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Hello all.
How early is this WaA11 rear sight?
Also the sight retainer pin has no knurling on it?
Thanks for looking
Rob

two more photos of this sight.

Rob,

Here is two photos of the receiver piece this sight came off of. Marked "ehs".

I believe it was very early production. I hope someone here can shed light on the lack of knurling.

One more photo of the barrel door support bracket.

Nice one.
thanks Donald for extra photos
I'm thinking it's an early production also.
interesting to see what others think.
Rob

Hi Rob,
I can't help with the pin, but I do think the sight is early.
My understanding is the early ones have the groves on both sides, later ones only on one side.
As for data I would say 1942/mid 43.
Jonathan.

I would tend to believe (without access to an MG42 as it came from WWII German Factory-new/without any replacement parts) that the Germans would tend to make the manufacture of parts easier as the war progressed.......which would mean that extra machine work that was not required to have the gun operate would be eliminated........such as the "Knurling" on small parts that did not require this operation/machining to operate.

Stamped markings would be haphazard at best as the war progressed.......the Germans using these stamped "codes" to indicate the Factory that manufactured the part.......and as war progressed only "critical" parts/sub-assemblies for the operation should have been stamped.

I would guess that with the added questions presented to the MG42-Board, that an inspection/review of known good examples of early FA MG42s (and parts used/stamped and engraved-markings from known WWII German Factories) should be started and "tacked" up in the MG42-General-Section for interested parties to review (?).......maybe 42Rocker can assist us with this. (Note: I would caution members from using parts contained in "Parts-Kits" as these are often from "mixed" guns and/or have replacement parts........our best source for knowing what was put on/stamped/engraved-marked would be from Full-Automatic "Original" MG42s in collections/museums/etc.. I would also caution against the use of lone-parts by themselves as examples as these can come from anywhere.........and may have subject "originality" attached to them.).

Regards, RichardS
US Army, Retired

Thanks guys.
that makes a lot of sense.
Rob