A duffle cut bring back...

[target]

Just grabbed a 1944 DOU bringhome. The family had it for a long time since the dad brought it back from the war. They never messed with it since they weren't into guns. The initials were on the stock they said since they knew about the rifle and it wasn't anyone from their family. There was a band of tape over the duffle cut which me and the local shop thought was just preventing the hand guard from rattling but it was concealing the cut! The owner was so bummed out that he didn't wanna sell the rifle thinking the value was destroyed but that didn't bother me or the shop. His dad must have taped the stock after he got back. The numbers that match the gun are the stock set and barrel bands. The bolt matches itself and the magazine assembly is mis matched with older parts. For 350 bucks I couldn't really say no.

[entropy]

If you can get a letter from the former owner with the story. Not as good as bring back papers, but some provenance is better than none.

Nice score!

[target]

I'll ask but I'm not gonna hold my breath. I will still check it out though.

[Darryl]

Usually that "duffle cut" was put under the barrel band so it would hide it. But duffle cuts are very common, and efect the price only a little bit. But anything with a duffle cut is usually a "bring back. Yes, papers would make it just a little more valuable, but not much.

Big thing on your Mauser is, it is a "white glue" laminated stock. That is a little harder to find. They used white glue to glue their plys together. Very quickly they realized white glue was not water proof. Yeah, not good in the rain!. They went to red glue after that. So there is not many of them. And 1944 is the year they used white glue (same as mine http://www.thedolk.com/K98k/index.html).

dou = Waffenwerke Brünn in Bystrica

Mismatched bolt to the rest is common, as they made them remove the bolts when they surrendered at the end of WWII. Bolts went in one pile and the rest in another. Probably had some battle damage sometime and had the mag repaired. Stock set to the barrel seems right as the white glue and the barrel year seem to match up.

$350!!!!! If nothing matched and it was beat up and had two duffle cuts would have been a cheap price for any Mauser. You did really well!


Sweet looking and very clean Mauser!

Dolk

PS: Look here on yours, you should see the lamination.

[target]

Well duffle cuts were not some sort of standardized military procedure. They cut it where they needed to so it would fit in the bag from what I understand. The worst one I seen it was cut just ahead of the recoil lug in the stock. Cut the damn thing in half!

I have a 1942 DOU as well but that one is a Russian capture. Still an awesome rifle though. I figured it would be cool to have an early one and a late one from the same manufacturer.

It has a couple spots where it delaminated a little but nothing serious. Not a big issue anyway as I have a shooter stock on order. I'm going to leave this one as is with the cut and just use the new one to shoot with.

Papers would be nice but the family barely knew anything about the rifle other than it was his and it was that way when he brought it home. I believe them though as they weren't trying to get like 1000+ dollars for it.

[Junk Yard Dog]

[Darryl]

Well duffle cuts were not some sort of standardized military procedure. They cut it where they needed to so it would fit in the bag from what I understand.

No, I understand, but most guys had it figured out to cut it under the band and it would fit their duffel bag perfectly and cover it up later on. I have seen guys buy AMausers only to get them home and tear them down and realize the cut was there. It does lower the value a bit. But what you paid, that is not even a consideration.


I know a guy that can put that stock back together and you hardly would even know it. I wouldn't bother myself. This guy say his father was a furniture carpenter, and his mother was a termite! I believe it.

[m1guy]

I love the ones like that.
I like it when I know it is a bringback, I know who brought it, and I know some of its history. They say "Buy the gun, not the story." I don't want to be ripped off and fall for some b.s. story, either. But it makes a difference, to me, when I know some of an item's history. You might find one like it at a show, or online. But to me, when they get traded around through different people and they become just another object to sell, they lose something. The rifle might be the same, but there is still a small part of its history that gets lost and can never be recovered.
I'm all about relics with a known history behind them.

[target]

I know a guy that can put that stock back together and you hardly would even know it. I wouldn't bother myself. This guy say his father was a furniture carpenter, and his mother was a termite! I believe it.

I think leaving it tells a more interesting story than fixing it and trying to explain to people what happened. Who knows though I might change my mind some day!

There are a few separations of laminate on the inside that don't make me too terribly nervous but I still wouldn't wanna pound a lot of rounds down range in the current stock.

I agree, when these guns get tossed around and moved from collector to collector the story gets more and more convoluted. Before long it becomes Hitler's personal Luger or Rommel's K98! Nice thing about being a younger guy is I'm gonna be holding onto these for a very long time so the story doesn't get hurt too bad.

I will talk to the family and see if I can get any more info at all.