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Which is the correct buttstock color for wartime 42's. Is it black or raw wood, or either? And if it's raw wood, then what kind of finish is on it? Some type of oil or just natural?

natural wood, linseed oiled.

Thanks, I've stripped off the black paint. Now there's a metal band around the front of the buttstock. Does that get painted or is it left alone? I do have linseed oil to put on the stock.

an actual band of metal, or several wraps of fine wire soldered together on the ends? Never saw a metal band. The wire is left bare. With linseed oil on the wire, it won't rust.

JBaum
Have several butt-stocks with just a band of metal, no wire wrap.

JBaum, Thanks for pointing out stock "color".

I'm guessing that your thoughts are that any butt stock that is black is a post war yugo paint job?

Thanks
Later 42rocker

Mine is the wire wraps soldered together. Thank you for your information. My 42 has all german wartime parts and I wanted it to have the wartime look.

42rocker wrote:I'm guessing that your thoughts are that any butt stock that is black is a post war yugo paint job?

I can't say where the black paint job came from (I wasn't there, and I don't make guesses), but the German MG's I've seen never had it. I guess I've seen 40 or so bring backs.... not one had any paint. A couple had steel that had a finish that looked almost clear, like it was a thin clear lacquer sprayed on bare metal which seemed to prevent rust pretty well, but I never saw a painted stock. Some had a nice finish, like a well loved 98k, most were well worn, a few down to bare wood. There may be a lot of variables with MG's, but oiled wood is the only way I've ever seen.

The manuals say to use linseed oil on the wood parts of rifles, so it's only logical that they wouldn't have used anything different on the MG wood.

jbaum
Thanks for your statements on the color. Don't we wish that we could have a magic viewing box to give a look see...

kansasrebel
One of the posts on this website was by Kata (searchandfind) that stated that the German buttstock had 5 wire wraps and yugo normally had 6 wraps. I don't have further info on that one.
Hope that you put together a great Full German one.

Later 42rocker

jbaum wrote: I can't say where the black paint job came from (I wasn't there, and I don't make guesses), but the German MG's I've seen never had it. I guess I've seen 40 or so bring backs.... not one had any paint.

John's right. It's been my observation that the black painted ones are proprietary Yugoslavian issue, either original Wartime MG42 that have been refinished, or from factory M53's. That paint is pretty unique and I have not ever seen it used elsewhere. It is something akin to resin-based paint, i.e, with some form of plasticizer-hardener in it. The only other place I have seen it identically is on some of the M56 SMG's so it is probably an indigenous recipe.

If Yugo, it may well be a M53 stock which is then not correctly contoured for a wartime issue MG42, either. Since they had and issued both guns, closer inspection of the wooden form will tell the tale. I have seen the wire-wraps on original post-war M53's, and I seem to recall they used a very slightly different wrapping style than was recommended by the Germans???

-TomH

42rocker wrote:One of the posts on this website was by Kata (searchandfind) that stated that the German buttstock had 5 wire wraps and yugo normally had 6 wraps. I don't have further info on that one.
Hope that you put together a great Full German one.
Later 42rocker

The 1944 MG42 armorer's manual (available in English - shameless plug) says to wrap with 5 wraps of 1 mm wire and solder the ends. Remember that a soldering "iron" of those days was a screwdriver sized handle with a pointed chunk of metal on the business end which could be heated with an old style gasoline blow torch. It only took a second or two of applying a properly heated soldering iron to melt the solder and secure the ends of the wire. No need to burn the wood to do the job.

That's called a shameless plug for a great book. Everybody needs a copy..

Later 42rocker

Uh oh! Mine has 6 wraps. Looks like I need to do some looking for a real German buttstock.

kansasrebel
Before you start jumping all over looking for one, try posting a picture of your butt stock and buffer. It's possible that the yugo's did a re-wrap of your stock.
Post a pic and lets see if we can help.

Later 42rocker

and realize that a German buffer doesn't fit a Yugo stock, nor the reverse. A German buffer needs a German stock.

here's a couple of pics. now the buffer has a long serial number stamped into it also has a faint number electro penciled into it.

Well, this is fun. 1st I have enough mix and match parts to redo anything anyway. 2nd shape of butt stock Looks German (but what do I know) 3rd the bottom button buffer release looks like the German type not yugo. 4th there is a gap between your buffer and stock which could be 1 of 2 things German/yugo stock buffer mismatch or loose worn parts. 5th the front of the buffer is rounded which is normally yugo. Therefore possible yugo buffer and German stock with wire redone?

"buffer has a long serial number stamped into it" where is this number if on the buffer body and if it start with s### then it's yugo with the gap showing could mean that you have a yugo buffer and a German stock.

Confused yet, so am I.... The problem is that the yugo had have a lot of spare parts that were mixed in with German parts for repair reasons. Like I said I have enought spare parts to put anything together, anyway. yugo front end, spring, German buffer body, then a German butt stock cup, with a yugo butt stock.

If the wire was replaced at a later time could have received 6 wire wraps.

My guess is German stock redone wire and yugo buffer. Still up to the number on the buffer.

Later 42rocker

Forgot to add your butt stock looks nice and has a nice color to it.

yes the number starts with an s. I have another buffer with no numbers on it. l'm going to swap it and see if it fits better.

the other buffer snaps right in, much better fit other than it's really loose. is there any way to tighten it up?

I see many ,,bla bla bla'' instead couple of foto - buffer with clearly seen markings ...

Stegger-your English is getting better! ---bil