1916 Amberg Gew98 Military Rifle

[john_anch_ak]

Howdy folks! I'm new here and just picked up a 1916 Amberg Gew98 Military Rifle from an online auction, (proxibid), and am really pumped up about it! Very low serial number, (all matching), great wood and great metal but I have not seen the bore so don't know much about that unitl it gets shipped to my FFL friend. I'm going to try to upload the pictures so if you will let me know what you think I'd sure appreciate it!

Information

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[Calif-Steve]

Looks like a 1962 Ye Olde Hunter Spanish Civil War import. Spain received piles of 71/84's and Gew98's during the Spanish Civil War. All sold off around in 1961/62, also sold were piles of nice 91/30 MN's out of Russia. Most of the Mausers had bad bores and I wish you good luck there.

[john_anch_ak]

Thanks for the input. Can I ask how one can tell that it's a Spanish Civil War import? Like does it have some type of stamp on the metal or wood?

[Calif-Steve]

I have 2 just like yours. Both with bad bores. You may/may not find a very small stamp on the bottom of the receiver just in front of the front trigger guard screw. Look REAL hard for it.

[john_anch_ak]

Thanks again for the information! Well, here's hoping it's got a good bore! It will probably be a week or better before I see it, depending on when the auction company gets around to sending it. I got it for a good price, (I think...), but of course the auction company charges 18% for internet bidders, (I still don't know what the deal is with that, just makes me not want to use proxibid for that reason), but while browsing I ran across this rifle and thought it was pretty nice so I did place a bid on it. At any rate it appears to be in pretty darn good condition so I'm pleased with my purchase.

[harry mac]

Looks like a very nice rifle. I hope you're lucky with the bore. Is that the correct pattern rear sight for a G98? The WW1 examples I've seen have all had the "ski jump" type rear sight.

[jmoore]

Is that the correct pattern rear sight for a G98? The WW1 examples I've seen have all had the "ski jump" type rear sight.

Thinking it's a Post WWI era Mauser (Obendorf) factory rework, but I'm not a real Mauser guy, just dabble a bit. Blued receiver, tangent rear sight with S/42 marking, non-matching cocking sleeve jump out at me, but again, I don't specialize in the field.

[mtoms]

I believe these Wiemer era reworks are termed Gew98m

[Calif-Steve]

Yes, a Gew98M. Likely a S42K or S42G stamp on the rear sight base. Almost certainly out of Spain.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Very low serial number, (all matching),

Sorry, not so. As Jmoore pointed out, the bolt sleeve appears to be marked with a different number. Since the average soldier would not have a spare sleeve to make a swap (or mistake) when dismantling/reassembling his rifle, the mismatch suggests that at some time the bolt was completely disassembled and reassembled on the same bench as with other rifles or parts thereof. The finish also looks "too good to be true".

Re: "All matching". On an Imperial Gew98 that means (no guarantee of completeness or correctness)
- Full number on barrel, receiver, butt behind the swivel (dropped after 1908), bolt body, barrel channel, trigger guard, floorplate, buttplate ...
- Last two digits on most items large enough to stamp, i.e. cleaning rod, front cap, backsight leaf, slider, trigger arm, bolt, bolt sleeve, bolt nut, safety lever, extractor ...
- Acceptance stamps on pretty well everything - even the wood screws (up to 1905)

... And, of course, the "Lange Vizier", not the later style of backsight.

It looks as if this rifle has had a complete makeover by somebody. Who that was, is now impossible to tell. And as several contributors have pointed out, look at the bore rather than the external finish!