MG 08

[Chris Boonzaier]

I just saw one, demilled Canadian style, with a sledge.......

USD8000

What do you guys think? An OK price? Not that I have the money :-(

[Daniel Murphy]

Only one problem, How will you get the sled mount on the plane? That probably is a fair price if it is the same quality demill as your 08/15. The last mount I saw for sale was $3500 and the last dummy gun sans mount(a US demill) was $2500. Prices have gone up since then. A nice sled mount is actually harder to find than the gun.

Dan Murphy

[Chris Boonzaier]

The sledge in question apparently has been painted with some kind of grounding colour.

What was the standard factory colour? a green similar to the helmets?

best

Chris

[Daniel Murphy]

Chris,

Mine is originally battleship gray with red primer underneath on the thin sheet metal inserts on the side. A common thing to do with these is repaint them and to replace the cloth covered horsegair pads. I have had numerous people tell me I should redo mine. Never gonna happen. To me it is like reblueing a gun, you destroy the value. Gray, various shades of olive and field grey are acceptable original colors. As long as the paint looks old and shows a good bit of wear, it may be original. If the paint is near perfect, it has been repainted. These things saw a lot of use under horrible conditions. One practice of the gunners was to leave the sled mount in place during a bombardment, so that once it stopped they could come out of cover, mount the gun and open fire on attacking infantry ASAP. Mine shows several schrapnel/ shell splinter hits. I saw one at the Hill 60 museum that was cut in half by shell fire. Here is another photo of my pride and joy at a recent living history event (where we won first prize by the way)which shows the condition of the paint on the sled.

Dan Murphy

Edited June 25, 2006 by Daniel Murphy

[Chris Boonzaier]

Stogieman pointed me in the direction of the Sledge auction some time ago... the piece in question had a leg at the back broken off (I dont thnk you can repair that, piece was missing anyway....)

I think it went for about USd2500 or so...