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06-18-2009 10:00 PM
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Gustloff Werke production. Made in 1942 and the barrel data shows the barrel made in 1942. Most shooters prize the 1935-42 produced rifles as the smoothest and most carefully built rifles. You did very well.
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Thank You to Calif-Steve For This Useful Post:
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FYI, Wilhelm Gustloff Werke (Works) was a Nazi party owned "company", named after a Swiss Nazi "martyr" who was murdered. There were several factories; "bcd" indicated the one at Weimar.
Codes "bys" and "avk" were the same company, Ruhrstahl (Ruhr Steel) at Brackwede-Bielefeld. Usually two barrel codes indicated the company that produced the steel and the company that made the barrel; in this case both codes say the same thing. The other numbers are probably abbreviated serial numbers (last 2). A variation simply means that the rifle was repaired using parts from other rifles. Another number, with an eagle, is the Heereswaffenamt (Army Weapons Office) number, indicating the officer in charge of the inspection team that inspected that rifle or that part. In an original rifle they will usually match, but again, a mismatch indicates use of non-original parts.
So, how important is "all matching parts"? To a purist collector, a lot, and matching guns will bring substantial premiums over those with non-matching parts. (Of course, "matching" numbers put on with an electric pencil or with a different stamp type by American importers is the same as non-matching.)
But for a representative sample and shooter, the numbers make no difference at all.
Jim