Great, thanks for the info.
Did the Norwegians strip these down, since a lot of Norwegian take offs I see seem to be very blonde, and then covered in their orange shellac or whatever the composition of their finish is.
But they don't seem sanded, or at least not very much, as the stock stamps are usually pretty good.
I did strip the varnish off, and rubbed in a little Howards, but that's it.
The rifle looks so much better now than with the old small disc Sauer, post war Yugo used stock that was on it, which was very dark, and had some repairs in the butt area...certainly one of the nicest looking rifles in the collection now...and like I said, this is actually the first KM marked stock I have owned, believe it or not! I have a nice et of KM marked belt, buckle, pouches and bayonet that go perfect with it...
You are very welcome!
They strip down this 243 1940 serial number 8943b, because it served as a Karabin M/98k F1 in the Norwegian Army. The Norwegians had these type of rifles in post war service:
- Karabin M/98k ..................(K98k in original configuration)
- Karabin M/98k F1 ..............(K98k modified and the F1 (Forandring 1) means "Modification 1")
- Karabin M/98k F1 Z.F. 41 ...(K98k with Zf.41 modified and the F1 (Forandring 1) means "Modification 1")
- Karabin G33/40 .................(G.33/40 in original configuration)
Karabin M/98k F1:
The Norwegians decided that the majority of the carbine K98k get converted to .30-06 Springfield (7.62x63mm) and the Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk got the assignment to do this job. Probably between 1954-1958 about 130,000 rifles got converted, the majority of the weapons was K98k, but there was also some G.29/40 and VZ.24 and all got the designation "Karabin M/98k F1".
The Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk rebarreled the rifles with Kongsberg cold-hammered barrels in .30-06 Springfield and on the left side of the barrel they put the marking "KAL 7.62 ".
Because the .30-06 is longer than the original German 7.92x57mm, the front of the German produced magazine got modified therewith the .30-06 fit inside. To accommodate the extended triggerguard, the Norwegians milled out some wood of the stock. In addition they milled out a oval on the receiver ring to allow feeding of the .30-06 stripper clips.
The left side of the receiver ring got usually ground on top of the German serial number to put there the Norwegian military branch marking and the Norwegian serial number. Usually all Karabin M/98k F1 have the ground on the receiver ring, just a few M/98k F1 examples from the Coastal Artillery with the marking "K.ART" stayed in original condition without the ground. The Karabin M/98k F1 from the Army (HÆR marking) and Air Force (FLY marking) are all ground.
After converting they got the circle "A" acceptance from the inspection officer Hardy Algren. This circle "A" acceptance has nothing to do with the Berlin-Lübecker Maschinenfabrik “Circle A” variation mentioned in the new book VOLUME II-b.
You could put your ar 41 serial number "1757g" without problems in the modified stock of the 243 1940. But as example usually you can't put the modified triggerguard with the longer magazine of the 243 1940 into your old Sauer & Sohn stock.
Like CanadianAR said, there are a lot Kriegsmarine ar 41 in the "g" block and the first example is serial number "2213g", the chances are high your ar 41 is a real Kriegsmarine rifle.
Because it suits to the topic Kriegsmarine, Mauser Berlin and Norwegians, I have two unmodified Norwegian Karabin M/98k rifles which served in the Norwegian Navy. They have the marking "K.N.M." which means "Kongelige Norske Marine". A lot of the Karabin M/98k have the ground on the receiver ring for the Norwegian military branch marking and serial number, I had luck with my K98ks and they don't have the ground. Here are some photos of my Kriegsmarine ar 41 serial number "5939c" which served post war again in the Navy.
