Perhaps a pinned thread on nothing but WWII 98k rifles?

[history-buff1944]

His/buff... those tacticool 25 rd magazines on those 98k's are post war chicanery. Well known and all laughed at.

Sorry but--that's untrue. Ive got researched evidence on them.

[gew98]

Sorry but--that's untrue. Ive got researched evidence on them.

Why that's odd my friend. Of the several dozen collectors I personally know...several whom are authors of books on such very odd topics as this , as well as them having some very advanced collections...we all laugh at this. The germans fielded the 25 rd "grabenmagazine" in the great war...loads of period photographic evidence of it being used on gew98 and kar98a's. Also documentation of how unpopular it was withthe troops and so often discarded.
The germans DID NOT make that mistake in WW2. The only thing even remotely near this - and it's still a guess as to it's possible authenticity is a friend of mine has a 20 rd G43 magazine. As Milton is a very advanced collector of german arms to include SS and sniping rifles.... he's not convinced it's real yet , unless he can find documentation of such a thing that may have been made for testing.
Anyhow seeing that in the past 15 + years gobs of MG13 & 17 magazines flooding the market and the quite sudden appearence of "rare ww2 era" 25 rd mags for the 98k.....good for a laugh then and now.

[barry]

hi all i wanted to add pics of my new k98

[NDShooter]

Nice Rifle Barry, I still need to add a CE to my collection.

[Doppelgänger]

I only wish I had a straight WWII 98k. I haven't had one since the mid 90's, when they're use to be a lot of straight ones floating around. I had some gorgeous ones, don't really even remember what they were exactly or what even I did with them... I have a friend I seldom talk to that had a really nice one, nice enough that I sold him my really nice all matching '43 bayonet/scabbard/frog some years back. And these days, I keep thinking I should call him had try to trade him out of it... If he still has it that is. Until then this will have to do.

It's a 60's vintage Belgium FN Mauser in 308. At the time of assembly, there must have been tons (literally) of surplus parts laying around, and this one ended up with a wartime rough finish trigger housing and floorplate. Otherwise all other parts are matching commercial Mauser. The trigger housing is Eagle77, and the floorplate is WaA77, Steyr factory Radom Poland if I remember right. The WWII parts are in near perfect original finish, crisp stamps, obviously never on a rifle that was issued in wartime. Funny thing some Mauser collectors that have seen it seemed to think the wartime parts was something to hold against the gun, whereas I think it's the coolest part of it ;-)

[NDShooter]

These sporting rifles do not get enough credit in the collecting world, I've got a few that I should post on here when I get better (Recovering from a surgery) but they are far the best action in the world and the history still recoils in your hands.

I just picked up a few nice things I'll be posting maybe later today.

[Doppelgänger]

I luvs my Mauser ;-) And it's deadly accurate. The scope is an older (=better) Leupold 3x9x a pretty big bell, not a 50, but bigger than a 42. I leave it set on 6x. There use to be so many sporterized WWII Mausers around, most in 30-06, and all beautiful guns with lots of personality. I'd sooner have one of those than some tarted up POS like a Mitchell's Mauser like I was recently offered, no thx...

There was an old fashioned gun shop here back in the day, famous for many many miles around. And when you'd walk into the main room, there were four long rows of hunting rifles leaning against their racks, and almost all of them were sporterized 98k's that the old boy had bought in the post war years when an untouched 98k could be had out of a magazine for less than $100. All beautiful rifles, nothing reblued, all with their original stamps perfect. Average asking price was about $175, but even then I had not interest in those and only spent my money on original stuff.

That shop closed a few years back, the son had no interest in it. I heard that there semi truck loads of guns there, and most people had never even seen what was in the basement. I sure miss it, especially with the way things are going nowadays, the end of an era...

[olliecw]

My all matching 1937 S/42. Serial no. 500i

To me this is an odd serial number, does anyone have any clue what it means?

Thanks,

Ollie.

[gew98]

I have some misgivings about the stock and front band serialing. The # 5 appears to be an overstamp and the serial on the stock is for sure with a NON german NON script 'i' .
In any even it's not an odd serial it's just the 500th rifle of the 'i' block produced.

[Doppelgänger]

Half of a thousand? ;-)