K98 missing date code?

[daddy0011]

Acquired a Russian capture barreled receiver, ( Gustloff, bcd, ball punched swastikas, black painted, etc. ) with the second digit of the date on the receiver ring missing. All that is there is a 4, with nothing following it. Rubbed it with stripper to remove the paint to check for signs of removal, only to reveal original German bluing! No signs of removal, and a quick check with the calipers shows that that portion of the ring is actually a little taller than where the 4 is. Is this common on late war Gustloffs? The barrel is a AvK, and all seems to be original.

Thanks, J.K.

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.

[GUTS]

In 1944 Gustloff used a single "4" on the reciever ring for the date code as opposed to the 1943 on the ring for the previous year. The known serial numbers for the Code "4" rifles is 5228 to 8206y for blued rifles and 4242 to 99326 for rifles with a phosphate finish. "avk" is a correct barrel code for your rifle.

[daddy0011]

Thanks GUTS,
Seems every one of these old rifles I acquire raises more questions than answers.
All I could find about Gustloff was either about the ship that was sunk, or factory info was confined to when it was bombed. Didn't know if they ended production then, or if it continued.
Your info helps loads toward finding correct period parts. That's why I come here for answers.

J.K.

[daddy0011]

OOPS.
After I replied, I checked the serial#, and mine is 46##. See what I mean, my stuff always
falls off the radar.

J.K.

[m4a3sherman]

Gustloff was a factory set up at Buchenwald Concentration camp to produce, amoung other things, rifles and ammunition for the German Army. A common misconception is that it was set up solely to produce weapons for the SS but this is not the case. For what it's worth, a factory had been there ('there' being just outside Weimar, Germany) prior to the war but was incorporated into the camp shortly after it was built and renamed the Gustloff Werks after Wilhelm Gustloff, a Nazi martyr of sorts. The factory ran until April, 1944 when the RAF bombed it into ruin. The actual bombing run, by the way, was one of the most accurate and precise ones of the war with only two bombs missing their targets and landing in the camp. One assumes the prisoners would have much rather the bombs destroyed the SS barracks... Additionally, the British were not bombing the location because of Buchenwald or to stop arms production- they thought V2 rockets were being built there when they were actually being worked on underground at Dora-Mittelbau, further north. Strangely, some figures show a further 91,000 or so kar98ks being produced after the bombing. It has been suggested that only G43 production was halted as a result of the raid as there is a sudden drop off of production with that line.

Generally speaking, as things got on in the war, weapons production in Germany gets a bit hairy. We see manufacturers pick up and drop off, diversify or focus on a particular weapon. Additionally, the use of the extensive labour camp system in Germany means that a lot of parts, though found on a particular rifles or marked to a certain factory might have been 'out-sourced' to various camps and sub-camps throughout the system.

Gustloffs and in general, Kar98ks are really good at opening up more questions than answers and the unfortunate truth is that, without a time machine, it is hard to pin-point every small detail about where and when and who built a particular weapon. Certainly, as time goes on, more records and documents are going to be uncovered and the gaps in the record will start to shrink but until then- all we can do is research on our own weapons and wait for more information to come out of the bigger picture.

For additional information, however, you should check out a book called 'Backbone of the Wehrmacht' by Richard D. Law. It is, in many respects, the Kar98k bible and great go-to source. Additionally, the book 'Hitler's Garands' by Darren Weaver (a book about the G41 and G43 rifles) provides some excellent information about production at many of the weapons factories along with the main history of the K43/G43 rifles as many of these were being built along side the Kar98k.

[GUTS]

The serial number range is for "known" serialed rifles, there seems to always be exceptions. Some of the rifles were a mix of blued and phosphated finishes, but generally the barrel and the reciever were of the same finish and the other parts were mixed.

[daddy0011]

Thanks, great info here. looks like I'll have to add a couple more books to the reference library.
Seems half of the fun in owning such pieces, is doing the research. pity, my passion was hot rods when these rifles were $19.95 a Woolworth's.

J.K.

[CapnJohn]

Google for this article, great info!!!

This article was originally published in the KCN in their August 1990 newsletter as:
THE GUSTLOFF K98k
By Bob Jensen and was edited by Peter Kuck 06/11/2002

[Badger]

This article attached was originally published in the KCN in their August 1990 newsletter as: THE GUSTLOFF K98k By Bob Jensen and was edited by Peter Kuck 06/11/2002.

Regards,
Doug

[Sarge]

Backbone of the Wehrmacht is a good "General" source of info on the K98k rifles, BUT it is riddled with mistakes and omissions! It should NEVER be taken as the bible on k98k rifles!!!
There is now a book out on the late war K98ks - "Kriegsmodell." It is a Very Good book on the late war rifles. It has also just recently been published in Germany.
Sarge