WOW thats a lot of Mausers!!

[usabaker]

Bunches and bunches....
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[fjruple]

You think I can find a nice one to take home?

[usabaker]

You think I can find a nice one to take home?

I don't know man... there might not be a big enough selection

[Atticus Thraxx]

Nice pull usabaker. Usually don't see that many abandoned rifles unless they're French.

[usabaker]

. Usually don't see that many abandoned rifles unless they're French.

That's the best thing about buy French surplus rifles, never used and only dropped once.

[GeeRam]

Now this is a lot of K98k's.......

Part of the 300,000 or so K98k's being sorted in Norway after the German surrender in 1945.



My Norwegian surrender K98k might in that pile somewhere

[usabaker]

My Norwegian surrender K98k might in that pile somewhere

WOWzers! even more....

[GeeRam]

WOWzers! even more....

Its a rare one as well, as it's a double Naval issue, being originally a German Kriegsmarine issue, that after surrender, was one of the small number issued to the Norwegian Navy, and thus escaped the 1950's conversion to 30-06.
Its not quite all matching though being bolt and buttplate miss-matched. Does still have an original German sling though.

[usabaker]

Its a rare one as well, as it's a double Naval issue, being originally a German Kriegsmarine issue

I didn't know these existed or that the Norwegianicon Navy was issued German Mausers

[GeeRam]

I didn't know these existed or that the Norwegianicon Navy was issued German Mausers

Not just the Norwegian Navy, the Army, Air Force, Coastal Artillery and Norwegian Police were all issued German arms from the surrendered German arms stock after the war (Norwegian Police were issued the shorter G33/40 mountain carbines from the stock surrender by German Mountain Troop units stationed in Norway at the surrender)
Norway needed to re-arm its own forces after the war, and their view was make use of the mountain of German arms and ammo left by the Germans so they started collecting it up, collating it all, and selecting the best of everything for their own needs.
By the early 1950's stocks of 7.92x57 ammo was running down, and the USA were offering plenty of 30-06 ammo to NATO countries, so in 1952-3 Remington supplied new K98k barrels in 30-06 calibre and Norway set about rebarreling and modifying the Army, Coastal Artillery and Air Force K98k's into K98kF1. The Navy and Police G33/40's were left as 7.92x57.
However, within just a couple of years NATO went over to 7.62x51, so all the converted K98kF1's were relegated to part time reserve forces and reserve stock. They did convert a few to 7.62 NATO as a trial, but decided that buying new rifles to equip the forces was the way forward. These K98k's were still in reserve forces use up until the early 90's, when they were all finally sold off as surplus and a batch made their way to the USA and to other countires, before a do-gooding Norwegian politician cried foul, and stopped the sell off, and managed to enact an order whereby the vast majority of them were taken out into the North Sea by the Navy and dumped into the sea.....and prevent any still sold and still in Norway begin exported from Norway.....
How many of the 150,000 odd rifles escaped is unknown......and I believe a Norwegian dealer was sitting on about 20,000 he bought but can't export. I believe they have been largely reduced to parts to be able to be exported, as a large number of K98k stock sets have turned up in the USA that originated from Norway. No doubt the actions have ended up being scrapped, whether the good barrels have been saved for spares I don't know? The Norwegian air force/army cadets still to this day use the small number of K98k that were retained in Norwegian service.

As a result of all that, the unconverted Navy K98k's and Police G33/40 mountain carbines are the rarest of those that did manage to get exported from Norway.