Banner Mauser Help with ID please

[Sunnyblueskies]

Hi I'm new to Mausers in general. I read over several posts and thought I might try my luck and see what you guys have to say, since you know what you are talking about and I don't. Also, please forgive me if I name parts wrong, I'm learning.

I picked up an old Mauser at a Gun show which was destined to a parts bin.

The stock has quite a few dings and the barrel/receiver has seen much better days as well, nevertheless, I'm curious about the history of this piece.Some pictures will be added to the post, unfortunately they are quite bad in quality, my camera had issues with the close ups etc. Hopefully I can add better ones soon.

My Mauser:

Laminated stock, numbered 5280 inside, 5280 c rear bottom of stock, a P is there as well, but not in line with the serial number, you'll see in the pic.Stock length is approx. 39 3/4 inches end to tip.
The outlines of a very faint imprint can be seen on the left side of the stock (back) about the shape of the Mauser Banner, but no letters inside the outline can be made out.
The tip has a small 5 end star imprinted on the left side of the bayonet 'guide', looks like it covers another proof mark though which can't be identified. On the right it is marked with an 80.

The 'metal disks' in the stock body have the little 5 end star stamped on, plus a 7 on the left side.

The handguard is marked 5280, as well as the spring, front band and rear band.

The barrel is approx. 22 3/4 inches, adds up to approx. 31 3/4 inches including the receiver, on the left side (barrel) is the serial number 5280 c, on the left of the S/N was a proof mark, but it is punched out, carved out.
Underneath the barrel is a 38 RS imprinted.
The caliber imprint is a 7.9.

The front sight is a upside down V, star imprint on the left, 80 on the right.

The flip up rear sight is marked 5280 S on the top piece and 5280 K and small s on the bottom piece.

The receiver has the same punched out, carved out mark on the left and right side, followed by the S/N 5280, c under the S/N.
The Mauser Banner is on top of the receiver, centered, no year is engraved.
Various numbers and letters are stamped underneath on the receiver, on the flat side, none are in line or in order, they are: Z, 3,4,5,V,E,E,Z.

The triggerguard has no S/N imprinted, or they are gone due to rust. The only imprint I could find after taking the gun apart are T, Q and S. Again, not inline.

The Buttplate has no visible imprints, they may be grinded off, or never marked. Only thing that I could find closely resembling a letter or number was a small 1 located on the lower half of the plate.

The bolt itself is a complete mismatch of parts with S/N like 6805, 6994, 5620, 4 above 3456 above c.

My curiosity is of course the year of production of the rifle, but also, what is the origin/meaning of that 5 end star? The 38RS? And has it been seen before that a proof mark on barrel and receiver have been erased so to speak? Or is it something that most likely happened once the gun was in civilian hands?

I'm anxious to find out what you guys have to say..........

Information

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[Sunnyblueskies]

Here are better pictures. I tried to highlight some of the markings with powder, thus the white coloring. See the little star used on the 4th and last picture.
Also the 'carved out' marking on the 5th picture.
As you can see on the top of the receiver, a previous owner was desperate to find markings and took a wirebrush or sandpaper to the stock.
Doesn't matter what this gun ends up being, it's sad that somebody would get that desperate finding markings and scrape it up like that.

[Clash77]

What you have appears to be a wartime K98k, which someone has gone through the effort of removing the WaA markings/Waffenamts and other Nazi markings.

Shame someone scrubbed off the markings but still a very nice rifle historically speaking. Looks like it definitely saw some serious action during WWII. I wouldn't mind having that rifle in my collection. If I were you I'd have it checked by a gunsmith to see if it's safe to fire.

[Sunnyblueskies]

Clash how can I determine the age, does the 38 RS mean it is from 38? And what do the R and S stand for?
I've been looking at quite a few pictures but I've never come across a little star marking like that......have you seen a marking like this before?

[Clash77]

Unfortunately that's about all I know, I'm mostly a Lee-Enfield guy. I strongly suspect the star/asterisk is a proof mark. The 38RS might be the date for the barrel, but I don't know.


Bear with me here, but I just had a thought that you may have a Russian capture K98k. The star could certainly be a Russian stamp. Someone more knowledgeable than I should be able to confirm that, but just throwing that possibility out on the table. As far as I know, that would also explain the removed Waffenamts.

[VinnAY]

It's far to intact with the stock/barrel/receiver/front band serialized together to be a Russian Capture. It also lacks the 'X' on the receiver of an RC. It further lacks the heavy black dipped blue on the metal and the red shellac on the stock. Its remarkably intact, it's a shame the German/Nazi markings were peened.

[jmoore]

Any markings along the left hand side of the action opposite the ejection port?

A laminated stock seems odd for a "Banner" Mauser. There should be codes on the end of the stock under the buttplate which were used to indicate the mfg. and build date of the stock. They DID start making laminated stocks in the '30s, but deciphering the codes is beyond me. A friend found a fellow who was doing a book about these stock and codes, but it was several years back. He did help us date a stock on a Simpson Gew98 rebuild, but that's the last I heard on the matter.

[Sunnyblueskies]

jmoore, I took the butplate off a couple days ago to see if I could find any markings. Unfortunately there was lots of rust on the butplate and I could not see anything on the stock either. I'll take the gun apart again this weekend and have a closer look at the stock end, also take additional pictures of the markings of the receiver under the stock. Maybe the key to all of this is in these?!

[Patrick Chadwick]

The erased stamps were NOT WaA stamps, which are military inspection/acceptance stamps, as this was not a military rifle. And the WaA stamps (3 of them!) would have been placed on the right side of the receiver ring.

The erased stamps were the Nazi-era firing proof stamps, or "Beschußstempel". See Law, "Backbone of the Wehrmacht" for a near-identical receiver ring (even a "c" series number!) on P.76.

On the barrel, the 38 is the last two figures of the year, i.e. 1938.
RS is the barrel steel supplier - maybe Ruhrstahl.

[Sunnyblueskies]

I don't have the book, would the page be online somewhere? Or an example of what you are talking.