The K98k's after WWII

[Niner]

I was looking at a facebook page hosted by one of the remaining 101'st paratroopers from WWII. He showed a cleaning snake issued by the Germans he brought back from the war as a souvenir. I went looking for one of my two reparations K98k's after trying to find a photo I thought I must have posted here at one time or the other and not finding what I was looking for. I wanted to post a photo on the page as an illustration of what kind of rifle he was talking about.

Early in the War the K98k had wood stocks and forged steel furniture. As the war progressed the solid wood was replaced with laminated stocks and the furniture became stamped to speed up the manufacture process and it was probably somewhat cheaper. The laminated stocks were thought to be better stocks actually. Less likely to pick up any warp from the elements these battle rifles were exposed to on the Russian Front in the dead of winter. My two rifles exhibit the characteristics of the two rifle versions.

The K98k was to the German Army about what the Enfield was to the British, the Mosin Nagant to the Russians and the Garand to the US. After the war there must have been a hell of a lot of them to divide up and several train loads to take to the scrap iron plant. The ones I have went through the famous Preduce 44 plant in Czechoslovakia sometime shortly after the war. And... like the Mosins.. all rearsenal commies believed in taking everything apart and sorting the parts into bins and them assembling rifles back together with whatever parts came to hand. If any serial numbers match on the ones I have it is an accident worthy of a Ripley Believe it or Not story. However, I have shot both of them and nothing adverse happened.

[PeterN2]

I have a VZ24 that was reworked by the Germans in WW2 to K98 spec that has a laminated stock. This is all matching down to the screw heads having the last two serial number digits on them. I found some pics of it that I posted on here sometime in the past.

VZ24 full view.JPG (27.61 KiB) Viewed 6370 times

Regards
Peter.

[DuncaninFrance]

My K98k after I had re done the wood.

[DuncaninFrance]

And a couple of the markings.....

[Niner]

I gotta get a sling for at least one of mine. Reproductions are made that are relatively cheap. Looks like both Peter's and Duncan's are both laminated stocks.

[DuncaninFrance]

Yes, mine was

[Miller Tyme]

I have 3 K98k's at present all being Reproduction snipers ( 1 is still in the shop being made into a HT) The 2 I have shot ( an SSR & a LSR) are both RC mix masters but have great bores and can hold there own with any of my other WW2 surplus rifles.
The Short Side Rail

SSR

The Long Side Rail

LSR

I am looking forward to getting the HT back as the gunsmith doing the work is tops in his field and he accurizes them to Wehrmacht spec's and test fires them before they leave his shop.

HT

[Niner]

The Garand and the Mauser together. 30.06 semi auto versus 8mm bolt action shooting bullets of about even size and about even punch. Both intermediate length battle rifles. Both iron sights but the Garand has little more sophisticated adjustable peep sight.