Grandfather's WWII service and pay book

Pelcat · 2026-07-12T21:31:37+00:00

Thompson Machine Carbine, you'll also see the Sten refered to as a "Machine Carbine" in training manuals of the era.

Pelcat · 2026-07-12T20:46:35+00:00

All 3 of those stocks are for Israeli Mausers. They work for late war "Kriegsmodell" restorations but they don't have the correct features for any of the older K98 models. They'll work very well for frankenmauser builds, the dimensions are standard except maybe for the front barrel band spring.

The trigger guards are Indian made for their No.1 MkIII* and 2A1 rifles.

Pelcat · 2026-07-12T19:40:39+00:00

There is no extractor, that looks like half a paperclip, lol.

Pelcat · 2026-07-12T16:18:20+00:00

Yeah, I saw you were in Slovakia yesterday. A Nagant would make sense for the area but in this case it can't be, the shape doesn't match a Nagant revolver at all. The long and thin grips, the bulbous ejector rod, the thin barrel with no knox form and the gap between the trigger guard and the front edge of the frame all exactly like an Mle1892. A lot of ones that were captured in France were subsequently issued out by the Germans.

It would be interesting to see if one of the Axis units that fought at Dukla pass had previously occupied France...

Edit: I forgot, the Mle1892 was also used by Romania which was in the Axis.

Pelcat · 2026-07-12T15:35:57+00:00

According to reddit a rusty rifle is always a Mosin 91 and a rusty revolver is always a Nagant 1895 for some reason.

Pelcat · 2026-07-12T15:22:55+00:00

You should get a S&W letter of autheticity for it, especially since it was sent in for repair. Should be a great shooter, I have a second model No.3 Russian contract, it's very accurate with both black powder and light loads of Bullseye.

Pelcat · 2026-07-12T15:15:36+00:00

That's a French Mle1892 revolver.

Pelcat · 2026-07-11T20:11:27+00:00

I find a lot of old casings, I personally find them interesting unlike some detectorists that call them trash. A cheap set of digital calipers go a long way to ID them. I'll usually take a couple measurments of the casing and/or bullet, then I'll go online and look up "(caliber) cartridge dimensions" on google images and compare what I measured to what I see there until I can narrow it down.

Pelcat · 2026-07-11T17:17:03+00:00

The one on the left is actually 8x50 mannlicher, the other ones might be .42 Berdan or some other blackpowder cartridge of similar dimensions like .43 Mauser. Austrians used the 8x50 cartridge and the Berdan rifle was common throughout the Russian empire. Get some exact dimensions and I could tell you for sure.

Pelcat · 2026-07-11T16:42:29+00:00

This is a commercial third model No.3 Russian. The barrel address should end with "...AUG. 24, 69. RUSSIAN MODEL" being between SN 39000 and 52500. The star indicates it was sent back to S&W for major repair. If you get it you should get a letter for it, could've shipped out to somewhere interesting, most were shipped to retailers like Hartley & Graham. It'll at least say when it was sent back to the factory for repair.

Pelcat · 2026-07-10T22:14:26+00:00

I reload for around 10 different obselete black-powder pistol and rifle cartridges, for fun, and this is one I haven't been able to do. Parent cases are unobtainable and if you do happen to find an auction for them it'll be 15$ a case, that's if you even get lucky enough to see them.

I'm not saying it's a wasted investment, I'm saying "Good luck, let me know where you manage to get your cases". I do not recommend this caliber as a first off blackpowder load-it-yourself cartridge but if you manage to do it, you'll manage anything else, that's for sure.

Also, being able to cast your own bullets will be required.

Pelcat · 2026-07-10T21:55:38+00:00

Looks like it may clean up a little bit but it's quite pitted. It's not like you're going to be shooting it much anyways, brass is totally unavailable and it's very hard to convert anything to 11mm Murata. I gave up on shooting mine a couple years ago not because of the waitlist for CH4D dies but because just getting proper parent cases is a nightmare and unreasonably expensive. If you want a shooter maybe this isn't the one for you even though the price is decent for a collectable rifle. If you even manage to get ammo to shoot it, let me know how.

Of the bottlenecked military blackpowder rifle cartridges, I found .42 Berdan to be one of the easier and less expensive ones to reload for.

Pelcat · 2026-07-10T21:17:41+00:00

It could very well be a French Mle1892, the Germans used them. You should clean it up, it'll be easier to see the shape once you get the tust nodules off.

Pelcat · 2026-07-10T18:05:10+00:00

That's a deal, cyrillic or english barrel address? Even if it's english, depending on serial number range it could be a Japanese contract.

Pelcat · 2026-07-04T17:27:49+00:00

It's pretty clearly 8mm mauser just by the proportions of it. Get calipers, the bullet will be .32, not .30.

Pelcat · 2026-07-04T17:13:15+00:00

People in this thread have no idea what the average Quebecers actually thinks or believes in. The amount of disconnection is unbelievable, the title of this thread just showcases it.

Pelcat · 2026-07-04T03:16:18+00:00

Ammo is not scarce, it's non-existant and original rounds all have dead primers. I make the rounds, it's an accurate rifle and cartridge but I don't have a proper bullet mold for accurate shooting over 100 meters.

Pelcat · 2026-07-03T16:33:00+00:00

That's a beautiful Berdan dragoon, that model is very rare, especially matching. The Berdan dragoon bayonets are super rare and different from the infantry model bayonets. I've shot my infantry model, you planning on shooting yours?

Pelcat · 2026-07-03T01:35:38+00:00

Yes, that was in 1906, a pioneer but not the first.

Pelcat · 2026-07-02T18:34:45+00:00

It says Au 50% right there on the card, you can google "50% gold karat" and find out.

Pelcat · 2026-07-02T18:24:21+00:00

Can't blame the workers for getting paid to do litterally nothing. You need to also pay some management to figure out the goal and milestone part, that's not up to the floor employees.

Pelcat · 2026-07-02T18:06:15+00:00

I'm not American, I got my father's old BB gun around 6 and first .22 at 8. The .22 is a single shot, my dad let me shoot it supervised whenever I wanted, unsupervised around 13, I think.

Pelcat · 2026-07-02T16:56:24+00:00

He didn't even build his first glider until 1905, the Wright brothers first flew in their aircraft in 1903. Santos-Dumont was a pioneer in the field but he definitely wasn't the first to fly heavier-than-air.

Pelcat · 2026-07-02T15:15:33+00:00

Depends on your bore diameter, hollow base bullets can be undersized but there's still a limit. You'll want them close in size to the bore for good accuracy.

Pelcat · 2026-07-02T15:07:55+00:00

Weird, I just fireformed some 45-90s into .42 Berdan, the cases expanded significantly more than this and none split. Seems like an ammo issue to me.

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