Strange MG-42 front site blade

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Hey guys, I was over at a friend's house admiring his HUGE gun collection, and noticed that the front sight of his C&R MG-42 was really different than the typical site I have encountered. It has a screw that allows the blade (Korn) to be adjusted left or right for windage. The gun itself is a BNZ 1943. Have any of you seen a sight like this? Dangola? What do you know of them? Are they only found on Steyr Austrian MG-42's?

Oh, and don't pay attention to the fully functional FG-42 in the background. It is NOT for sale. I don't like those overpowered FalldownJager toys anyway.

[fjruple]

DA--

I also notice that the stamping the two pin holes are different from the SA42 1943 CRA that I have.

--fjruple

[fab]

it's the first model front sight used from 1942 to the end 1943.
if your MG42 is 1943 dated it should have this kind of front sight...



Fab.

[Bil]

Thank you Fab and DA,for the pics of the early sight.There seems to be a lot of info on the early models showing up lately. ---bil

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

I have a GH coded CRA (Maget - Berlin) MG-42 and it has the later dovetailed front sight blade. The SN is 21XXd. Doesn't that place that gun in mid-1943? Was this earlier sight phased out at Maget before other factories then? Thanks for the responses Bil and fab!

[fab]

during 1943 Maget made 60 000 MG42... began with the marking 1943 cra serial 5000a ( or something like that). The first code GH was use by Maget with the beguining of the "d" serial to the beguining of the "g" serial.
so they made 25000 MG42 with the date on them "1943" and 35000 with the "GH" code
Yours is a 21xxd.... i think it must be a mid 43 one...

in the D166/1 manual September 2. 1943 dated you can only see this kind of early front sight...
So it should be equipped with this early model front sight..But it could be replaced during the war by the new model.

Fab.

[MG34Biker]

Learn sumfin new every day here.

[fjruple]

Fab--

My SA42 CRA 1943 is 22XXc. It's been rebuilt at least once by the West Germans to 7.62mm NATO. God only knows how many times in between.

Thanks for the info.

--fjruple

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Learn sumfin new every day here.

Yup. We have a great crowd here (TC and Bil too).