Mystery Mauser 2 (German) Help me figure this out

[Jimbob2.0]

Ok this was my Gettysburg purchase, bought with a grain of salt figuring that it was probably partially bubb'd but had a lot to salvage. Plus I haggled way down on it.

What I Know:

Receiver BYF 43, all metal parts match with the exception of the safety lever.
Good condition, obviously had some patina that was worked on
No import marks, no Russian X.
No mismatched out of alignment Mitchell stampings.
Not peened and great eagles on many parts.
Very nice bore, shiny with no pitting and a clean crown and muzzle. Barring all other things looks like it should shoot well.

The mystery:

No bayo lug (odd never saw a K98 without a bayo lug)
Stock is a laminate, K98 stock
cartouche on wrist (hard to read but looks like WAA135) and a letter (C"). I thought "C" wrist stamped stocks were all BCD.
Carefully patched takedown tool hole (looks almost to good to be bubba)
Weird brass butplate
Obviously sanded and refiinished (wish they hadnt)
Slightly longer than my Russian Capture (in first photo for reference)

Any thoughts, my instinct is to fit this gun to the walnut stock with cup that my RC is in which would be correct for BYF 43. I think the buttplate at a minimum is Bubbas work. As long as I am not destroying anything unusual I think there is anough stock there to reinstall the bolt tool and a flat K98 buttplate wiht minimal working (not sure I am that good with wood!).

Mystery Mauser bottom, DOU RC top.

Nose

Takedown tool plug

Stock cartouche (sorry fuzzy)

Brass buttplate

Looks to me like somone fabbed a brass buttplate or borrowed it from another make and used some resin to fill. If I sand away the resin it looks like a vintage flat buttplate should fit. I hope so as I would hate to think someone bubbad away all this stocks value.

Oh it came with a L.F. buckled sling dated 1939 that isnt perfect but pretty nice and from what I can tell worth $50 to $100 on its own.

 

[fd3466]

That's a semi kreigsmodell stock that was used in late war production without the bayo lug or rod hole. It should have the take down disk in the stock and the butt plate is incorrect. I think that stock was only used on late44 & 45 production years.

 

[Jimbob2.0]

That's a semi kreigsmodell stock that was used in late war production without the bayo lug or rod hole. It should have the take down disk in the stock and the butt plate is incorrect. I think that stock was only used on late44 & 45 production years.

Thats about the conclusion I came to, however that stock disc patch looks so carefully fit. I am wondering if I am write that this was some's fix if there is enough left to return it to what it should be. Doesnt look like they cut, looks like they fit with resin.

Oh it has a rod hole, just no lug.

 

[fd3466]

Its not a semi krieg. They have screws on the barrel bands and no band retained between them and no rod hole. I payed more attention when you wrote it had a rod hole. Who ever did disk delete prolly cleaned up the lug too.

 

[VTX1800]

Bubba
Definitely not a semi-kreigsmodell stock with a flat butt plate.
No military K98 capture rifles had the bayonet lugs and stock disc removed.
I say Bubba did it.

 

[Jimbob2.0]

Hmm the nose cap definately hasnt had a bayonet lug ground off, I havent popped it off yet (the nose band matches) to see if it matches the stock or anything else.

Its to long to have cut off the butplate cup so it must have been flat, and look at the resin line how they used the resin to fit the brass?

Originally I was going to drop the action in the RC stock above. But I think this stock can be put back to visually correct pretty easy? I just dont see someons motivations in doing it how they did.

 

[metalman3006]

That stock would have had a cupped butt plate, a flat butt plate is not truly flat and wraps over the top a little. You could get a trashed stock and cut the cupped part off and reattached it to yours or make a piece but with the take down disc removed and filled it is a lot of work with no collectors value in the end. You may just want to get a stock form mario or ebay.

 

[aquaman]

Someone attempted to sporterize it pre 68 and lost interest or ran out of cash

 

[Jimbob2.0]

That stock would have had a cupped butt plate, a flat butt plate is not truly flat and wraps over the top a little. You could get a trashed stock and cut the cupped part off and reattached it to yours or make a piece but with the take down disc removed and filled it is a lot of work with no collectors value in the end. You may just want to get a stock form mario or ebay.

Dont get me wrong on this one, I knew what i was buying and my intended use and it was priced accordingly after haggling.

Though I dont think just adding the cup part will work, as whats there still has a little bit of a curve and is 1/2 inch longer than my cupped RC capture. I think with relatively little work I can fit the "flat" shallow cup stock and installing the takedown is no problem. If they cut it they did oh so incrementally.

If it was a BYF stock (I havent taken the stock off by assume the numbers dont match) it would have to be a cub, but as a BCD it could be either. So it never matched the rifle to begin with. Knew that going in plus its already been sanded.

Im just glad whoever was trying to sporterize it didnt finish the job, as the action is uncut, untapped, very nice bore, and very very nicely marked. and unmolested.

My original plan is sounding pretty good to put it in the RC stock (which doesnt match the RC action either) and put another stock on the RC action in another stock and maybe play with this stock as a project.

As I was 99% sure at least now I know I can start playing without making anything worse!

 

[fd3466]

Is that filler between the buttplate and stock? That may be where the extra length came from.

 

[Jimbob2.0]

Is that filler between the buttplate and stock? That may be where the extra length came from.

Just that 1/8 inch. As noted since I know no matter what I do I can do no harm I am going to start playing with it. First get the butplate off and see how much wood has been taken off, get a better idea of what is going on with the front plate and cleaning rod hole. See if the "fill" on the takedown tool holes matches the diameter of a takedown disc if they are larger I probably wont mess with it). Again they were all restricted to the stock and this is going to be a really solid shooter with all markings intact in the Russian Capture stock. Then I will decide what to do with the RC since it didnt match its stock either, If I can bring this one back may drop it in (even though a DOU in a BCD seems weird) or do some other switching.

Obviously when I bought it I new the gun was never going to be a collector and it was priced right and had so many solid attributes even if I drop it in another stock it was a good score.

 

[Jimbob2.0]

Finally got it apart. Had a hell of a time separating the bayo lug from the front band (probably took a little finish of the barrel but sometimes you need to break eggs I guess).

Here are my conclusions

1. THe gun is all matching except the stock, safety lever (commonly replaced) and what i think was the bayo plug (not sure if these were numbered). Actually all of the small parts match and the vast majority are waffen stamped.

2. I think the bayoplug might be off a Yugo hard to tell as it has a cleaning rod hole but no bayo.

3. The barrel is correct matching in year

3. Upper handguard was matching, lower, if it was numbered it has long since been scrubbed. Was marked 91 in pencil, so I suspect it came out of someones parts bin.

So after I put another stock on it from a Russian Capture that is going to get dumped I think this will be a really good mauser. Never a 100% collector but it has a very nice bore and is in incredible condition metal wise, about 60% finish but it is original finish, with lots of waffens. This stock is probably reserectable as somone just filled the disc holes and added filler to theb back and fabbed a soft metal butplate. I honestly think that someone had a broken or duffle cut stock got a replacement and didnt have the other original parts and just fileld and fit it.

Not bad by the time all the transactions are done I will have about $400 in this gun and a vintage sling in servicable condition and it will be a good shooter, and most importantly saved from da'bubba. Ill count that as a win