Third Party Press

K98k duv42 WaA749

heavy_mech said:
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.
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its very well possible this is the case and the only thing that makes sense. By the time the duv42 receivers arrived or were finished after production was halted.
 
skearns said:
My WAG: Could it be from blood or salt water spray?
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As per Stephan's request I have waited with my personal opinion and showing samples. I do NOT think this is due to blood, because there are no stains on the stock. While blood CAN do these heavy pittings, if close to wood then it usually leaves dark stains. For comparison, I posted a rifle with blood stains (with still dried blood hidden under the handguard) here: https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/bnz-43-single-rune.39160/

I'd want to point out once more that the rust pittings are super deep where they are, versus other areas still carry the original blueing and are as one would expect a honest piece from this period. This in my point of view speaks towards a short period of rusting in which period though the corrosion went on quickly, only to be cleaned shortly afterwards. Otherwise there would be more corrosion, also on other parts, and at least a little bit.
 
Cyrano4747 said:
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.
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I agree with you and would give the same advice to anyone, buy the gun and not the story.

This case is slightly different. I have been researching Gustloff-Werke very intensively since 2016 and in the last few years I have been able to find many documents and answers. I already knew this story and much more background information and then I saw this K98k shown here in the forum. Due to the special condition and other reasons, I thought of this story and therefore asked for your opinions. Here is the story again in short:

"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."

Maybe Absolut can find some background informations about that rifle. He describes very well in his second paragraph why I thought of this story.

Absolut said:
As per Stephan's request I have waited with my personal opinion and showing samples. I do NOT think this is due to blood, because there are no stains on the stock. While blood CAN do these heavy pittings, if close to wood then it usually leaves dark stains. For comparison, I posted a rifle with blood stains (with still dried blood hidden under the handguard) here: https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/bnz-43-single-rune.39160/

I'd want to point out once more that the rust pittings are super deep where they are, versus other areas still carry the original blueing and are as one would expect a honest piece from this period. This in my point of view speaks towards a short period of rusting in which period though the corrosion went on quickly, only to be cleaned shortly afterwards. Otherwise there would be more corrosion, also on other parts, and at least a little bit.
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Even though we don't know if it's one of the K98k, here are the things I know:

- The hiding place with the 24 K98k's was only 280 yards away from the place where this K98k was assembled.
- Several of the people involved (we have all the names) in the theft were employed where this K98k was assembled.
- This K98k was assembled in the same time frame, that these 24 K98ks were stolen.

This K98k shown here was not assembled in the Fritz-Sauckel-Werk of the Gustloff-Werke in Weimar - it was assembled by concentration camp prisoners inside Buchenwald concentration camp in Spring 1943. The bcd43 assembly took place during the same period, but it was a separate assembly line. It is a very complex topic.
 
It's a wonderful theory but unless you have something to connect the guns that were relocated to this one, there's not much to hang anything on. You really have to have an unbroken chain of custody.

Do we have any evidence of where it was picked up, how it came to be where it is today, etc?
 
Hello,

Been a hot minute all, the rifle posted by Absolut was produced by BCD in 1942, BCD also had a run of DUV42 receivers in 1943. The easiest way to tell the difference is where the letter block is placed, for 1942 production has the letter block UNDER the serial, the 1943 production has it to the right of the serial number. You are correct the 1942 production run of BCD had a very short run of about 11,000 examples from observations. 1943 run had about 25,000 rifles and at least in the 1943 run non-DUV marked rifle are found. The timing of the 2 DUV receiver runs for letter blocks makes is confusing, surprised others didn't spot this. good to see you all again.

Later
Vaughn
 
I plan on fully documenting this rifle in the near future but figured it was relevant to this thread.

'r' block BLM receiver (duv42) built in 1943. Receiver is BLM produced and not an Astrawerke product.
 

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bruce98k said:
I plan on fully documenting this rifle in the near future but figured it was relevant to this thread.

'r' block BLM receiver (duv42) built in 1943. Receiver is BLM produced and not an Astrawerke product.
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Looks beautiful. Noticed the FN barrel. I'll be watching for its own thread.
 
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