December 6-8, 2023 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/6/2023
Manufactured by Bergmann from the mid-1930s until 1942, the MP35/I incorporated an interesting and advanced feature of an easily removable barrel for cleaning and maintenance. Pressing the detent button with the head of a cartridge on the underside of the forearm forward of the trigger guard allows the user to rotate the muzzle and barrel assembly forward of the rear sight 90 degrees and then remove it; an extremely useful feature that eases the cleaning process. Another interesting feature of this weapon is that it fires semi-auto with a single pull of the trigger and automatic if one pulls the trigger to the rear and holds it. This specimen has been deactivated by plugging the chamber with weld, and lightly welding the rear of the barrel within the receiver. The receiver serial number on the right side is the only visible external serial number. Safety is on the left side of the receiver below the rear sight, which is graduated out to 1,000 meters. The tab to the rear of the safety is a bolt retention latch, which one needs only to depress in order to remove the bolt for cleaning. This is an earlier production specimen with a one-piece walnut stock with provision for a brass disk insert on the right side of the buttstock. This would indicate this gun is an early commercial contract piece, actually manufactured by Walther and possibly sent to Sweden as part of a 500 gun commercial contract. Guns such as these from the same production run were also taken into service by SS formations, particularly the railway security units, and anti-partizan units. For those who are familiar with this model, they are a highly prized example of German milled steel submachine gun manufacturing. 1 original 32-round magazine is included in this lot. Current NFA registration form indicates “Germany" as the manufacturer. The consignor has also included a copy of the original approved transfer from Potomac Arms Corporation to the previous owner dated April 1964 in which the manufacturer is listed as "Germany". CONDITION: Overall appearance and finish is extremely fine original lustrous blue finish forward of the bolt retention latch with some loss to gray patina forward of the chamber, and at the muzzle where someone attempted to remove the barrel shroud with a wrench prior to the consignor acquiring this piece. The thin metal rib at the top of the muzzle is slightly depressed from the pressure of the wrench. A good restorative specialist could significantly improve these areas. As to the chamber and barrel, until one actually gets into it, there is no way of knowing what damage may or may not have been sustained to the chamber and barrel incidental to deactivation. Condition of bore, and even the caliber cannot be determined due to the plugged chamber, but it is likely 9mm Parabellum. Wood is extremely fine with the missing stock disk area filled in with a wood plug, and with a chip repair on the right side below the rear sight. Bolt face is near excellent and unmolested. Mechanics are crisp although this gun is currently unserviceable. This is a select fire machine gun. An exciting offering for the collector of high-quality World War II era German machine guns as one of the very last models of the milled steel pistol caliber machine produced to high quality standards. Well worth purchasing and making the effort to restore to a firing condition. A scarce model often missing from even advanced machine gun collections. THIS IS A NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT ITEM AND REQUIRES BATF APPROVAL PRIOR TO TRANSFER. THIS ITEM IS FULLY TRANSFERABLE ON AN ATF FORM 5 AS A CURIO AND RELIC ELIGIBLE DEACTIVATED MACHINE GUN. THIS GUN MAY BE REACTIVATED UPON APPLICATION AND APPROVAL BY THE BATF, SUBJECT TO ANY STATE AND LOCAL RESTRICTIONS. JWK 2023-12-07