I picked up this svw45 that had sadly been sporterized. Thankfully no modifications were done to the metal and with everything it needed to be returned to original being unnumbered, it was a perfect candidate for restoration. I was then able to pick up this super nice "c" stock set from a good friend and make it about as correct as it's possible. The action is all original to itself, the stock/bands/handguard are all original to themselves, and several svw45's in this serial range are known with "c" stocks. Condition matches perfectly to the point where it would be hard to tell this is a resto.
There is some controversy in the collecting community about doing this sort of work because it's possible this could be passed off as original sometime down the road but I'm with the majority of collectors that feel it's more important to put these pieces back to original configuration. Hopefully being publicly posted, with many collectors knowing it's a resto, will help prevent this. Of course I don't plan on dying anytime soon or selling, so this info might be gone by the time it moves to a new owner.
It will be kept in my records as a resto so even if it's passed along after I'm gone it should be sold for what it is at least once. After that I'll have to rely on the honesty of the next owner and in my experience gun owners are some of the most honest stand up people around.
Any way, for those not aware of the use of these "c" stocks at MO, I'll give a bit of background on them. These stocks were made by Dresdner Tischfabrik Hermann Menzel and Gustloff was the primary recipient of these throughout the war but they do show up on other makers. Sometime in late 44 MO received a quantity of these and started putting them into production starting in the early byf44 L block. They continue to show up right until the bitter end of production. It's not known why MO received these stocks but one theory is they were originally destined for JPS but when K98k production was shut down there, they were diverted to MO. They aren't really rare or uncommon but a neat variation of production.
The action its a very late a block (I had initially thought it was new high but my dreams were dashed when I found another about 600 later) with blued receiver/barrel, ejector box, cocking piece, and phosphate bolt/bottom metal. The cocking piece is FN, trigger and rear sight leaf are e/18 but the rest is all MO. Of note is the early e/63 marked ejector spring assy. Another point of interest is the sintered or pressed metal front band. This one appears to be phosphate which makes it even more uncommon. Most are blued from what I've seen.
Some pics of the wood:
There is some controversy in the collecting community about doing this sort of work because it's possible this could be passed off as original sometime down the road but I'm with the majority of collectors that feel it's more important to put these pieces back to original configuration. Hopefully being publicly posted, with many collectors knowing it's a resto, will help prevent this. Of course I don't plan on dying anytime soon or selling, so this info might be gone by the time it moves to a new owner.
It will be kept in my records as a resto so even if it's passed along after I'm gone it should be sold for what it is at least once. After that I'll have to rely on the honesty of the next owner and in my experience gun owners are some of the most honest stand up people around. Any way, for those not aware of the use of these "c" stocks at MO, I'll give a bit of background on them. These stocks were made by Dresdner Tischfabrik Hermann Menzel and Gustloff was the primary recipient of these throughout the war but they do show up on other makers. Sometime in late 44 MO received a quantity of these and started putting them into production starting in the early byf44 L block. They continue to show up right until the bitter end of production. It's not known why MO received these stocks but one theory is they were originally destined for JPS but when K98k production was shut down there, they were diverted to MO. They aren't really rare or uncommon but a neat variation of production.
The action its a very late a block (I had initially thought it was new high but my dreams were dashed when I found another about 600 later) with blued receiver/barrel, ejector box, cocking piece, and phosphate bolt/bottom metal. The cocking piece is FN, trigger and rear sight leaf are e/18 but the rest is all MO. Of note is the early e/63 marked ejector spring assy. Another point of interest is the sintered or pressed metal front band. This one appears to be phosphate which makes it even more uncommon. Most are blued from what I've seen.
Some pics of the wood:
