Grimjim, a man in the area had a musical instrument that he thought was German, but he could not read what was written on it. Went I went to look at it, I found it was actually written in Russian, with Cyrillic characters. From the description of the guns, when you finally got to see them, your friend was probably getting his information second hand. I would not be surprised to find out that the Russian acceptance mark was mistaken for a swastika. Let us hope that the crud in the bore is dried cosmolene. I hate to see an old gun that has been so abused that it can't be fired. If the bore is salvageable, then you can watch the guy's face as you explain the backflips that he will have to go through to find ammo to fire in the French rifle.