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Hello all. I have been offered a K98k dated 1938 and was hoping to get some more information on the rifle and your opinions on how authentic it is. It seems to include some of the German stamps and most of the parts match. I know mismatches are common enough and it seems to be in reasonable shape. What do you all think?
Typical Russian capture. That explains its lack of entirely matching parts. They were captured in the millions by the Soviets, disassembled post war, cleaned, repaired and put back together with no attention paid to the Germans' psychotic numbering fetish. "42" was the code for the Mauser Werke Oberndorf plant, so it's actually a "Mauser" made rifle. 1938 makes it a pre war example and the fit and finish was (when factory fresh) far better than late war examples. Unpinged swastikas, a nice bore without being counterbored and in good shootable condition and it could fetch $450-$500 (maybe more) any day. I would.
P.S. - Kinda nice to see the Russian post war shellac still on it. So many collectors removed it to make it more "German".
Looks good, nice looking rifle.