Poor man's Walther G41 mag follower

[GunKraut]

Another parts bin rifle is nearing completion. This time it's a G41 ac43 in a duv43 stock (some members have seen me firing it at the Calguns/WEGC shoot).

Unfortunately, my parts bin didn't surrender a G41 mag follower, so I've been on the lookout for quite a while. One sold on eBay long time ago for almost $300 including spring. The guys in France are out of repros which run about $130 including spring.

When you compare an MG13 follower against its G41 counterpart, you'll see a lot of similarities. They almost look like twins, except the MG13 follower has the hump on the opposite side, has a bolt stop with two horns sticking out the back side and is about 0.1" shorter overall, sans the horns.

I ground the horns partially down on a belt sander (you can't file, it's hardened steel) until I had two ridges standing about 0.1" proud. They need to be ground with a slight angle so the follower can tilt inside the mag box without binding.

Next I shortened the spring that came with the follower, my Dremel with cut-off wheel came in handy. When the original G41 spring is compressed flush with the mag box, the compression force is about 9 pounds. The shortened MG13 spring has about 13 pounds right now, maybe I will shorten it one more time. After shortening, I bent the end of the spring in a shop vise to resemble the original MG13 shape.

After installation in my G41, it worked perfectly. The only feature missing is the bolt stop on empty mag, but in light of the fact that I paid less than $18 for MG13 follower and spring at Numrich makes this a shortcoming I can easily live with.

[pitfighter]

Nice one - that steel is hard isn't it? - I gave up on the MG13 follower, because of how hard the steel was.

[GunKraut]

Nice one - that steel is hard isn't it? - I gave up on the MG13 follower, because of how hard the steel was.

Must be Krupp steel... Yes, it sure is hard and will almost dull a regular file. Diamond files stand a chance, though. And then there's the belt sander.
The follower is coated dull green, not sure if it's phosphated. Inspection stamp is "4" which stand for BSW if memory serves me right - or maybe Gustloff?

Anyhow, another fun project slowly coming to an end. If anybody would like to build their own G41 from scratch, I know someone in Orange County who has a barreled action G41 ac43 with matching bolt assembly and matching gas system down to the muzzle cone. Missing the safety, actuator rod, trigger guard, mag and contents, stock and related hardware. Could become a money pit if you don't have enough patience in your search for spares. I got shafted by a crook on GB selling me an expensive original stock that had way more issues than the disclosed duffle cut.

[pitfighter]

The MG13 follower I had was one I popped out of a mag, it was hardened steel but not green, I cut the MG13 mag spring and intended to use that in the G41(m) too - I ended up selling the rifle without ever finishing the fix.

I bought the action which was all matching here on Calguns - the stock and other metal took me another two years to find (on the now defunct Gk43 forums) and cost another $3500 -

Funnily enough, I walked into an old gunstore in Culver City (Martin J Retting) and asked if they had any G41(m) spares, and the oldest guy that works there part time, came out with an ancient plastic bag full of parts - including two reciprocator rods, which are unobtanium, just funny where you find parts.

Here it is in the stock - as it ended up - a 1941 G41(m) - Mauser variant. #2500

[GunKraut]

I remember your success story on the old GK43 forum. It was quite amazing how all bits and pieces fell in place for you, especially with the bag full of G41(M) goodies at MBR. I always liked the Mauser variant because of its really odd looks, although price wise always out of my reach. Well, I said the same about the Walther G41 and now I've got two.
There's a stripped G41(M) barreled action on GB but it's a long stretch from there to something that goes BOOOM. Rule of thumb for Walther-made G41 projects: If you pay more than $600 for a stripped barreled action or more than $1000 for a barreled action with matching bolt assembly, chances are you will spend more money completing the rifle than it would cost you to buy an already complete mixmaster/shooter on GB.

BTW, nice collection. I envy you; but in a good way.

[pitfighter]

I agree completely:

The G41(m)'s are interesting to a very small section of the collecting market, and a matching rifle, or like mine, a mix-master with no reproduction pieces on it, is OK. But will still take forever to sell, and although we see them listed at amazing money, they are not exchanging hands regularly, they just sit and sit.

A half reproduction, half original is just going to be a tough sell. There are so many beautiful original firearms you can buy with $5K (which will be the minimum you spend putting it together) or so, why would anyone consider spending that much to buying a partial restoration of a failed experiment?

Unless the G41(m) is a restoration you REALLY want to take on for educational reasons, I would recommend a pass.
It wasn't an innovation, so much as the result of a ridiculous equipment order.

I'm just a lot more interested in the way the more "successful" German firearms initiatives (G, K, MP, Fg) came about and their popularity is less niche based when it comes time for you come to sell.

I only have two rifles "left" from that photo - the "new" collection is considerably smaller - but, much more focused.

At some point the methodology changed, I started out with more firearms than books, then as the collecting became more serious, more books than firearms, lol.