'Transitional' Gew 98.

[Anzac15]

Grabbed this one today..a 1916 Danzig Gew 98 'transitional' rifle. Rear sight is marked S/42. No 'G' or 'K' after it. Plenty of Weimar eagles. Kind of surprised no '1920' date on it. Have a look!

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[UNPROFOR1994]

Kind of surprised no '1920' date on it.

If I am not mistaking Mauser Obendorf didn't start using the S/42 code and WaA63 marking before 1936.

[jmoore]

A good find! Pre WWII rework, but only minor changes.

[Alkali]

How could anyone not like this 98M ? (a rhetorical question, it looks pretty darn good to me). I noticed the "wider" sling band replacing the narrow WWI band. If I remember correctly, Mauser made the sight bases for these update modifications. Don't know if they actually did the work tho.

[Anzac15]

Any idea as to when this rifle would have been upgraded? I've seen rear sights with S/42 with a 'G' or 'K' before, but not just S/42.

[UNPROFOR1994]

Mauser Obendorf used receiver code S/42K in 1934, S42/G in 1935. The S/42 code was only used in 1936 untill early 1938. In my opinion your rifle was converted to the sS-patrone configuration during that 1936 - 1938 period.
In the book "The K98k Rifle - Propaganda Series - ISBN 90-805583-1-1" there is an official German WW2 propaganda photo made in Northern Russia, August/September 1941 where you can see stacked G98's in front of destroyed buildings. These G98's look just like yours, with the new back sight and a bolt disassembly disc.

[Anzac15]

This was interesting....looked on the band, and saw these two markings. You might not be able to see it too well, as this camera is crap. The one on the left is 'SuW' something, with '1936' below it. Can't quite make out the right marking, but it looks like a different version of the Weimar eagle. These are on the takedown washer as well.

[mike webb]

Kind of an oddball. Usually WW1 98's that were mounted with K98k rear sights were totally reworked to K98K SPECS, shorter barrel, bent bolt etc. These seem to all have the rear sight marked S/42. Never seen one with the original barrel and stock.

[UNPROFOR1994]

Kind of an oddball.

Not really, there are plenty more of them out there.

[Calif-Steve]

Most of what we see today came out of Spain around 1960/61. Really nice find there.