Strange Stock Mark

[Bill Hollinger]

I thought it was a cat until I clicked it. Very cute! Okay John, I melted a little bit but don't tell anybody!

[The Lemming]

Well, here are a couple using M!Riflenut's suggestion of using a borelight at different angles to try and bring a little more detail out. Don't think I was too successful; I think I'm seeing "MAK..." and Maybe "MAKE..." or could be imagining it. I'm using a old Sony Mavica...may try to borrow a newer and higher end camera and try some more.
John and Bill, glad you appreciated the photo of my Newfoundland "Ashes" when she was a pup. She is now almost 5 and approx. 120 lbs and still has the most "human" eyes of any dog I've ever seen.

-Mike

[Bill Hollinger]

On the top it looks like "UE****" and on the bottom "MAKE NJ". Very interesting. Better camera, set on Macro, with adjusted lighting.

[M1Riflenut]

Can see the MAKE on the bottom but can't make out the rest. Try blkbeard's suggestion of doing a paper rub on it,use different things like a soft pencil,chalk,crayon etc.

[The Lemming]

Tried Blkbeard's suggestion of making a rubbing. Couldn't get anything to show, just a smudge. It's so darn small and faint to begin with. Anyway, altho' it is still a mystery, my thanks to Blkbeard, Bill H., John S. and M1Riflenut for comments and suggestions....have more info and techniques now that I certainly wouldn't have discovered on my own.
Attached photo is of our Golden Retreiver in bed with his "woobie"...he was put there by our 11 year-old (at the time) niece. No way he would stand for this if we tried to make him do it.

[mack]

I apologize for interfering in your discussion, but I love to search for the roots to words and I think I may have come to something that will tell you the origins of the mark.

I took the first of the inscription on this stock and came up with the word "maken" as a possible root word. When I put that into a search engine for European roots, since we knew the rifle came back from Europe bearing this mark, I came up with a Dutch term meaning "to mend" or "to repair."

It follows by logical extension that this stock may have been "repaired" or "mended" at some point in a Dutch or German facility, as the two languages share a common base for words in some instances. The location or repair facility's name in the top of the escutcheon is apparently long ago lost, but with a word like "repair" on this older stock, it seems pretty safe to assume that this item in some incarnation was "repaired" or "mended" in the Low Countries. These were good allies in the Cold War and would certainly have taken on repair of the many Garands left in their charge for their own defense.

Perhaps someone here knows of such a facility from their own time in that part of the world as a member of the services stationed in those parts or if, in fact, such repairs were commonly made.

As an aside from my own experience, I have seen the same oval cartouche on rebuilt Mausers surplussed into the US market in the early 1960's, although I never gave another thought to such a mark until I saw this one again the other day. It has been on my mind since I saw it and was unsure until I came across the word for "repair" or "mend" in searching tonight.

The aforementioned rifles were rebuilt in West Germany at the war's end or more likely in the 1950's as possible items to re-equip the new West German army.

I offer this as purest conjecture and for discussion as a possible answer for a long-asked question on this matter. We might also make inquiries on the Mouser boards for any similar marks they may be aware of in their rifles from the post-war era.

[The Lemming]

Mack-
Thanks for your input; not interfering at all. Have posted to the Mauser forum here and also on SurplusRifle site under German rifles to see if anything can be learned there. As Alice said, "Curiouser and curiouser".

-Mike

[Ben Hartley]

Lemming...

Bob Seijas at Garanditis posted a suggestion at:

http://www.bulletinboards.com/TreeMs...Calling=No&x=x

HTH

Ben Hartley

[The Lemming]

Thanks Ben (and Mr Seijas). Another new technique to store in the organic hard-drive, I love this. Plus, a reason to go to my favorite gun store; need to pick up some sight black (and anything else I find I can't live w/o)!! It may be a day or 2 and will post any results.