Kiwi Medals

Here’s a great shooter Kar-98 that I recovered a couple of weeks go. Originally manufactured by Berlin-Lübecker Maschinenfabrik in 1939, the rifle is matching numbers in it’s action and barrel. The rifle came to me as a shooter in a monte-carlo stock and I had an empty early wood set in the gun box just for this reason.

The stock all matches itself except for the end cap which is an BLM manufactured cap from the right period. So a stock mismatch but great for a shooter. You will note the “Germany” stamped into the barrel. This indicates a post-1968 import mark.

The stock is devoid of dirty birds so I expect that it is a Norwegian post-war reuse set. Still beats a Russian capture but not in the same rank as a fully matched rifle like my other one here.

There’s a couple of reasons why the FG-42 is a particularly difficult rifle to get hold of. Firstly they only made about 7,000 of them. And because they were only issued to Fallschirmjäger unless the Allied soldier was in a section of front where they fought the paratroopers, they were never captured and returned. The next problem is that they are tainted with being an “elite” item. This means, like Waffen-SS shyte, that wankers on the internet will pay stupid prices for their kit. Just witness the price of a Jerry paratrooper pot. Anyway, due to this, I will never likely own a real one so I have the next best substitute. This is a Shoei made non-functional replica, moves like the real thing, just will never accept a round. Meh.

Update: unfortunately this is a prohibited item in Canada so back to the owner it goes. It’s a terrible bit of catch-all legislation that makes a non-weapon into a banned item yet a dewat is allowed and not required to be registered.

This small bit of sheet metal is the action dust cover for a German K43 main battle rifle. I am rebuilding one of these from Bubba to not Bubba and mine was missing this part. They were poorly constructed and often bent or damaged so most soldiers ended up discarding them. These were an un-numbered part so I am not concerned that this is a reproduction although the finish is correct so it shouldn’t look too obvious once it’s on the rifle. Update: I am an idiot, my K43 has a machined bolt and a different dust cover already on it.

This medal is on the internet described as the Kenyan Campaign Medal 1963-1967. This is getting to be a pain in the ass as I have been hunting the Kenya Independence Medal and this was sold to me as that, sight unseen. Meh.

This is a German Naval Officers dress dagger. It was manufactured by Weyersberg, Kirschbaum & Cie AG in Solingen. The hangers are both original however I think they are mismatched as they have corroded at a different rate. The portapee is present and correct. The blades on these things are etched with a fouled anchor and rope motif.

Traded for a Mauser M30 Chinese Contract.

The Royal Observer Corps Medal is a long service medal awarded in the United Kingdom to members of the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) relating to service between 1941 and December 1995, when the ROC was stood down. The medal was initiated in 1950 by HM King George Vl.

This one is named to OBS. J. Barker.