Gewehr 43 or "OMG what have I bought" ??

The start down a long and aggravating but kind of fun road of putting a rare K43 back together begins.  Being at the right place at the right time landed me a late war K43 for cheap.  This d-block AC45 began life during the final months of the war.  So late that many d-block rifles didn't even make it out of the factory before it was captured by advancing American GI's.  

In the case of this particular K43, back in April of 1945 it was almost certainly in the hands of some poor soul fighting fanatically, street by street, house by house, in the Battle for Berlin.  As evident by the Russian Capture "X" and later VoPo "Sunburst", the rifle was captured by the Red Army and then put into Police Service in the new East Germany. Overall, a fantastic piece of history that comes from a time and place we can only read about.

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Although in pieces, luckily the K43 is mostly complete only missing the stock hand guard and the gas recoil piston and cylinder. The cool thing is that this will be the perfect opportunity the install a shooters kit from Apfeltor, to minimize the risk of damage should I be unable to resist the urge to go shooting.

A close up on the left side of the receiver reveals the Russian Capture "crossed cannons" and post-war Volkspolizei "Sunburst" markings.  Note the very rough late war forged finish, when an emphasis was placed on production numbers in lieu of aesthetics. 

While the correct late war Walther bolt assembly is all matching, it does not match the receiver and barrel assembly.  Though it is documented that Walther pushed out mismatched rifles assembled in the final days of the war  for front line service, whether this rifle was one of them or reworked post war for the VoPo will forever be lost to time.  The lack of electro-pencil marks used to force match post war reworks would tend to indicate the former.

Installation of the fire control group will be the most tedious part of the build, but still doable.  Getting something wrong here could lead to a serious and potentially dangerous malfunction of the rifle. 

The safety, safety retainer, recoil spring(s), rear sight, sight post, and gas recoil parts will be secured safely in a zip lock bag and will be the finishing touches. 

The unnumbered Walther stock is correct for the rifle and has a beautiful grain and color, but what a pity it has been heavily sanded.  Thankfully two faint WaA359 cartouches still remain on the butt and toe.  A high quality hand guard from fox militaria should look the part.