Please help with Arty stock I.D.

[calibrator]

Hello, I recently purchased this stock from a dealer you all know and love. I trust him to have my best interests at heart. While I don't get screaming deals from him I feel that I get my moneys worth. Please speculate on the possible history of this piece. The stock has NO further markings, however I would like an opinion about the circular mark with the 3 punctures on the right side behind the iron. The holster mount holes have not been used to mount leather. I paid $725 Thank You in advance!! Joe

[lugerholsterrepair]

Joe, These strange stocks pop up frequently. Pretty wood..Has the honey color of European walnut. I like the grain & the knot...The wood to metal fit is good. Has some patina. The strap slots are not beveled..Correct.
I don't like the serial #..too large and running linier to the iron. I don't like it on the wood either. The locking lever is smooth on one half of it? That's weird. The circular mark with 3 holes..that's unexplainable. I have looked at my share of stocks and have never seen anything like that.
It's my belief that these may have been leftovers from WW1 and were not Imperial accepted military's.
Have you looked into the stock block well and on the butt for any markings? I have one that is marked Germany in the side edges of the stock block well. Well hidden!
As far as price...One just like it recently went off on Ebay for around $350.
I collect military stocks and am not interested in those that do not have the Crown S-D etc. This one appears to be a period piece, just not a military. That being said..I believe some 1918 stocks may have slipped thru without the acceptance mark. Could be the pile that was sitting on the factory floor at the end of the war were not stamped as there was no Imperial anything left. Just hard to say.

Jerry Burney

[calibrator]

I guess they call it NORWEGIAN wood. If I were to speculate about the circular mark, I would say that it looks like the mark you see on the end of OLD chair or table legs that lost the metal button they put there to prevent damage. The Finns are known to have used these stocks with 4" PO-8s for some time after WW I. Could they have attached a standard type PO-8 holster to this stock using a similar style button some how ?? Thanx Jerry! Joe

[mauro]

Hello,
I have one of this as well in my stock collection
I guess they are part of the set that went to Finland and used with the P08. In my stock only the wood is stamped, the attaching iron it is not.

Cheers,
Mauro

[George Anderson]

I once visited a seller in the Phoenix area many years ago. He had a box of these stocks and said they came from one of the Scandinavian countries where they were used with ??? Well none appearded to have ever been used. None appeared to ever have had leather mounted either.

More recently I ran into an old gentleman who had one that he bought through the mail from a man in Lichtenstein who was making them. I think he said that he ordered his back in the 1980's. I'm inclined to believe the old gent here locally as his brother bought one also and they had no motivation to mislead me.

[mauro]

Another example of wood stamped stock.
This is different from the one we discussed previously.



Here some more pics of my wood stamped stock, it seems in any case old.

Nice item, I like it and fit properly.

[calibrator]

I bumped this forward to see if there were any new opinions on this stock. I need to get some sort of pedigree on it, as I need to start selling items to make room for things I actually use.

Thanks for any input in advance!

[lugerholsterrepair]

Joe, to move forward a little..can you gently/carefully remove one of the stock iron screws ans see how much of it is threaded? SHOULD be about an eighth of an inch...

[spartacus38]

I feel you should return it.

Too many questions.

You can buy a Crown S proofed one for about the same price with the stock iron properly numbered.

Bob

[Lugerdoc]

Joe, Not sure about yours, but in Baudino's photos, the one on the left is from the 1923 Finnish purchase of 5000 surplus LPO8 stocks and the one one the right, with the Farsi numbering, is from the Persian LPO8 contract circa 1935 from Mauser. TH

[calibrator]

Thanks Tom,

Looking at Baudino's photo, I feel quite confident that the placement and style of the serial #s on mine and the example in the photo are a decent enough match to prove provenance. Since the 1923 Finnish purchase of LP08 stocks was for 5000 units, Mine having a serial # 4521 would definitely put it into this block if the Finn's numbered them sequentially. If the serial # were greater than 5000, I would quietly fade away.

Thanks Jerry,

Here's a pic of a screw that I just took out, seems to have the correct design you mentioned.

With these 2 new pieces of info, along with Baudino's archive photo, I feel confident that this stock WAS part of the 1923 Finnish purchase. As a result, it seems this stock should be of special interest to Finnish collectors as a niche item. I do recall seeing photos posted on this Forum showing Finnish soldiers firing 4" P08s with stocks attached.

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by calibrator

Since the 1923 Finnish purchase of LP08 stocks was for 5000 units, Mine having a serial # 4521 would definitely put it into this block if the Finn's numbered them sequentially.

This "if' is big, I think, unless someone knows for certain. It is my impression that stocks were numbered to the guns with which they were issued. Would the factory have serialized a single contract, of stocks only, unto itself... starting with 0 or 1? If they were check-fit/fitted to guns in Finland after they arrived, why wouldn't they also have been numbered to match those guns? I can't see a reason to serialize them, otherwise. We must also consider that fully half of all possible pistol/stock mated rigs within any 20's production block had numbers under 5000.

[calibrator]

Do you know (you're such an intellectual) that "IF" is the middle word in "LIFE"? You know what Col. Kurtz would say... Ask Rudyard Kipling... Throw Stones, or Throw Roses..., ???

[Lugerdoc]

Lifer is correct. The "Finnish" stock will usually have their original German LPO8 serial, which is quite often crossed out and renumbered by the Finns to the PO8 that they issued it with. TH

[lugerholsterrepair]

From the screw threads and the wood to metal fit as well as the strap slots I think we can pretty much determine this is a German made Artillery stock no matter what. That's a good starting point..I am ignorant of Finnish stocks and their markings but is it also possible this might be a Pacific Arms? Or some other contract possibly?

[chromeed]

Regarding the circle and the three holes, I would assume that the thickness of the stock was reduced using a surface plane up to the point where the stock needs to be thicker for the iron and in order to get the rounded cut they used a tool that was held in place by those three holes and kept flat by the circle. Probably done in a machine similar to a drill press.