Volkskarabiner VK1 - The "Last Ditch" Weapon

Please find attached 38 pictures of a Volkskarabiner 'VK1'.

This specific rifle was being produced in 1945 by Steyr in Austria. It bears all signs of an original VK1, such as the welded front sight and the rear sight in a dovetail base plus the plank-styled stock. This rifle is still one of those with a magazine, though it's been modified as it has no magazine guard (or better to say floorplate). The bore has also been properly counterbored by 30 mm. Though the bolt is not matching numbers to the rifle, it's one of the really late with the drilled (and not machined) round gas holes plus.

Note the very low 3 digit serial number. The highest known VK1 are somewhere in the 9xxx range, there thought to be less than 10.000 ever being produced.

As you might see the rifle is not in the best condition, but nevertheless it's such a rare item that it's a truly unique piece in my collection.

Hope you enjoyed seeing it!

This is/was a barn-find? Very uncommon and a nice addition to a collection. Do these turn up at gunshows?

Definitely one of the ones you don't see very often. I wonder what happened to them all?

Most of them appeared at gunsmiths after WWII around here, mainly in crates. They were usually torn apart and/or thrown away, as they were considered as unserviceable rifles - one of the main reasons why there are so rare nowadays.

Worth mentioning: they were mainly being produced by Steyr and it seems that hardly any of those rifles really usage. They were nearly exclusively found in the area around the original Steyr plant.

Yes, this specific rifle was a barn find, otherwise it wouldn't have survived some dealers/gunsmiths. No, but they seldomly appear in auction houses where they reach prices of almost € 5000 (roughly $ 6500).

WOW! I have a Japanese last ditch with bayonet that I thought was rough but wow! They are proof that allied war efforts had all but eliminated Axis weapon production. COOL