krukster86
Well-known member
As you guys are well aware, finding crested Polish Mausers typically involves a lot of luck and very deep pockets. If you have seen some of the closing bids on auctions on GunBroker and Proxibid on original Polish configuration Wz.29s, your head would spin!
I know this forum is primarily interested in original condition example rifles, but given my budget, I was fortunate to come across a sporterized Wz.29 example that had no bids on it on GunBroker very early this year.
It had a couple of issues...the bolt was bent and swept back, the stock was modified to carve out a larger cutout for the bolt handle knob (which was swept back further as previously mentioned), the fore end of the stock was sanded to be a bit more "rounded" profile, the rear sight assembly was removed, the rear barrel band was missing, the front barrel band was chopped down, the handguard was missing, the exposed metal parts were quite worn and rusty, and the most glaring issue was that the receiver siderail was drilled and tapped for a scope mount, and currently the receiver stripper clip bridge was also drilled and tapped with a Lyman peep sight installed. For most collectors, this thing wouldn't be touched with a 10 foot pole.
However, all that being said, all the parts on the rifle were matching and Polish marked, and the missing parts typically are not serialized, so there was a chance I could bring this back on a budget.
I had spares of the missing parts, or was able to find the missing parts through various milsurp part websites, eBay, and other online auctions throughout this year. I learned to silver solder to install a replacement rear sight assembly and to reinstall the front sight.
I found a gunsmith that specialized in rebluing milsurps who was able to fill in the receiver holes and reblue the metal parts to a "military service grade" finish. He also was careful with any subtle markings, so he did not perform any aggressive cleaning or blasting, so you will see nicks/scratches under the bluing, which is what I asked for. Although rebluing is often seen as sacrelige, I figured, since the receiver was already permanently messed with, I might as well make it look decent, so rebluing would only improve it.
As an aside/rant: I quickly found that most of the premier “gunsmiths” in my area only know how to assemble LEGOs (i.e. build and customize AR15s) and anytime you ask about work outside of that platform they either refuse or say they will farm the work out…
It goes to show that the more "dated" a gunsmith website looks, the better chance they work on old guns.
Currently, I have about $650 in this rifle including the initial purchase price, which is a small fraction of what a pristine/unsporterized example is worth, so I am more than happy with it. In the future, I will consider taking it to a gunsmith I found that will confidently straighten the bolt without the risk of snapping it at the stem. NOTE: I did reach out to James Robert, aka “The Boltman” a few months ago, but he has been having health issues, and is focusing primarily on Arisaka bolts these days.
I will throw up some "Before / After" photos below.
I know this forum is primarily interested in original condition example rifles, but given my budget, I was fortunate to come across a sporterized Wz.29 example that had no bids on it on GunBroker very early this year.
It had a couple of issues...the bolt was bent and swept back, the stock was modified to carve out a larger cutout for the bolt handle knob (which was swept back further as previously mentioned), the fore end of the stock was sanded to be a bit more "rounded" profile, the rear sight assembly was removed, the rear barrel band was missing, the front barrel band was chopped down, the handguard was missing, the exposed metal parts were quite worn and rusty, and the most glaring issue was that the receiver siderail was drilled and tapped for a scope mount, and currently the receiver stripper clip bridge was also drilled and tapped with a Lyman peep sight installed. For most collectors, this thing wouldn't be touched with a 10 foot pole.
However, all that being said, all the parts on the rifle were matching and Polish marked, and the missing parts typically are not serialized, so there was a chance I could bring this back on a budget.
I had spares of the missing parts, or was able to find the missing parts through various milsurp part websites, eBay, and other online auctions throughout this year. I learned to silver solder to install a replacement rear sight assembly and to reinstall the front sight.
I found a gunsmith that specialized in rebluing milsurps who was able to fill in the receiver holes and reblue the metal parts to a "military service grade" finish. He also was careful with any subtle markings, so he did not perform any aggressive cleaning or blasting, so you will see nicks/scratches under the bluing, which is what I asked for. Although rebluing is often seen as sacrelige, I figured, since the receiver was already permanently messed with, I might as well make it look decent, so rebluing would only improve it.
As an aside/rant: I quickly found that most of the premier “gunsmiths” in my area only know how to assemble LEGOs (i.e. build and customize AR15s) and anytime you ask about work outside of that platform they either refuse or say they will farm the work out…
It goes to show that the more "dated" a gunsmith website looks, the better chance they work on old guns.
Currently, I have about $650 in this rifle including the initial purchase price, which is a small fraction of what a pristine/unsporterized example is worth, so I am more than happy with it. In the future, I will consider taking it to a gunsmith I found that will confidently straighten the bolt without the risk of snapping it at the stem. NOTE: I did reach out to James Robert, aka “The Boltman” a few months ago, but he has been having health issues, and is focusing primarily on Arisaka bolts these days.
I will throw up some "Before / After" photos below.
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