Hi All,
I have been following this board for several years with growing interest in the pre war sporters. I have learned a great deal from all of you and have benefited from the information shared on here. So first and foremost, Thanks!
On to the topic of my post...Originally, I bought this rifle as a donor for another sporter project. I had initially thought this was a reworked arsenal stock and had intended to scrap or ebay it away. Upon arrival the first thing I saw when I unpacked the rifle was the buttplate which quickly increased my excitement. The buttplate is a trap door style that was discussed here some months ago and is engraved. Likewise, the gripcap is engraved. Both surprising bonuses to the purchase. The rest of the stock was about on par with what I had expected from the auction sites photos. Inletting quality and fit and finish are not great. The real mystery are the wedges or filling shims used to tighten the barrel inletting. It appears as if the barrel channel was originally inletted for a bull barrel and then tighted up with these shims or filler pieces.
The stock is not marked in any way. The grip cap and buttplate(marked made in Germany and stamped with a 16) do not seem to match the overall fit and finish of the stock which is mostly utilitarian in nature. Have any of you seen one like this before? Any opinions on what to do with the stock? Is it worth keeping or salvage the buttplate and gripcap and donate them to my other sporter project? I do not want to destruct an important piece of history...Any other thoughts or comments? I'm interested on anyone's opinion on this!
Photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30024657@N06/
Unknown Sporter Photos -Tom
