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Yeah yeah okay I bit.. I just had to know... so I asked
Attachment 100994
Me: What does made in secret work shop 124 mean?
Seller Answer: That is what we found where it was made from the stamps on the rifle.must have been some secret arsenal that was not supposed to exist.
You be the judge...
Link:
Yugo M24/47 8mm made in secret Workshop 124 - Bolt Action Rifles at GunBroker.com : 806392473
"Seller Answer: That is what we found where it was made from the stamps on the rifle.must have been some secret arsenal that was not supposed to exist."
What a load of twaddle! A claim supported by .... ???
Same place the black helicopters are made.
If you believe this I know of some super secret "overwater" property that runs between Brooklyn and Manhattan I can sell to you!
Santa has a secret shop too. It's in the North Pole though not Yugoslavia. He brings me gifts his elves made every Christmas. I love Santa.
I was going to continue to ask the seller questions but, it was SO ridiculous, as is the price, that I just dropped it. Maybe I should ask some more.. hmmm... like if he has any bayonts made in NarniaQuote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Chadwick
---------- Post added at 09:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 AM ----------
Santa disappointed me last year and didn't get me the rifle I wanted, She said I have enough.... how do you define enough....Quote:
Originally Posted by WarPig1976
According to Branko Bogdanovic's book Serbian and Yugoslav Mauser rifles, of which I have a copy and if I have understood it correctly, the marking stands for "Military Workshop Number 124". According to the book the reason that the location of many of the Yugoslav workshops, maintenance plants and factories that had a numeric code is not known is because the list of the manufacturer's codes no-longer exist.
In all fairness, it isn't a usual marking for these.
Perhaps I can shine some light on this a little. First off it is only a sales gimmick and about as secret as McDonald's secret sauce. My step dad is from Yugoslavia. I have poked and prodded him endlessly for two decades or more about Mauser stuff and related things. He had a 24/47 issued to him when he was in the JNA in the early 1980s. Him and I have had this conversation before about 24/47 and m48 Mauser markings.
The most common stamp is Enterprise 44 as we know. At some point Enterprise 44 started producing the m48 mauser and handed off the conversions and updates of old M24s and k98s to smaller “work shops” to focus on making the m48s, tt33s etc. There were probably a dozen or so smaller places that had the ability to overhaul or update mausers. Some of them were not the best suited to preform the work and the quality was rather poor.
When this particular mauser was a 24, it had in Cyrillic FN herstal Belgium stamped on the receiver. When it was updated to the M24/47 pattern that stamp was removed and restamped with the depot or workshop that preformed the updated. Like most eastern block countries all factories were given a number designation. All factories were state owned so it wasnt like a factory had a brand name. That mauser was updated at Work shop 124, no more, no less. I have seen a number of different marking that were workshop number such and such.
I really love the brown painted stock and wood filler where the new serial number has applied.
Thanks for that "first hand" information Brewer, very interesting.
Awesome information Brewer! thank you..Quote:
Originally Posted by Brewer
I really dislike that sale gimmick garbage. Most of us have seen a good bit of it over the years. People new to milsurp collecting do not always know the difference and buy into that song'n'dance and over pay for run of the mill surplus. While stating the obvious to 99% of us here, for that 1%, i'll call it out. Not much harm in doing so.
Any one remember the late 1990's the m44 carbines with the Pu 4 mounts and scope that were siberian forest service carbines... made in Century arms monkey technical institute in vermont? Or the sketchy No.5 Enfields made out of No.4 parts cut down and jankie ishapore furniture by some shady work shop in New mexico? i saw one of those for $850 once and some one bought it.
Also Micky D's secret sauce is thousand island dressing :)
The advertising gimmick I love is when someone puts 'rare' in their ad. Truly rare items don't need to be advertised that way, the parties recognize they are rare by looking at them not because someone put that in the title.
As others have noted the "Secret workshop" is a marketing ploy but, however, it is not totally without truth.
Yugoslavia began refurbishing rifles in 1946 beginning with surplus German Mauser mod98 (K98k) acquired by a variety of means. The war had left Yugoslavia's arms works literally in ruins. Refurbishing and making of new barrels early on was all they were capable of. In '47 they began conversion of the pre-war M1924s into M24/47s, converting dual sling mount equipped 'carbines' into 'rifle' sling configuration only along the way.* It wasn't until 1950 that they could manufacture a whole rifle from the ground up, which they did beginning with the M48.
While the majority of such work, refurbishing and manufacture went on at Kragujevac (factory 44) under it's many guises, general repair and refurbishment was conducted at a number of, call them 'satellite' shops. The work was dispersed for a number of reasons. One of these was security. During the war such shops guaranteed a steady supply of weapons. If the Nazis found and destroyed a shop it put a dent in the flow of supplies but did not stop it entirely. Located as Yugoslavia was, between two hostile super powers, it only made sense to continue the practice. Following that line of thought, it was only logical that the location and specific operations conducted by those shops be kept under wraps. So w/in normal military security it could be said that such shops were in fact, "secret." So you see, strictly speaking, the seller wasn't lying.
Now, concerning the cost, I gather a starting bid of $499 is the sticking point? I'd have to say that while steep, it would not have been unreasonable, IF the finish wasn't boogered all to heck and gone. But even so, it could be considered a $400 rifle. It has nothing to do with "secrecy" but the fact that RA 124 is a pretty darn rare shop code. The wood finish really isn't a deal breaker.
You see, the Yugoslavs maintained their warehoused weapons. In rotation, every 5 years rifles were taken down, cleaned, inspected, a few chosen at random for test firing, then put up again for another 5 years. By the time a Yugoslav rifle reached us, a once oiled stock's "original finish" had become cosmolene. So clean off that paint, maybe stain a little (old motor oil would work great as that was often used in the field by the JNA as did others including the Germans) and carefully apply some BLO taking care to wipe it down after oiling to prevent building a commercial finish and you've got it well 'restored.' It would only be right to make that information part of the rifle's permanent history for any future buyers.