MP44: Die Sturmgewehr

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Guys, I thought that you might like to see my MP44 as they are always very popular items.

I have owned this rifle since 1988. I originally had this as a live firing weapon, but six months after I bought it, the law in the UK changed and all full and semi auto's were banned So I had the sad choice either to hand the weapon in to the authorities and have compensation for the price I had bought it for, or to have it deactivated. I chose to have it deactivated. It will still cock and field strip.

The weapon came from the former East Germany. Both the mags and the sling are East German made. I have got both mags filled with original but inert 7.92mm x 33mm rounds.

The gun was made by "bnz" in 1944. All serial numbers match.

Cheers, Ade.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Here are some pics of the mags. As I mentioned before these are East German made. They have the makers code "1001" which was for Ernst-Thälmann-Werke, Suhl, Thüringen.

Cheers, Ade.

[Adrian Stevenson]

A few boxes of inert 7.92mm Kurz rounds. Cases are laquered steel.

These have had the powder removed and the primers made inert.

All are head stamped "5 45 St fva" (Draht und Metallwarenfabrik GmbH, Salzwedel, Sachsen)

Cheers, Ade.

[sscrooge]

i think these are 1 of the best looking guns of ww2 , you have a stunning example there Ade:thumbup: rgds dave

[Rich Yankowski]

Would love to add on of these to my collection,they were great weapons in their time.

[Swordfish]

Oh man Ade. Heartbreaking.

The law in my state of California changed in 2000 that directly affected weapons categorized as "assault weapons". We were forced to either register weapons that that fell into this particular category, sell out of state, or deactivate the weapons. Interestingly, the vast majority of owners elected not to register the weapons...who knows what happened to the guns. I could live with deactivating an old Yugo M59/66, but an original Sturmgewehr would really hurt. At least you still have the gun, even though shes not a functioning weapons.

Really, these are important parts of world fireram history. The forefather to the AK, heck and the Stoner 15 for that matter.

T