Bitsa's - What to do with them?

[Patrick Chadwick]

Thank you Peter for emphasizing what ought to be obvious to everybody: that the aim of an armorer is to to make the weapons serviceable. Not to match up every little non-critical part for collectors. Fortunately for practical shooters, the British and Americans did not stamp the rifle number on every part. But the Germans did.

Now I cannot imagine that any German armorer in the later stages of the war, as quality deteriorated, trigger guards were being made of stamped metal, and finally last-ditch "Volkssturm" rifles were produced (or should one say: perpetrated) would have cared a hoot about matching numbers while the growing disaster was engulfing his country. But there seem to be some collectors who would regard it as his duty to have ignored the bombs raining down and search through the rubble to get everything nicely matching for their satisfaction 70 years later. Such people need a reality check.

To cater for these expectations, it appears that in some countries one can freely purchase what can only be described as forgers tools - replica arsenal and inspectors stamps, for which I can see no legitimate use. And where one can buy such items, there are a surprising number of "all-matching as-new" K98ks on offer. It's just strange that I don't see them here in the country where they were made. Hon y soit qui mal y pense and all that. But if it makes the buyers happy...

Patrick