K98 Sling

[LJT]

Gents

I bought an dou45 coded K98 last week and it came complete with a gfg45 coded/WaA80 sling. This sling looks like it was made last week. What do you reckon? The WaA80 code is right for a dou k98.[Waffenwerke Brünn A.G., Werk Povaszka Bystrica, Slovakei]

I didn't pay much for the dou45 K98 (US$250) and wasn't expecting it to come with a sling.

FWIW: The dou45 is now number 17 in my K98 collection. Numbers 16 and 15 were also purchased this month and were a Israeli 7.62 for US$100 and a Yugo Preducze44 for US$150. I much prefer the original German issue K98's ( I have quite a few S42 and S42G coded non RC examples) but they are few and far between here in the UK now. RC rifles are still about in quantity over here for around the US$300 mark.

Regards

LJT

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Aragorn243]

Fair chance it was made last week. Lots of nice looking repro slings out there these days, I wouldn't begin to guess whether it's original or not. I've seen 3 or 4 manufacturers selling them for $20 or less on ebay alone. I picked one up for my RC that way, has original German markings and date stamp and no indication it's a repro even though it was sold as such.

[LJT]

Further to my last...
I showed the sling to a couple of fellow collectors today and both agreed it is a genuine 1945 made sling. It looks like I did all right on the deal but the 200 rounds of surplus 8mm that has just turned up doesn't look too good!

[Aragorn243]

You got a great deal then on the rifle then although for that price it was a good deal to begin with.

[Calif-Steve]

The sling does not look like any of my Kar98k slings. Lots of nice repo stuff around.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Sounds like you got a good deal on the rifle. Do you have photos of it?

[Jim]

You've done good over all and scored real well on the Yugo rework as those routinely sell in the $250 range.

[captk72y]

gfg Was the manufacturer's code for Carl Hepting & Co Lederwaren und Guertelfabrik (leatherwares and belt factory) located in Stuttgard-Fuerbach. The are known to have made holsters for the P08 (Luger pistol) One way to find out if the sling is a repo is to check the WaA80 to see where it was assigned. It has to match the factory. I have a repo sling, nicely made and marked but the WaA code was never assigned to the factory where the sling was supposedly made.

[captk72y]

A quick check reveals that WaA668 is for gfg Carl Hepting Stuttgart 1942. WaA80 is for dou Brünn Bystrica (SK) 1941 - 45. this leads me to believe that the sling is a repo recently made as manufacturers code and WaA code do not match.

[OxfordAndy]

Further to my last...
I showed the sling to a couple of fellow collectors today and both agreed it is a genuine 1945 made sling. It looks like I did all right on the deal but the 200 rounds of surplus 8mm that has just turned up doesn't look too good!

Don't know how much you paid for the rifle but there is a guy in Germany selling original old slings with markings at around $250 - $295 on Ebay.

Plus, as already said, there are many repro's out there. Although I have yet to find a convincing one.......over on the Enfield forum there is a big debate about fake WaA stamps (here is an example of a commercially available one: Hand Stamp, German Nazi Eagle - Use On Metal Wood Or Leather Surfaces.
)

I'd also say that, looking at my only original sling, the button holes for the keeper on your sling look the wrong shape to me. The pic below shows the unused slots on mine with the middle one being the one that the keeper has been through - the unused slots are very tight with only a small hole at the base - the teardrop cut that I see on yours looks very much like those you often see on repros.