First Mauser

[Micheal Doyne]

Hi all,

I put in a rather speculative bid at auction and appear to have acquired this. It isn't a real WWII sniper and wasn't sold as such. I am here to beg two favours, first what is a good starting point for an English language book dealing with the K98k ideally covering both the rifle, manufacturers markings and sniper conversions. I suppose I am after the equivalent of Lee-Enfield story by Ian Skennerton.

Secondly, can anyone tell me more about what I have acquired?

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Thanks, I can't get more pictures until I collect it which maybe a week or two.

Information

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[GeeRam]

Hi all,

I put in a rather speculative bid at auction and appear to have acquired this. It isn't a real WWII sniper and wasn't sold as such. I am here to beg two favours, first what is a good starting point for an English language book dealing with the K98k ideally covering both the rifle, manufacturers markings and sniper conversions. I suppose I am after the equivalent of Lee-Enfield story by Ian Skennerton.

Secondly, can anyone tell me more about what I have acquired?

Attachment 120406Attachment 120405Attachment 120407Attachment 120408Attachment 120409Attachment 120410Attachment 120411

Thanks, I can't get more pictures until I collect it which maybe a week or two.

From the electropencil serial number on the bolt, it looks to be a Russian Capture K98 that has been fitted with a Short Side Rail scope mount and a commercial Ajack 4x90 scope..... actually looking closer it might even be a correct military one... which would be a stroke of luck!
Its got an early stock with Weimer markings on it, so likely not original stock to rifle as with most RC's. Looks like a 42 code 1938 on the receiver top which means Mauser-Oberndorf made.

As for books, there is the old long out of print Richard Law books, which although seen as the bible on the 98, were written a long time ago, and contain many inaccuracies and indeed now known to be faked rifles. Hard to find and expensive second hand now.

The recent 4 volume book set published in the USA by current K98 guru's Mike Steves and Bruce Karem are now considered the definitive K98 book set, although Vols 1 & 3 are now all sold and are not being re-printed.
Vol 2a & 2b as a 2 book set might just be still available which covers the 1939-1943 era of the K98k.
Again not cheap.

[Micheal Doyne]

Cheers for the book recommendations I will see what I can acquire.

I was assuming RC given the elector pencil. Given the bolt.is miss matched what sort of accuracy expectations would be reasonable? I am.sort if assuming 4MOA - 2MOA would be good, below 2 would be pretty awesome. Is that reasonable?

I had rather assumed the scope would be poat war for sure. How could I validate if it is a military war time scope?

[Eaglelord17]

Matched or mismatched bolts really don't have much of a effect on accuracy. Condition of the barrel, condition of the crown, bedding of the rifle, type of ammo used, etc. will all have more of a effect. The bolt matching or mismatched just determines if the headspacing is more likely to be correct (and 75+ years after they were made matching numbers is no longer a guarantee of that).

[GeeRam]

I had rather assumed the scope would be poat war for sure. How could I validate if it is a military war time scope?

Yes, its almost certainly a post war scope..............I completely missed what appears a windage dial on the side of the scope even though its staring me in the face and WW2 mil and pre-war commercial scopes had just the BDC dial on top of the scope, no windage dial adjustment.
It may also have a post war hunter cross hair reticle as well, rather than a WW2 mil post reticle.
The original Ajack Berlin factory was bombed in early 1945 and post war they set up a new factory in the Kreuzberg suburb of Berlin.

The SSR mount appears to be a Type 1 or Type 2 SSR mount rather than the later Type 3 with the extra location pins.

[Micheal Doyne]

The SSR mount appears to be a Type 1 or Type 2 SSR mount rather than the later Type 3 with the extra location pins.

I presume that bracket is a reproduction, I presume some repros are better than others, is there a good way of identifying one from tother?

[GeeRam]

I presume that bracket is a reproduction, I presume some repros are better than others, is there a good way of identifying one from tother?

Almost certainly a repro.
If it was done recently here in UK, then most likely an Accumounts bracket given their availability, although there are some eastern european made one floating around as well, but I have no idea how to tell the repros from each other.
The best repro mounts were made by Robert Spielauer but he stopped making his repro's about 3/4 years ago now. He wrote what is probably the definitive book on the WW2 German sniper scopes and mounts, but again, its now out of print and very hard to find a copy.......although, it is still available in a Kindle electronic format from Amazon if you have a Kindle.

[Micheal Doyne]

Should it have a foresight protector? The block doesn’t seem to have a groove for one.

[GeeRam]

Should it have a foresight protector? The block doesn’t seem to have a groove for one.

Nope, not on a 1938 K98k.
Sight hoods and the cupped butt plate stocks etc., started to appear on rifles in the later part of 1941.

Would have only got the groove mod for a later sight hood if it had gone through a German rebuild while in original service, after that time or possibly one of the Czech or Yugo post war rebuilds.

[GeeRam]

The just still visible stock markings indicate the stock was originally fitted to an early 1937 production rifle made at the same Mauser-Oberndorf factory, so while not originally matching to the rifle, is by luck about as close a match as you're going to get with a RC rework.