BRNO 98/22, 8mm Turkish Mauser

[usmc3439]

Added another piece of vintage military weapons to my little arsenal. This is a BRNO Mauser rifle, made in the Czech Republic for military use and later sold to Turkey. According to some forums, the markings in the receiver that read "E(LION)23" are the Czech Army acceptance mark, and the 23 would stand for 1923. After checking other marks in the bolt, I noticed that it does not match with the receiver serial number, and after doing some research, I noticed the bolt came from a German Gewehr 98. I concluded this because the bolt has the Imperial German crest below the bolt handle. Apparently, this is a pretty common thing to find, mixed bolts and rifles, especially after a lot of these rifles were captured during ww2 and they were refitted by the Germans or the bolts would be taken out of the rifles by the allies and thrown in a separate pile of parts. When soldiers grabbed one to bring back, they grabbed a rifle and whatever bolt they could find.

According to history, these rifles were made originaly for the Czech Army, and after they equipped with the later versions of the Mauser rifle, they sold the old rifles to turkey. That is why the rear sights and a few other parts have Arabic numerals and the Turkish Crescent symbol.

Ordered a vintage sling, an ammo pouch and the cleaning kit for this beauty. More pictures soon.

Information

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[Calif-Steve]

The Czechs received 40,000 Gew98 parts/rifles as WWI reparations. Quite likely the German bolt came out of the original sale in 1923. You will also find German Triggerguards and other odd parts on the 98/22's. If I recall correctly the first rifles sold all had Lange rear sights on them.

[Stomper]

Very nice looking rifle you have there; my "B"-block Vz.98/22s is just 197 rifles ahead of yours. I'd guess yours probably picked up the German bolt in Turkey, or during importation to the USA.

The Czechoslovak Govt. only got 1,500 rifles from Mauser Oberndorf as reparations via treaty; the spare parts and manufacturing tooling they purchased from Mauser Werke in 1920. The first approx. 10,000 rifles manufactured at CZ-Brno were 99% copies of the post-1916 Gew.98; only the grasping grooves were omitted. These rifles were designated Vz.98. Shortly after production began, it was decided to use the Mauser-patent tangent-leaf rear sight in place of the Lange-Vizier. The new rifles were designated Vz.98/22, and were produced in 10K blocks prefixed "A"-"D", with the switch to the shorter Vz.23 coming mid-way through "D" block.

In 1926-27 the Republic of Turkey purchased 30,000 Vz.98s and 98/22s, and placed an order for 10,000 new 98/22s, which formed a special "E" block.

[mike webb]

I don't think this rifle was used in Czechslovakia but was sold directly to Persia. The VZ23 was being produced then morphing into the VZ24 for use by the Czech army. Nice old rifle though. Seems like rifles that went to Persia, Turkey, Iran etc. are very seldom matching bolt to rifle.

[MasterChief]

E-block re-stocked in beechwood, GEW98 bolt. Note how the rear sight leaf has been ground and re-numbered with Western numerals, over-sized stock with grasping grooves, straight crest. A little different.

[mike webb]

Yeah, I see that now. I just read on another site that the 98/22 was only accepted by the Czechs for a short time and then the VZ rifles were introduced. I couldn't see the Czech army accepting a rifle with Turkish/ Farsi (or whatever the sight graduations are in) for service. I can see the remarking of the sight in your pics. Thanks. BTW, your rifle is in great shape.

[MasterChief]

As stated above, this series of 98-22's was made for export to Turkey and so would never have been accepted into Czech service nor marked as such. All the 98-22 rifles are great examples of inter-war and export Mauser-type rifles, some of which migrated to many parts of the world.