will look better.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[flynaked]

I agree I think it’s real, notice how the stock has discoloration around all the metal hardware, it takes years of corrosion on the metal to darken the wood like that. Plus how the proud portions of the hardware (cross bolt and pin by the trigger) are sanded across their tops, I don’t know why anyone would do that if it was a new repro stock. It looks to have a wood filler repair around the front sling bar too.

 

[Aaron]

Personally if it was mine I would leave it, some of these were blued and I haven't really seen a convincing phosphate done by anyone although I'm sure there are some out there. Even if there is it doesn't mean there is anyone near your location capable of doing as good a job. This is one of the only "restorations" that I have seen that didn't attempt to flat out alter the rifle instead of refinishing it, and frankly it was a good job even if its a good job at ruining the original finish.

 

[flynaked]

I’m sure he can find someone in Austria capable of doing a nice job, they were made there after all the bluing doesn’t look anywhere close to an original blued 1945 Steyr anyway. Any original collector value is lost so I don’t see any harm in making it look correct for a nice representative piece.

 

[Absolut]

Just looked up Kriegsmodell on page 223 .. read that Volkssturm rifles have a V marked bolt on bottom of bolt handle, plus them appearing occasionally in the normal K98k production. This one has a V marked bolt. So it should really be original to it.

How do I best remove the blueing? At the price I paid I anyway can't do much wrong and will give it a try with phosphating it, if I can strip off the new blueing.

 

[ditch68]

White vinegar has had good results for me.

Jeff

 

[flynaked]

Definitely a lot of those bolts show up later also receivers after they canned the VK project. I’ve had S and a couple T blocks with V parts, neat to see for sure.

You can remove it with a vinegar and water mix, 3 parts water to 1 of vinegar works faster than straight vinegar. But it will still leave a slightly discolored surface, not really suitable for a Phosphate finish. So I would follow up with or just simply use Phosphoric acid from the start.

 

[Absolut]

Thanks, I've been recommended your recipe with the addition of Aluminum flakes, so I guess I got to do this mixture. But better not take the expensive Vinegar my girlfriend bought and rather get a cheap one. Do I need to boil it in there or just soak it? And how long should it stay in there, I mean is this something just taking a few minutes or should it stay in there a whole day? And I guess I'll need to plug the barrel? Should the parts be hanging in there or can I simply throw them into one bucket?

 

[flynaked]

Aluminum interesting! My knowledge of chemistry is elementary at best so I usually run these things by my wife haha. I’ve heard of and used salt in addition to this mixture but haven’t noticed an apparent difference. Yeah I would grab a cheap cleaning grade vinegar, and no need to worry about the bore with a vinegar solution. I usually let them sit on the bottom of a plastic tub and haven’t noticed any I’ll effect, except that I recommend flipping the part every once in a while. Perhaps 30min to an hour should definitely do it (I do not know how potentially potent the solution might become with the addition of aluminum to the reaction so just a word of caution there) also this is definitely something to monitor as I tried it once on a junk part under the hot sun and left for a few hours and it DID pit that part to a minor degree. Also if the mods would prefer this kind of info to be related through PM on a collector forum I certainly understand.

 

[Absolut]

It was the mod himself who recommended stripping of the current blueing, so I don't think there should be much trouble discussing on how to "restore" (another word for "to make it less worse than it is now") this rifle. Anyway, thanks for the information that it should be done within an hour. Will get myself a flower basket to get the whole barreled action in there. Do I need to degrease or prepare the parts in any way prior to letting them take the bath?

 

[flynaked]

Good point indeed. Yes you should thoroughly clean and degrease them, if you have the ability to boil the entire BR that would be best, oils will be very hard to clean out of certain spots without boiling it, mostly at the receiver to barrel union. This type of deep clean will be necessary before an attempt at
Phosphate as well, it will be even more critical then. I like to boil parts and then submerge them in solvent, careful not to use one that will leave a residue on the metal. Good luck with the project!

 

[Caesar1]

I don't know where you live but you could also get the barreled action parkerized. Not quite phosphate fut better than blue.

 

[Absolut]

I have located the company which does the phosphate finish for Steyr Mannlicher on the AUG rifles, they would also do my parts if I want them to be phosphated. Once the blueing is stripped, I'll go with them for a refinish. Quite some companies around doing this, to my surprise. According to my research I could also have it DLC coated .