Thank you for the timely response! I was very worried about the safety of my rifle. Are there any other factory codes that are built this way? also what exactly is the rifle in that picture? It does not have the same sights as my rifle. lastly do you know what the dot over 13 in the shield represents? as well as the CA1? sorry to bombard you with questions but I am very curious.Yes.
Attached is a image I took from the picture reference here, note that these swp45 sheet metal rifles have a two piece arrangement for the sight base. One piece that is the actual rear sight fits all the way reward where the regular style sight base would have the alignment screw. The second piece of the sheet metal sight is actually just a handguard retainer. This is the piece I drew a arrow pointing at. Your rifle has this same piece with the lip for the handguard ground off, or they just made a seperate sheet metal collar that slips over the step in the barrel. Either way your rifle is perfectly safe as far as this goes. If you don't believe me, feel free to heat it up with a torch and watch both pieces of sheet metal slide down the barrel.
Glad you brought this conversation up, invariably someone else will come across this phenomenon and hopefully they run across this post! By the way, Neat rifle.
New to me K98k crack in barrel (resolved but still good reference if you have an swp45)
- Thread starter abroxyz98
- Start date
Most likely no. In 1945 the factory that produced the swp code (dot) rifles transitioned into a simpler designed rear sight to help save time and material. They were the only factory to do this to my knowledge. But considering the dou factory was a sister factory to swp it may be possible to find postwar dou rifles with these dot barrels. The dot/13 shield mark just shows that the barrel was finished by the dot factory. The CA1 is part of the barrel blank lot code.
The reason your rifle uses a normal rear sight base, is that once the war ended the Czechs realized that they would be best off continuing k98k production for themselves aswell as to sell to other countries. Considering the standard rear sight base is a better design, and way more were made. They went back to that. The war was over and there was no longer a need to speed up production.
Emilbusch
Member
Hello, this looks like a barrel change having retained a piece of the original barrel to keep the markings.The new tube is then sleeved into the old one.A friend had this operation done to retain the markings of the original barrel but while replacing the original tube which was worn/defective. It looked exactly the same as what is shown here.
The original barrel is cut (after the markings and under a non-visible area like the rise tunnel) Then it is completely hollowed out and a thread is created. The new barrel is reduced to the remaining length of the original barrel Then the same thread is created. The games are then screwed together and welded.The new barrel with the chamber is then in place under the old barrel which reveals the original markings. Translated from French, I hope this is understandable
The original barrel is cut (after the markings and under a non-visible area like the rise tunnel) Then it is completely hollowed out and a thread is created. The new barrel is reduced to the remaining length of the original barrel Then the same thread is created. The games are then screwed together and welded.The new barrel with the chamber is then in place under the old barrel which reveals the original markings. Translated from French, I hope this is understandable
Though you are certainly right that this kind of things can and has been done. This rifle is not an example of this. This rifle was bought out of ethiopia where it has been the majority of its life. Nobody then or now, cares that much about postwar czech stamps to go through all that effort. I've explained above what it actually is.
It must be incredibly complicated and difficult to perform such a splice with two threaded ends, male and female, and index the joint tightly all the while ensuring that the lands and grooves of the two bore sections line up perfectly!
biggymu
Well-known member
This is an interesting way to save an all matching rifle.
Cyrano4747
Well-known member
Eh, "save" is doing a lot of lifting there. If it was an intact, all matching rifle with a sewer bore? I'd rather have the matching gun with the messed up bore. You might be retaining the markings by doing this, but it's still a new barrel.
Most of the places where I can think of this being really useful - say rescuing the marked end of a barrel on a gun that had the barrel shortened or reprofiled - would also have more extensive sporter work done to it and not be all matching anyways.
It's an interesting technique but I really struggle to think of a time when you would have an intact gun yet want to replace the barrel. If you want a shooter, just buy a shooter. Plenty of RCs and bolt m/m's with good bores out there in the world that can be had at a reasonable price, likely cheaper than that kind of involved and specialized gun smithing.
Now, where I COULD see something like this being useful would be rescuing a registered but deactivated machine gun. I know someone who re-wat'ed an StG44 that had a pretty thoroughly buggered barrel. Iirc I think the smith used an MG34 barrel as the base for the replacement. So if you had an old war trophy that had markings you wanted to retain on the barrel near the receiver but the chamber had been drilled, pinned and welded or something similar? Yeah, that could work. But really that's only because you can't just get a cheaply imported RC StG44 to use as your blaster while you leave grandpa's bring back alone, even if it was deactivated half a century ago.
edit: speaking only for the US, YMMV if you live someplace that restricts the number of firearms you can own on a license. The calculus changes a lot if you're only allowed to own so many, and you want them all to be shooters.
Hello all OP here, just a little update on my rifle, I’ve put over a hundred rounds through it, most made to S. Patrone standard without any issues. I am confident the rifle is safe. The bore is in excellent condition and it shoots decent group despite the fact that I am not a great shot. It has a badace ndt scope mount on it so no permanent modifications. I got a reproduction sling and front sight hood for it and refinished the stock with a few layers of boiled linseed oil.
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Winchester Cowboy
Senior Member
An interesting read!
I am pretty sure that that barrel was originally intended to be fitted with the sheet metal rear sight.
As such the original mounting area for the standard rear sight base was milled back about 3/4" or so
so the handguard retaining clip could be slid over the barrel, facing up to the milled edge.
That "crack" is a seam where the adapter tube faces against the shorted sight bed.
This adapter tube allowed the factory to adapt SMRS barrels to the standard sight base.
Makes alot of sense from a materials utilization standpoint with numbers of SMRS barrels in stock after the war.
This image shows the position of the handguard clip on an SMRS gun.
As such the original mounting area for the standard rear sight base was milled back about 3/4" or so
so the handguard retaining clip could be slid over the barrel, facing up to the milled edge.
That "crack" is a seam where the adapter tube faces against the shorted sight bed.
This adapter tube allowed the factory to adapt SMRS barrels to the standard sight base.
Makes alot of sense from a materials utilization standpoint with numbers of SMRS barrels in stock after the war.
This image shows the position of the handguard clip on an SMRS gun.
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