mg42 original or postwar ??? please help me

[tremendone]

Hello everyone, I ask your help to see if this is the original German WW2 MG42. or not.
has waffenamt trademarks. but did not accept numbers below.
a particular thing does not have the adapter for insertion into the antiaircraft sight.
Unfortunately I only have these photos available
thanks for your help

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

The date looks 1944/1943(?).It is hard to see. Just keep this in mind. The Yugoslavians made copies of these. This could be a copy, but comparing this to the Yugo one, it is hard to tell. Just my two cents.

[Adrian Stevenson]

It is an Yugo M53 with fake markings.

Cheers, Ade.

[GasMasksUK]

There seems to be more and more of these appearing on the market, or ones that I am beginning to notice how much is the asking price?

Thanks

Danny

[Berthier92]

There is an easy way to find out whether it is post war or not. Check what the barrel width is, as most post war Mg-42s were produced with barrels that chambered the then more common NATO round.

Hope it helps,
Berthier92

[lima]

The barrel is easily removed/replaced an not something you could judge the WWII provenance of the receiver with. The German military in the 50's converted suprlus WWII guns to 7.62mm by swapping the barrel and feed tray and top cover then designated them as MG2

The M53's do not have the front AA mount but do have the rear sight for the AA finger like yours. However, there is no Yugo crest on the top cover and someone would have had to do some extensive work to remove and replace the rear receiver markings. Do they look altered or welded over and re-engraved? Is there a serial number on the top cover?

It's worth noting that a great many Yugo guns have waffen marked parts. From what I gather, the Yugo guns were build up with leftover German parts spares and also on left over German tooling.

Yugo parts are almost always additionally marked with the Yugo part number often starting with 's' and about 6 numbers. If ANY of the internal parts or bipod have this than I suspect you have a Yugo gun that someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to doll up. Otherwise, it outwardly appears to be a WWII German gun.

[javlin]

Some nice info thier guys.That is part of the reason I waited so long to get a K98 for so many of those themselves are getting humped.The dealer I got mine from today had bought it at the RIA late last year it's not 100% matching but close with wear.

[Normandie]

Had one myself 2 years ago, found out it was a post war with fake stamps, sold it for 80% less than I paid for it
Was fun to have though =)

[banksy]

Wow very sad too see things like this ...

Hope you find a good mg42 !

Kind regards
Alex

[tiger6136]

I am no expert but it does not look right. I would expect to a manufacturing date and a manufacturing code on the receiver such as these

AR= Mauser, J.T. is 1943, D.F. is 1944, D.F. with d d mark is 1945

dfb= Gustloff, F.G. is late 1943, M.U. is 1944, S.M. with svq mark is 1945

cra= Maget, GH is 1943, NC is 1944, NC with swd mark is 1945

bnz= Steyr, GZ is late 1943, PJ is 1944, PJ with swj mark is late 1944, XE with swj mark is 1945

In addition the serial number looks yugo to me.

As I have said I am no expert but it looks like a post war gun

Graham