Commercial production G98s? Pictures now up

[boltaction]

Good evening:
Does anyone have any information on probable commercial production Gewehr 98s? I picked one up recently which must be one, but I can't find out much about it in my usual reference books. It is a full length, full wood Gewehr 98, with receiver "in the white", marked Mauser Werke Oberndorf a/n as usual, but with no date of manufacture. The receiver side rail is marked Gew 98. There are no military acceptance stamps/frakturs on it, but it has a commercial 5 digit serial number, no letter suffix, and the Crown B Crown U commercial type proofs. The stock has been duffel cut under the front band, hidden and easily fixed. I haven't had the stock off it yet, but the topwood matches the receiver number. The rearsight and floorplate also match, but the bolt is not matching. The buttstock has the usual steel unit disk (no marks) and no bolt take-down hole, but has a gothic type WM monogram on the right stock flat which I assume is for Mauser. Some dipswitch has applied some cold blue "assistance" to the floorplate as best I can tell, and there are some nicks in the wood around the trigger guard like someone tried to pry it off without taking the screws out. Otherwise the rifle seems original. The bore is immaculate.

I am puzzled by this piece. It is a standard pre-WWI configuration Gew 98 (Lange-Vizier sight, lack of takedown hole, no forewood finger grasping grooves) made by Mauser but no manufacture date, no military marks, no crests of other countries. I don't see it in the Speed sporter/commercial book or the Mauser Archives book, although I admit I haven't gone through them page by page. Were miltary spec G98's made available to the public by order pre-WWI?

Thx

Ed

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