German Markings on a Yugo M53 kit?

[Hotel Echo]

Hi,
I was planning on selling this kit a few weeks back, but when we dug it out of storage to take pictures of it my friend bought it from me when he got to see it. It had a three cut receiver with a WWII German receiver third- rear third only (front two pieces were Yugo), like new Steyr marked 7.62 Barrel, and a Yugo M53 Topcover, along with a M53 feed tray & bipod, German WWII marked grip assembly & bolt assembly.
How is that for a mixed parts kit!! Can't remember where I bought it but I think it was Ohio Ordnance?? A few years ago....

[TactAdv]

The Yugoslavs acquired, kept, and maintained post-war copious quantities of ex-NAZI weapons, including the MG42. It was the lack of a source of spare parts that compelled the Yugo military to seek internal sources of production, initially only for spare parts but with the later official adoption of the weapon itself, for indigenous production of the "MG42".

The Yugo production of the gun TYPE was based upon a reverse engineering of existing German examples held. This is conclusively known, with zero doubt. At the time, they also made several small alterations to not only the basic design to suit their personal national proclivities at the time, but also several small industrial changes to the production technique to more suit their available industrial base.

So, it is ENTIRELY valid for ANY Yugo "MG42" gun to exhibit a mixture of ex-German and later indigenous production parts, especially small parts. They used what they had.

[Volkssturm45]

Thanks 'TactAdv' for that excellent advice. Clears up a lot of questions I had

[SA58]

Sorry for the delay, but here are the pics I promised. Hope they help.



MG42 top, M53 bottom


My MG42 shroud looks like it might've been dropped just in front of the barrel door, sort of disrupts the profile. I'll have to tin it back into shape, shouldn't be too hard.