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If you are going to collect only 98ks, then you will want the Backbone. There isn't really anything better out just yet, atleast that I have encoutnered. If you want to broaden your focus some, there are several revisions out of 'Mauser Military Rifles of the World' by Ball. His books will cover the spectrum of Mauser rifles with mostly brief descriptions and good colour photographs.
But for 98ks, the Backbone of the Wehrmacht is a must have, and is a very enjoyable book; its nice, leatherbound, large photographs, and reads well. There are endless detail pictures and statistics. The author has deceased but one can only hope that someone will step up and revise his work with some of the new information that is slowly coming out from more years of collecting and research and what has come out of the former soviet bloc. That being said, It is not a particularly dated reference, it was last updated in 1993, but it has been a while.
One downside is that it can be pricey, but check on eBay and Amazon. I also suggest you seek out one as new as possible.
Cheers!
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but do keep in mind that Backbone of the Wehrmacht does contain a lot of mistakes. there are at least a couple of faked rifles in there that the author thought to be legit. a lot of small things like production numbers will be incorrect by now as well since the book is kind of outdated and the author has since passed away.
there is another book about late war and kriegsmodell 98ks but the name escapes me right now...
