Help needed with MG42

[JustAGuy1250]

Hey everyone, some time ago i bought myself a very nice looking MG53.
Upon recieving it, i noticed the topcover doesn't have a yugoslavian serialcode nor a yugoslavian crest?
that made me think this was a german made MG42 topcover used in production of the MG53's but i cant find any Waffenampt stamps, what i can find though are [BK] stamps.
The topcover is entirely matching with the parts in it that feed the bullets.


what gun could this topcover have come from? could this MG53 have been assembled from an MG42 that got its markings removed and new markings stamped in?

[HARRY THE MOLE]

There seems to be a slight indentation where the crest would have been. Possibly someone has removed the crest to make the gun look more 'German'.

Cheers,
Steve

[BrodieBartfast]

You do sometimes see German parts used in M53s. My own example has a German feed tray, complete with WaffenAmt marking, which was given a new coat of blue before assembly. I can only guess that there were a few spare parts laying about, and the Yugoslavians made use of them where they could just for the sake of using them up.

In this case, I would agree with Steve and say yours is a Yugoslavian top cover that has had the crest scrubbed off. The serial number is identical in placement and application to the serial number on the cover of my M53.

Will dig out my M53 and take some photographs. Bear with me...

Regards, B.B.

[JustAGuy1250]

I see, though as far as i know the serial number for true MG42's also were in the same position on the topcover as the Yugo's

[BrodieBartfast]

As promised!



There is a letter prefix, but the style is the same. M53 serial numbers are usually electropencilled, whereas German ones tend to be stamped. Example below: The top cover of my MG 34. The original serial number has been scratched out, and a new one added, but the original serial number is stamped rather than etched.



Regards, B.B.

[JustAGuy1250]

if that is the case, then the person who removed the crest and serial (partially) did an amazing job as i cant see any remnants of either one.

also, just ignore the spider that is on the gun, it is his new home

[BrodieBartfast]

That is an odd one. It's possible it could be from an MG3, or some other postwar variant of the 42. Although the 'BK' markings would lend weight to it being Yugo.

A lot of the manufacturing for MG 42 parts was handed out to subcontractors, and thus they often bear a three-letter code to indicate the manufacturer. 'bpr' is a common one, for Johannes Grossfuss. The cover may have been sanded down, and a new serial number added. So it's possible that any such markings could have been destroyed.

There are a few other members here who know their MG 42s better than I do. Hopefully they turn up soon and lend their intellectual weight to this conundrum.

B.B.

[Watchdog]

I think you are going to need an "expert witness" here and I am afraid that's not me but I do know that it is a complicated history from the war-time MG42 to the MG3 of today and everything in between.

At the end of the war the tech data and plans for the MG42 ended up in Soviet hands and Reinmetall AG had to re-engineer new weapons (MG1) from an existing MG42 so to all intents and purposes it was a new weapon. Existing MG42 were converted to match the new MG1 spec including conversion from 7.92 x 57mm to take the new NATO 7.62 x 51mm round. There were variants and modifications along the way through MG1 and MG2 to MG3. The original tech data ended up in Czechoslovakia and of course Yugoslavia so perhaps the MG42/53 has a better claim to a more pure "bloodline".

I think the MG42 and variants ended up in use in around thirty or so countries quite a few of which had manufacturing licences so I think it more than likely that the scope for parts of many different origins ending up together is rather wide.

Collecting firearms isn't a specialism of mine but I am very interested and would love to know the truth about this one. Please keep us updated.

Regards

Mark
PS I have fired the MG3 during liaison with Bundeswehr colleagues and it is amazing. It doesn't have the stupidly high rate of fire that the MG42 had (that was a chronic waste of rounds in most applications and as a war-time peer the much slower Bren was actually more useable as a section LMG) but really felt like a good "tool".

[JustAGuy1250]

i'll keep you updated as i learn more myself!


PS. the high rate of fire was to make it so people couldn't run through a line of fire and survive, which was the case sometimes with the 1919 or the Bren where if you were lucky, you wouldn't be hit.
this is impossible with the MG42

[lebus12]

M 53 "SARAC", the sight is different.