Quote Originally Posted by Sigismund View Post
is that rifle above yours Doug?

If so, bravo!

Well, it was an almost purchase....

I missed buying it by one day.

Someone else had already put a deposit on it in the U.K., less than 24 hours before I was directed to the ad. It had been in a museum for 40 years, which was closing down and their collection was being sold off by a dealer.

Beautiful piece....

I thought it was time to replace the standard PU sniper pics I've been using for over a year in our thread introductory monthly purchases post, so that's why you'll see it up there for a while. It will be a constant reminder to me that you have to be quick to get the good stuff.

Here's the "comments" I received from the dealer, as well as all of the pics that he sent me on it.

Regards,
Badger

This rifle is a J.P. Sauer und Sohn Gewehrfabrik, SUHL

This is the 2nd variation of rifles produced by JPS&S in 1943 showing the WaA 280 which tells us the date of the rifle as most receiver rings were scrubbed when mounting the High Turrets for the scope.

This rifle is coded 'ce' JPS&S

The 1st variation 'ce' can be identified by the Gothic Script at commencement of series and the WaA359.

Scope - Scope is a Carl Zeiss Zeilvier model produced from circa 1934 to 1942. As the Zeilvier has not been coded with Zeiss -Jena (eg - 'blc' ) I strongly suspect this rifle was originally procured for SS or Police use - (the SS were particularly fond of Zeiss scopes and mounted them either on the High Turret mount or the Short side rail mount) Their love affair with Zeiss scopes started as far back as circa 1934 when the Chef des Ausbildungswesens was created - SS used a private purchase system from the 7 main K98kicon manufacturers till early '44 when the OKW were able to control Himmler's thirst for autonomy! I believe however, this rifle ended up in the Wehrmacht.

Obviously I have examined the High Turret scope mounts - the numbering style and stamping is consistent - I have looked at many sniper rifles over the course of the last 30 years 'hands on' in National and Army Museums and private collections - from the USAicon to Germany - without question this rifle is correct.

In UKicon today there is a well know southern gunsmith building " copy" K98k sniper rifles - it is tragic that in a few years these will have gained a provenance and be sold and vanish into a collection for another 20 years through a lack of knowledge".