POTD: Rare Last Ditch Walther VG1 Volksgewehr Bolt Action Rifle
Sam.S 04.08.22
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have an interesting last-ditch rifle manufactured by Walther for German home guard forces. This is the Walther VG1 rifle. These rifles as mentioned before were intended to be made and distributed to the Volkssturm (Home Guard) during the last year of the war in Europe in World War Two. They were extremely simple copies of the Mauser action. They were chambered for the 7.92mm Mauser cartridge and fed by a detachable G34 magazine. The bolt handle was a very crude straight peg. The sights were simple rear notch and front dovetail. The barrels were surplus aircraft machine gun barrels. Lastly, the sling “swivel” was a bit of bent wire shoved through a hole.
“Manufactured by Walther for the Home Guard or “Volkssturm” units during the closing period of the war.”
Lot 4260: Walther VG1 Rifle 7.92 mm Mauser. (n.d.). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved April 7, 2022, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/1027/4260/walther-vg1-rifle-792-mm-mauser.
