Third Party Press

G41 (W) - DUV43 - Restoration

Finally posting pictures of the recuperator received from Denmark.
 

Attachments

  • DSCN1089-edit.jpg
    DSCN1089-edit.jpg
    223.3 KB · Views: 47
  • DSCN1090-edit.jpg
    DSCN1090-edit.jpg
    262.6 KB · Views: 58
  • DSCN1091-edit.jpg
    DSCN1091-edit.jpg
    137.5 KB · Views: 37
  • DSCN1092-edit.jpg
    DSCN1092-edit.jpg
    133.1 KB · Views: 34
Front Sight Hood - repo, not spring steel..may or may not continue to look for original (purchased from Armes Accessoires Surplus / AAS Sniper 98 in France)

Front Barrel Band - unsure if original or not, Im assuming a repo (purchased from Armes Accessoires Surplus / AAS Sniper 98 in France)

Rear Barrel Band - same as above, unsure of originality (purchased from Armes Accessoires Surplus / AAS Sniper 98 in France)

Band Spring - same (purchased from Armes Accessoires Surplus / AAS Sniper 98 in France)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AAS is well known here (in France) for selling "repros" sometimes heralded as genuine parts... and sometimes not.

And as he also sells genuine parts, it's hard to know where is the truth.
 
Alright, I finally received the stock from Mr. Foks, pictures coming in next post. I still need a butt plate, recoil lug and a sight hood (the repo absolutely sucked).

I am happy with the stock as I had no way of getting an original. With that said, I am a bit disappointed. There were some fitment issues.

1) I was unable to screw all three screws from the trigger guard into the receiver, only the middle screw would fit and it's at an angle.

2) I could not assemble with the recuperator in. The receiver and barrel would not sit down correctly.. So, rifle was assembled without recuperator.

3) the rear barrel band does not sit correctly as the handguard does not fit flush with the bottom of the stock.

4) the front barrel band would not slide on, I had to lightly tap with a hammer to push it in to place. It fits now, but will be difficult to remove.

5) the operating rod is pressed too tightly by the handguard and will not move freely.
 
Your stock is a repro, you barrel bands are repros, your bayonet lug is a repro. Together they won't fit; hard to blame the stock for it. If you re-read my thread

http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?11266-Project-41-Resurrecting-the-Mighty-Walther

you will see how much effort I had to put in just to make the metal parts fit. In order to fit the upper barrel band, you need an original hand guard and an original upper barrel band. Then you make the bayonet lug and stock fit these parts. You may have to sflatten the rounded bottom of the repro bayonet lug a bit. With the upper parts fitted, you turn your attention to the lower barrel band. It needs to be formed to snug fit stock and hand guard and if it's too tight, you may have to carefully remove material from the fore end. But since you stated the screws and recuperator spring box don't fit, I wouldn't worry about barrel bands or hand guards until the action rests firmly in the stock. Good luck.
 
Thanks, getting the action to sit correctly will be difficult. I am not, by any means, skilled with woodwork and I'll have to take material off the stock. When the receiver sits into the stock, it is off by a quarter inch or so from the screw holes. It needs to move further to the rear.
 
And, you are correct, I am off base by blaming all of the fitment on the stock. I guess, I just assumed that, at the least, the receiver would fit with no issues.
 
So, what we need to do is find out why the action won't fit. You should temporarily remove magazine follower and spring so they don't get in the way of checking for fit. First you want to drop the action into the stock without trigger guard or recuperator spring box, insert the screws and check if they are centered in the holes drilled into the stock. If not, find out what keeps the action from being moved to where it fits.

I would lower the action into the stock such that in the beginning it's all way to the rear where it should be and then watch at what point it won't drop deeper or starts sliding forward.

You could coat the surface of the underside of the action with blue marker pen used for whiteboards to determine where it hits the wood or binds up. It will leave a blue mark on the wood. That where you need to remove wood with a file or a Dremel tool. Same for interference between actuator rod and hand guard. But don't do anything to the hand guard until the action rests well inside the stock. You may want to temporarily stick a K98 recoil lug into the stock while fitting the action.
 
Last edited:
After some work with a file in the trigger guard area, I was able to seat the action properly and screw in everything correctly. The action not seating correctly was the root of a lot of problems.

The recuperator now fits and there are no issues in that department. I had to file off some of the lug on the rear of the handguard in order to get it to fit (and, of course, I caused a hair line crack by putting to much pressure).

The bands actually fit fairly well. Rear band is perfect, the front band and the band spring don't match up exactly, but it's nothing to make me stress about it.

I have two issues now that I may just have to live with. First, the hand guard is simply out of spec. It's not tall enough to sit over the barrel and not squeeze down the operating rod. I'm sure some of that pressure contributed to the hair like crack as well.

Second, either the stock's bayonet lug channel is too short or the apfetlor bayonet lug is too long (by approximately 3/8"). I'm afraid to file anything away here and it looks as if it will damage structural integrity. I would have to remove some of the lug and I have no experience with that sort of thing. Perhaps a project for a late date. In addition to the lug length, the handguard plays a factor too. Even if the lug/lug channel was correct length, it pushes the barrel up ever so slightly, and without any wiggle room in the handguard, it wouldn't work anyway.

For now, I'm content, as long as the handguard's crack does not worsen.
 
Well, that's great news. You're on the final stretch, approaching the finish line. Don't worry about the hand guard, you can
fix the crack with epoxy or send it over to me and I will glue it with the same reddish stuff they used for the stock (Resorcinol).

The barrel should not rest on the bayonet lug, there's something fishy, it should float. The sheet metal "wings" of the bayonet lug should be slightly over 1-3/8" long. The cut-out in the stock should have the same length. As a quick check, the sheet metal part of the bayonet lug should be between 1/6" - 1/32" away from the big collar around the barrel. I locked my repro bayonet lug between two 3/8" square steel bars (hardware store) in a vise, took a deep socket with outer diameter slightly larger than the rifle barrel and carefully tapped it down between the wings to make more room for the barrel. Of course this would make the wings spread apart, so while pressing down on the socket I would tap the wings from the side to bring them back together. After that I tried fitting the lug, needed to bring the wings together a bit more with some tapping and forming and the second time around it slid right in.

With the action in the stock, remove bolt assembly and muzzle cone and put blue marker on top of the op rod. Install upper hand guard. Push the gas piston using a chop stick to make the op rod move full length. Push it back with your fingers from the bolt side. Do this a couple time, then remove the hand guard. See where there's blue marker on the inside of the hand guard. Get a Dremel tool with a 1/2" sanding drum and carefully sand down the marked areas. Repeat process until the op rod moves freely.
 
Last edited:
First off, after re-reading your restoration thread...wow. You have an amazing talent.

I will start working with the handguard soon to make room for the rod. I appreciate the help.

As far as the bayonet lug is concerned, ill post a picture to illustrate my point. I havent taken a picture of mine yet, so Ill post one from google.
 

Attachments

  • g41_bayolug_edit.jpg
    g41_bayolug_edit.jpg
    81.9 KB · Views: 28
When completely seated in the stock, the circled portion of the wings are what jut out of the end. I will work on re-shaping the wings to fit the barrel properly, but the portion that sticks out of the end effects everything as it wont allow the barrel to seat properly (it causes the lug on the barrel to sit on the bayonet lug).

I am thinking that I will have to remove the whole front portion of the wing/wing body to enable to lug to fit.

If more pictures are needed to illustrate my point, I will take some tonight.
 
Here's a picture of my actual bayonet lug, next to my stock, for reference.

Also, I'm embarrassed I didn't notice this before, the recuperator does slightly push up on the barrel, which exacerbates the handguard issue. Looks like I'll need to remove some material from the slot it sits in. uploadfromtaptalk1427332601889.jpguploadfromtaptalk1427332660651.jpg
 
Here are a couple pictures to show you how far the stock has to be cut out for the bayonet lug. When the upper barrel band hits the barrel band spring (2nd picture), the lug should be barely visible along the lower edge of the barrel band.

DSC00311.JPG DSC00312.JPG

Before removing material from the recuperator well, make sure the barrel is centered between stock and hand guard and doesn't ride on the bayonet lug.
 
A couple pictures I lifted from an expired eBay auction. It shows a fake bayonet lug in an original stock. Bayonet lug was marked "Wa135" for Mauser Oberndorf. Whoever paid $400 for this $145 repro bayonet lug from France needs to buy Hitler's Garand by Darrin Weaver and get up to speed.

bayo1.JPG bayo2.JPG bayo3.JPG bayo4.JPG
 
Your setup is i teresting to me, I have a duv 43 as well, but mine is a pre-letter block and has a G43's bolt and bolt carrier as well as the dual sight rail
 
I'll have to post pictures soon. I removed some metal from wings of the lug, allowing it to fit properly. Everything is now good, minus the movement of the actuator rod. I'm afraid if I remove too much more material from the handguard, it will become brittle.
 
The rifle is fully assembled, minus a respectable sight hood and cleaning rod. The repo hood is on there, but it wiggles around too much for my liking. Ill need to do some additional work for a cleaning rod (brass tubing, similar to what hambone uses in his 98k duffle cut repair thread).

DSCN1095-edit.jpgDSCN1096-edit.jpg
First thing first, I used a dremel to remove part of the front of the wings on the bayonet lug in order for the lug to fit flush in the stock. Fits great now.

DSCN1097-edit.jpgDSCN1099-edit.jpgDSCN1100-edit.jpg

Ordered a recoil lug from Numrich and received what looks to be a post war one (looks like a sun burst on it). Had to do some sanding to ensure it fit.

Also got the buttstock and screws from Numrich. One of the screws has a sunburst as well.
DSCN1104-edit.jpg

Finally, miscellaneous pictures of the rifle with repo sling.

DSCN1101-edit.jpgDSCN1102-edit.jpgDSCN1103-edit.jpgDSCN1105-edit.jpgDSCN1106-edit.jpgDSCN1107-edit.jpgDSCN1108-edit.jpg
 

Military Rifle Journal
Back
Top