Need help identifying some of the markings on a post war Czech K98

[Yoxford]

I bought this rifle a number of years ago as a shooter, but never really spent much time finding out what I had. It appears to have some of the features of a post war Czech build/rebuild. It seems to be a S/42G barrel and receiver. It's marked 24G155 on the right side of the barrel between the sight and receiver. I've not been able to find any reference to the meaning of that. Also, there are no crossed swords or rampant lions anywhere to be found, but the side rail is marked Ceskoslovenská Zbrojovka, A.S., BRNO. The barrel, receiver and bolt are matching. I believe the bolt was probably renumbered. The floorplate is milled and the original numbers struck out and numbered to match. It is import marked. There are Waffenampt marked parts throughout, but any Nazi proofs were scrubbed. In particular on the rear of the bolt handle.














As I dug a little deeper I found some curious marking that I hadn't noticed before.
What I thought was just a ding, maybe a rune?


I was never able to clearly make out what this was, until I took a picture of it. A skull perhaps?



A new sling attachment point was welded on to the milled band and the original was ground off. I'd like to replace this.




The trigger is light and crisp. Not at all like the Yugo M48BO I have. Once I got it cleaned, the bore was in great shape. Very bright, no pitting at all with deep grooves. I would guess it had hardly been fired.

I'm not trying to pass this off as anything special, I'm just curious. In fact I was thinking of putting a repro mount and scope on it. I guess I just want to sure I don't have a collector piece before I go and alter it.

Information

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[g41partswanted]

this was a vz24 reciever and it has the lion crest ground of the top of the reciever. the rest of the parts are a mix masters postwar rebuild.

[Calif-Steve]

Indeed the receiver has been ground smooth. Very common on late 1947-1948 Czech export guns. The rear sight base is S/42, likely that is all that is S/42. Could be a very late 1945 German/Czech receiver or could well be a VZ-24 receiver. Tough to tell, just how nicely is the receiver interior finished? The VZ-24's were nicely finished inside and out. That would be a hint.

[m4a3sherman]

The stock marking does look like a rune, but the roundel you see that you thought might be a skull looks a lot like a DDR (East German) proof.

[Yoxford]

Thanks to everyone for your help. Here's what I was able to piece together:

"Now to the (EIGHTH) marking. In one line on the side rail Ceskoslovenska Zbrojovka A.S. Brno. (Czechoslovakian Arms Factory, Inc., Brno) This is marking #4 without the "VZ.24" because the rifles were not VZ.24's. ((O), page 128, bottom picture) Most had the large stamped one piece trigger guard floorplate and some did not. This was used on 98K German re- worked rifles after WWII. Some had the German model-code and date on the receiver ring and some are blank. I heard that the Bolivian series, B-50, is marked the same way. This is the story of the eighth main Czech. Mauser rifle markings." http://www.gunboards.com/sites/mrj2003/czech/czech.htm

"There is no postwar K98k forum so this forum is likely the best place for your question. I don't think anyone can tell you for sure that every tgf coded 98k went to the DDR but that is more or less the supposition. East German markings include crown/N firing proofs and sunburst markings. Every DDR used 98k will not necessarily have either of those markings though. There are some other clues like rifles with 1943-45 dated receivers wearing stocks externally numbered on the bottom (externally) similar to earlier rifles as well as numbered bands on rifles that would have had unnumbered bands wartime. EP'ed safeties are another clue. " http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread....eptance-stamps

"Many of the liberated European countries continued production of rifles similar to the Karabiner 98k, for example Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Belgium and Česká Zbrojovka (CZ) in Czechoslovakia produced both their proprietary older models and brand new Karabiner 98k rifles, many of which were assembled from leftover German parts or using captured machinery. Both FN and CZ utilized a modified Kriegsmodell design, with the cleaning rod and stock disk still omitted, but the bayonet lug restored. In Czechoslovakia it was known as P-18or puška vz.98N, the first being the manufacturer's cover designation of the type, the second official army designation - rifle model 98, N for německá - German. In Romania, the Czechoslovak version was known under the informal name of ZB, after Zbrojovka Brno - the Czechoslovak state producer of small weapons and munitions - and it was used to arm
Romania's Patriotic Guards, before sufficient numbers of Soviet AKM rifles were made available for them.East German members of a Combat Group of the Working Class and Border Troops at the border of the Berlin sector in 1961. The Combat Group members are equipped with Karabiner 98ks. Former German Karabiner 98ks were widely distributed throughout the Eastern Bloc, some being refurbished 2 or 3 times by different factories. They were used by military and para-military forces (such as the East German Workers and Soldiers Militias), and were replaced by Soviet weapons in the 1960s. East German refurbished Karabiner 98ks featured Russian-style thicker blue finish, a 'sunburst' proof mark and sometimes had the factory designation '1001' applied, which was the factory where the refurbishment was carried out. Numbers were re-stamped to match the receiver and old numbers barred out. Numbers of East German and Czech refurbished Karabiner 98ks were exported to the West in the late 1980s and early 1990s and are now in the hands of collectors." http://www.2ndgebirgsjager.com/uploa...1957/w_k98.pdf

So near as I can figure, it was built in Brno either late in the war or shortly after. Then found its way to East Germany. Then exported to the US where it found its way to me.

[m4a3sherman]

Or, did it make its way elsewhere, such as Iraq- The East Germans supplied many nations with their surplus rifles. I have one with the same story, DDR rebuilt, to Iraq, supposedly captured by Israel and then sold as surplus. The rear band is too strange to me; it is my understanding that rifles were at least reconfigured in standard 98k format by the East Germans, and that band looks makeshift or local, not arsenaled.