1917 Amberg GEW98/98K conversion

[Anzac15]

Picked this one up today..1917 Amberg 98k conversion. No Weimar or Nazi eagles, S/42 marked rear sight, laminated stock whose number matches the front barrel band. Welcome any thoughts on it.

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[browningautorifle]

I think it's a nice catch. You don't see them very often by comparison.

[Calif-Steve]

I would not expect to see a laminated stock at all. Not sure the Germans had laminated wood very early on. Barrel bands look beat up. Has the slight look of a parts gun, but is still a nice find.

[Anzac15]

Buttplate, number inside stock, front band, and bayonet lug match. Crazy thing is, bayonet lug sports a small Imperial symbol.

[browningautorifle]

Hard to say exactly how it came to be but they don't appear often. I think the conversion from original to current issue is legit, just what happened after issue is hard to say.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Just my spontaneous thoughts. Others may care to dissect the whole thing more slowly and carefully. Like the wear on various parts does not match up...

No organization was ever more picky about matching numbers on parts than the German military. There is a comprehensive (and expensive) book of over 400 pages on nothing else but the marking of German military rifles and pistols. Recycled parts were typically renumbered to match the new weapon, the number of the donor weapon being lined out, not ground off. Newly assembled weapons were inspected and marked accordingly. Basically, if it wasn't stamped according to the regulations, to maintain traceability, it didn't officially exist. There was some rehashing of 98s during the Weimar Republic, but laminated stocks didn't appear until the late 30s, well into the Nazi era.

Whether army, navy, air force, police, SS, or any other organization that carried arms - they all had their well-recorded marking systems. And in that period, anyone creating a private mixmaster off their own bat would have been, literally, risking their neck. In fact, the most probable candidates for doing just that were the Jugoslav partisans, who recycled everything they could get their hands on, and were, of course, risking their necks. So it is prudent to assume that this is a post-war mixmaster, unless it can be proved otherwise.

[browningautorifle]

No organization was ever more picky about matching numbers on parts than the German military.

Absolutely agreed. The barrel and action match which is the most interest to me. After that part, who knows...

[Anzac15]

'Picky' would be an understatement.

---------- Post added at 09:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:58 PM ----------

All waffenamts on the stock match as well. Buttplate, recoil bolt, takedown disc, front barrel band. 655 is the number.

[Anzac15]

Some more pics.

[browningautorifle]

I still like it, and would love to have it...