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Sabotaged collection

Scorpius

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Curious with the C&R collectors and the occasional garage finds.

Has anyone ever come across rifles or pistols sabotaged by occupied countries forced labor?



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Curious with the C&R collectors and the occasional garage finds.

Has anyone ever come across rifles or pistols sabotaged by occupied countries forced labor?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm not sure any verifiable examples exist, there are a few examples of guns smuggled out of factories for resistance groups but if you find one without documentation it's just going to seem like a mixmaster franken gun.


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yes one for sure, back about forty years ago. it was a Czech 98 mauser I picked up in perfect condition. I doubt it had more than a couple of rounds thru it. got to remember surplus guns flooded the used gun market. picked it up for about $125. I got it to build a custom .458 win. mag....... an hour later I had a bare action in my hands. as always I checked the hardness of the action ring on a Rockwell hardness tester and it was a total omg moment.... the thing was dead soft. so off it went to a company that specialized in heat treating actions..... three weeks later got it back and all was good after they did their magic. while I was waiting for it's return I spoke to several much older gunsmiths than myself and they all were shocked by how soft it was... they said there was no doubt it had been sabotaged by slave labor. the .458 turned out fantastic. now days you don't run across them much..... got to remember the only way most are found out is by gunsmiths like myself that always tested hardness before building a custom rifle. for the others that blow one up using it as found..... gun destroyed owner injured or dead and ammo gets blamed. rarely is there any investigation..... cops look at it and "yulp gun blew up and killed him.... take the body away"....
just curious any of you know a real gunsmith you can take your barreled action into and have it tested? I haven't seen another gunsmith in the last forty years that had a Rockwell hardness tester. back then it was kinda standard piece of equipment to have. so you wouldn't know one til it bits you.
tim
 
yes one for sure, back about forty years ago. it was a Czech 98 mauser I picked up in perfect condition. I doubt it had more than a couple of rounds thru it. got to remember surplus guns flooded the used gun market. picked it up for about $125. I got it to build a custom .458 win. mag....... an hour later I had a bare action in my hands. as always I checked the hardness of the action ring on a Rockwell hardness tester and it was a total omg moment.... the thing was dead soft. so off it went to a company that specialized in heat treating actions..... three weeks later got it back and all was good after they did their magic. while I was waiting for it's return I spoke to several much older gunsmiths than myself and they all were shocked by how soft it was... they said there was no doubt it had been sabotaged by slave labor. the .458 turned out fantastic. now days you don't run across them much..... got to remember the only way most are found out is by gunsmiths like myself that always tested hardness before building a custom rifle. for the others that blow one up using it as found..... gun destroyed owner injured or dead and ammo gets blamed. rarely is there any investigation..... cops look at it and "yulp gun blew up and killed him.... take the body away"....
just curious any of you know a real gunsmith you can take your barreled action into and have it tested? I haven't seen another gunsmith in the last forty years that had a Rockwell hardness tester. back then it was kinda standard piece of equipment to have. so you wouldn't know one til it bits you.
tim
I'm no expert but I believe something else must have been going on there as the Check 98's would either have been refurbished or entirely built by the Check post war, either way though it might have been something special that is now lost to history.
 
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