Watch: Rare Spreewerke VG-2 Bolt Action WW2 Rifle
Russ Chastain 06.27.16
Wow. The hammer price on this scarce last-ditch German WW2 rifle was a whopping $20,700! Although a goodly number of them were made, not many ever made it into collections in “the west.” It was an attempt to decentralize and simplify rifle production in order to arm more Germans as their enemies closed in on them.
Five different companies in Germany produced designs for the last-ditch Volkssturm bolt action rifles, and they were designated VG-1 through VG-5. The VG-2 was developed by the Spreewerke company and differed from the others in its use of a sheet metal stamped receiver (and consequently a pretty distinctive look).
In total, somewhere between 16 and 18 thousand VG-2s were manufactured, although they remain very scarce in western collections (most likely because most of them were lost or captured in areas overrun by the Red Army rather than the US or British forces). They retained a basic Mauser mechanism and used spare Luftwaffe aircraft MG barrels. Unlike some of the Volkssturm arms, the VG-2 appears to have been pretty much unchanged throughout its production run.
Designed with a stamped sheet metal receiver and utilizing rifle barrels originally made for aircraft, the VG-2 was actually a pretty good popper, at least for a quickly-built bolt action rifle. The detachable box magazine holds ten rounds, which is an improvement over the standard Mauser, which was both more expensive and more difficult to manufacture.
The safety is super-simple; it pivots from side to side and will either block the trigger’s rearward travel or not.
Attractive? Nope. But it’s interesting in a historical sense and because of the way it’s made.
