Yugoslavian K98k rework

**Didier** · 12-22-2018, 08:28 PM

Yugoslavian K98k reworks are of course fairly common and inexpensive, compared to "real" German K98k rifles, but this one is a little different from the mass of Preduzece 44 K98k rifles : it was reworked at the TRZ-5 (Hadžići, Bosnia) factory and still bears a majority of its original German Waffenamt stamps. It may be one of the earliest Yugo K98k reworks (pre-1948) and was probably hastily put together at a time when the newly created Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia desperately needed firearms.

The Yugoslavian crest was superimposed on the receiver byf 42 (= Mauser Oberndorf 1942) marking.

The rifle and its (new) Yugoslavian barrel were (civilian) proofed at Ferlach, in Austria, when it was imported into the European Union.

The Yugoslavian serial number is repeated on the magazine floorplate and on the stock.

The bolt is not "Yugo number matching".

Here are a few examples of German Waffenamt stamps on the rifle :

The German serial number was lined out on the magazine floorplate.

**lithgow** · 12-23-2018, 02:55 PM

A good example there! I don't think you could say that Yugoslavia was short of arms immediately after WW2 though-the partisans had been supplied with both Western Allied weapons and Soviet stuff in the latter half of the war and had captured large quantities of Italian and German weaponry at their respective surrenders-what they needed was to rebuild their own production capacities again, first by refitting surviving FN 24 clones and K98ks, then making complete new weapons like the M48 and finally more modern rifles like SKS and AK copies.

**mauser9** · 12-23-2018, 05:32 PM

Nice rifle Didier. Interesting to see changes made after the war even altered. Seems a few countries continued using the 98k long after the war ended. Thanks for sharing.

**Didier** · 12-23-2018, 06:47 PM

by lithgow

A good example there! I don't think you could say that Yugoslavia was short of arms immediately after WW2 though-the partisans had been supplied with both Western Allied weapons and Soviet stuff in the latter half of the war and had captured large quantities of Italian and German weaponry at their respective surrenders-what they needed was to rebuild their own production capacities again, first by refitting surviving FN 24 clones and K98ks, then making complete new weapons like the M48 and finally more modern rifles like SKS and AK copies.

Yes, you are right, I must admit. Interesting is the fact that the Yugoslavs did not even bother to erase all trace of German markings on this rifle other than the so-called "war eagles" (eagles on swastika), but I think Tito himself instructed them to do so. The Norwegians left those "war eagles" intact and so did West Germans as regards the K98k rifles used by the Wachbataillon in Berlin... until a complaint was lodged and Nazi symbols were removed from the rifles in 1995 ^^

**lithgow** · 12-24-2018, 05:55 PM

Has to be said, they are very small markings! My Soviet capture K98k has it's eagles intact but my GDR Volkspolizei Luger has the Swastikas underneath them 'pinged', really visible only with a magnifying glass...

**mauser9** · 12-24-2018, 09:39 PM

by lithgow

Has to be said, they are very small markings! My Soviet capture K98k has it's eagles intact but my GDR Volkspolizei Luger has the Swastikas underneath them 'pinged', really visible only with a magnifying glass...

Yeah I notice so many are different lithgow depending on who captured 98ks. Had a total mix-matcher BYF-44 back in 1995. Nothing to brag about condition wise but wanted a shooter so as not to fire my dad's matching 1940 gun. The 1944 byf was an CAI import from god knows where but it did retain the eagle and swastika stamps. No shellac on wood either. Matter of fact not much of a finish on the laminate wood if any. Maybe Romanian or Yugo capture. Big difference in overall bluing and barrel left unpolished with those "ring" looks to it.