Polish wz29 on Gunbroker - Buyer Beware

[cipherk98]

This gun was first brought up on another forum as suspect, and I can not claim credit for uncovering this, but it lead me to take a closer look at it. After doing so I decided to bring attention to it here and see what others thought.

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/651821970

Immediately, several things appear wrong. First, the "wz29" marking is unusually sloppy. Then the "FB Radom" and date are sloppy was well, with the type face appearing to vary in size on the "3". The bolt has also been polished fairly heavily as well though this alone does not mean anything is illegitimate. Also strange is that you have "waa" markings on the rear sight block but not the receiver or other parts. The marking on the right side of the front of the receiver ring has also been struck unusually hard

Now, keeping that in mind, I present this gun that sold last month.

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/633644556

Initially, I was unsure if this was a strange coincidence or not. However, note the dings and marks on the stock, as well as the numbering which indicate it is certainly the same stock. In addition the buyer of this gun has the same number of ratings as the seller of the suspect gun. Now there is no crime in buying a gun and reusing the stock on a different gun. But if one looks at the floorplate and front barrel band, they will see they are in fact the same parts, now with numbers on them (look specifically at the wear pattern of the floor plate and two marks on the front right hand side of the front barrel band) which is very suspect to do if you are just trying to restore a gun. The marking on the right side of the receiver appears to have been struck over but can still be partially made out, also note the identical wear pattern on the edge of the rear receiver bridge and on the ejector boxes are identical on both guns.

Now the obvious question is that the serial numbers are not the same, while both are 1492 one is 1492A. Well if you look closely at the "2" you can see it was slightly askew when struck, which is present on both. Either this is a massive coincidence that both 1492 guns over two series were struck with the 2 cockeyed, or something is up.

If I am wrong I will gladly stand corrected and retract any claims. However, what I see is someone bought an interesting gun at a good price, worked over, and is now trying to sell as something it isn't.

Information

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[Hambone]

Here is the history to present:
WZ29 oddity or turd?

[cipherk98]

That K98k forum thread is quite the read... I heard about it on Arfcom which had come from Facebook. I kind of forgot about it and apparently this gun has exploded across the internet in the last few days thanks to Facebook and the K98k forum. At this point the ATF seizing the gun due to the altered serial and destroying it would be a mercy kill as much as it pains me to say that.

Edit: Oh yeah, there will be no "Retracting" any claims at this point. The gun is fake as hell.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Well spotted!

And at this point it would be a good idea if all those who swap out non-defective parts on honest milsurps that have been well-used (and thus probably at some time overhauled at an arsenal or base-workshop) in order to have "correct" parts and matching numbers, claiming that they are "Only restoring it to its original configuration", stopped and considered the ethics of what they are doing.

The example examined in this thread shows the bottom end of the slippery slope that many step on to when they start "improving" their milsurps.
"Restoring to correct original configuration" ....> Falsification....> Forgery/fake...> Fraud.