Very cool old war horse, nice catch! Could the mark on the recoil lug be a partially struck 0 ?

 

I suppose it could be…although the way the lower end tapers and ends looks more deliberate. But I’m just speculating!

I got some other input on the stock stamps. The right side says “Practice” in simplified Chinese - which apparently came into use in 1951. So that would imply the gun was in Chinese hands then. I should have mentioned that there are no import marks at all on the gun!

The font in the right side is called xiaozhuan and it’s more “stylized/artistic”. It appears it might be a location.

 

Interesting history for sure. especially with the presumably Turkish mauser parts. I like.

 

The sear trigger part looks like added recently the rivet is there not corectly given, the P series buttstock would be interesting to see on serial? the bolt could be CS delivery, anyway normally bolts were serialed, should be present the handle of bolt.

 

The serial is P2401.

The only number on the bolt is a “3” on the underside at the handle root. I looked under magnification and can’t see any sign of a number being ground off.

My guess on the trigger is that a more current owner replaced it for some reason - and the Turkish trigger is what they had available.

 

Cool rifle. What is the story on the Swastikas on it?

 

Fiddling about in Wiki and other places it seems the backwards swastika is a Pinyin Chinese character for wan, which one source translated as "10,000". Its meaning might be context dependent on the other characters there.

 

A cool piece shows how a bubba rifle being assembled from various parts. The receiver is from a No.21 Arsenal Model Zhongzheng, or Chiang Kai Shek rifle more familiar to collectors; the stock was from a China used or Chinese contract P series Vz.24; the trigger was from a Turkish Mauser; the bolt, according to your description, should be a Czech one.

All No.21 Arsenal was dated with year of manufacturing on top of the ring. Because the marking is too shallow so it's easily got worn out. I can tell you the year date by the serial number.

The two characters in rectangular shape are 操练 (Cao Lian) which means practice or drilling. It's applied by communists after 1949. The two characters in rounded rectangular shape are 治安 (Zhi An) in the ancient Seal font which can be translated to public security. This markings was applied on before 1949 to indicate the rifle was likely allocated to police or vigilance corp use.

Aaron

 

Not surprising parts have been replaced ......had one of these with the bolt sleeve made in a blacksmith shop ,very rough......I replaced it with a spare I had .......incidentally ,these guns are selling for real money now ,nice one for A$2000 recently.

 

The early P range was delivered to China 1938, so it could be refurbished there, the unknown stamped bolt should be have Z in circle on base of handle. and should be CS lion fireproofed.