A friend has just shown me a Danzig 1916 dated G98 which was retrieved in Marigny (Normandy) after the Germans left in 1944. The person who picked it up said it was left by a Naval unit sent from Cherbourg. The straight bolt is mis-matched, but has a small eagle stamped on the ball and a serial along the upper arm. The really strange marking is a circle containing a six-point star, like a Star of David, with a capital B in the centre. This is stamped into the stock below the unit marking disc. The disc is no longer there, but a screw with 2 holes for a removal tool remains. The finder swears that it is just as he collected it, but he is a very old man and memory can be hazy at that age. The rifle has a sling mounted from the very narrow middle band to a swinging arm under the wrist of the stock. Oddly there is no bayonet bar, again the finder claims there never was. Unfortunately I do not have any scans available, but wonder if anyone knows the significance of the star mark?
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A quick 'phone call got me some scans, if it helps. First the butt stamp and muzzle. -
The sling mount and breach area.Comment
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Bolt and front sling mount.Comment
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The stock is off of a Brazilian contract Mauser (I think that they are called 1908 models) and the bolt is probably from a CZ 24. I would be very skeptical of the stock being on that receiver since WWII or earlier, but I could not say absolutely impossible.
I should add that IMO the metal condition is not constant with the wood condition. I realize that storage conditions can cause steel to rust badly and leave the wood mint...but in this case these two components don't seem to have been with each other for 70+ some odd years.Comment
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Thank you Phil,I did have my doubts, as I said, memory can play tricks, and a story told for 50 years can alter dramatically.Comment
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