Quote Originally Posted by cplstevennorton View Post
I just saw this and sort of wanted to add some context to this bolt. Because I think it's been labeled as a 100% legitimate USMC sniper bolt. Which to be truthfully honest, the chances are four times more likely it's not from a sniper rifle and that serial was just a Marine team rifle.

In 1942 the Marines had a 1047 NM and Special Target rifles that were all either rebarreled NM rifles or NM rifles that had their original star gauged barrels. The Marines notated that all the bolts in these 1047 rifles were polished and they ordered them all to be blued and put into storage. Six months later, 150 of these 1047 rifles were selected and converted to a sniper rifle. Before this order was fully finished, they stated the number could be increased to 250. It is not clear for sure the 250 were made, but it is assumed they were.

This is the only order to build Unertl Sniper rifles during the war that has ever been found. Even three years later the Headquarters Marine Corps in 1945 comments that only the 250 were thought to have been produced. This seems to be confirmed again in 1951 when the Marines state they have less than 200 Unertl Snipers still serviceable.

So your bolt, while I do believe is from a NM Marine team rifle, it is not guaranteed to be from a rifle that was converted to be a sniper. Since all 1047 had their bolts blued, it could be from one of the 800 NM and special target rifles that never were converted.

So in all honestly your bolt only has about a 25% chance it came from a sniper rifle. It's much more likely it's just a former Marine Team rifle bolt that was blued in 1942.

Now there is a Unertl Sniper Rifle Association that anyone who owns a real rifle can join. We have about 25 members. We keep logs on all rifles found and serials of any part or piece found. We logged the serial of this to keep track of it. Just to make sure it doesn't appear in a rifle someday and passed off as original. We do this because the bolt and handguard are used a lot to determine authenticity of a rifle and we are trying to keep documentation of rifles that are original and ones that have had parts changed.
To echo what Steve said... not all rifles were converted.... so to automatically assume the bolt is from a converted rifle is a mistake. The bolts were standard NM bolts with their original rifle serial number applied by SA and then blued.. While we use the bolt as an identifier for a real rifle.. there are countless other things we know apply to the rifle itself that tell whether it is a legit Unertl sniper .. So IMO it is better to have a rifle missing it’s original bolt.. then the other way around.

The only real value is if you own the actual rifle and it is determined to be a team rifle or sniper.. otherwise it is worth about 2-3 times what a NS bolt is worth.. so about $400.