Mg 34 bsw 1938 info required

[lallop]

Hola everybody, im very interested in buying this mg34 marked bsw 1938 first type barrel jacket, (also it seems to be a matching number one) what i would like to ask you guys is what's the value of the item in term of moneys, just to make sure i wont spend 2000 euro more than the "real market value". i also know those mg are not very common... waiting for many answers :P thanks.

[severin]

Hi lallop,

The barrel jacket is an early 1938 manufacture, indeed the earliest going by Folke Myrvangs volume 2.
He lists the earliest known bsw 1938 as having serial number 6370a.
The price is fair I would say, but this is not a matching numbers Mg34.
It should have a machined top cover, and that looks like a stamped top cover, also on the pistol grip assembly it would have had the blanked
out part where the selector would have been when it had the adjustable rate of fire.
The buttstock is a post war repro one, and not a very good one either.
My guess would be with out seeing all the serial numbers is that this is a force matched Russian capture Mg34.
Also the 'X' stamped next to the serial number on the barrel jacket points to Russian hands!
But with all that said its a nice looking Mg34 with the early and rare '4 hole barrel jacket' but you would need to get an original
buttstock.
If you can get more pictures I could help more.
If it's advertised as all matching serials see if you can get some money off, especially as finding an original buttstock will add more
to the overall price.
Hopefully you can see the differences in the pictures, I know it's Bakelite buttstock but the wooden ones are the same shape.
This is also a bsw 1938 serial 7162a.

Jonathan.