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I originally ordered these 2 K98's from www.classicarms.us. The top one is an Erma, Erfurt
made in 1939 and the bottom one is a dou (Waffenfabrik Brunn, Bystrica) manufactured in 1942.
I was very thankful to find that the dou shipped with a front side hood, which was an unexpected treat.
These first 2 pictures are of how they
arrived. As you can tell by looking at the discoloration on the butt plates, they were fairly well coated in cosmoline.
This is the same dou 1942 after a bit of careful cleaning. The stock now shows some
of the beatiful colors of the laminated stock and the butt plate is now nice and shiny.
The Karbiner 98 (Kar 98) was the backbone of the German infantry
in WWII and is considered by many to be one of the best (if not the best) bolt action rifles ever designed and the pinnacle
of the Mauser designed rifles. After WWI, The treaty of Versailles forbid Germany from making any new firearms (though
Germany largely ignored this treaty as you get closer and closer to WWII) and so the Kar 98 was built by modifying the existing
German Gewr 1998 rifles commonly used in WWI.
This dou 1942 is a
Russian capture that has been imported to the United States. What sets this one apart from many Russian captures is
that neither the bolt nor the bolt extractor has been painted red or plum. It does though have the "X" on the receiver
that represents the crossed swords as well as the forced matched serial numbers on the bolt that is common with Russian
captured rifles.
As with most Mauser designs, the Kar 98 has a 5 round fixed magazine and uses an 8mm cartidge.
The bolt was bent down rather than the straight bolt that was commonly found on the Gewr 98 models.
The German Kar 98 rifles often had
the manufacturer, date manufactured, model number, serial number, eagle stamp, and swastikas on the receiver and barrel.
Upon capture by the Russians, they would be refurbished and re-blued as well as often there would be an "X" added to
the receiver (again representing crossed swords); the swastikas on the receiver would be pinned out or grinded down; the bolt
and other miscellaneous parts would be force matched (electro-stenciled); and parts of the bolt, bolt extractor, and miscellaneous
other parts would be painted red or plum.
Fortunately with this one, all swastikas and Nazi markings were left intact. This picture
also shows the red coloring in the stock that was sometimes found with the laminated stocks. As will all of the
pictures, left click on them to get a closer view of the details.
Kar 98's came with either the thin
butt plate or the thick, steel butt plate as this dou has. The serial number on the stock on this one matches the receiver
and some of the smaller parts. The bolt and magazine floor plate are force matched as was common with Russian captures
and a few of the miscellaneous parts are not matching numbers.
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