Karbiner 98a

[Griff Murphey]

"I have this old gun..." a mismatch 1916 WW-I Erfurt Kar98a with the L-shaped prong under the muzzle. By the way is that for the bayonet, or stacking? I would call it NRA good, but the bore has a belled muzzle from wrong way cleaning, and it's very inaccurate. It's a nice, displayable example of a type that is kind of hard to find.

OK, my guess is that if a dadgum ground mum Arisaka is worth $500, this gun is worth $350 to $500 just because of its scarcity. BTW I asked the same question over on Wehrmacht rifle and the only reply I got back was $150, which I thought was silly-low. This is really just an exercise as I don't plan on selling it. Just a question.

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

It's been a while since I've done the reading, but IIRC the hook under the barrel was for stacking. Again IIRC the Kaiserwehr intended the Kar98a to be a cavalry, artillery, and engineer rifle, and in all cases they weren't issued bayonets.

[Michaelp]

$150 is rediculous.
These are fairly scarce on the market despite what some fossil will try and tell you.
Being a mismatch, I would be tempted to look into a counterbore.

WTF is there a bayonet lug if they had no bayonets?
Very few ground Arisakas worth $500.

[Griff Murphey]

Yeah I think he was trolling for a bargain. Lots of marketing on that forum.

[citizenkane]

I see rough but shootable kar98a's around here for $300 to $350 pretty often. I had an all matching one but with a bad barrel that I sold on gunbroker last year. It sold for just a bit under $500.

[randy langford]

I think on a bad day $300 wouldn't be out of line of course depending on condition

[dave]

They were generally issued with the "butcher Knife" bayonets, especially the ones with saw blade if it was an engineer outfit. Many of the "saws" were ground off these bayo's when the Brits. complained they were cruel and would exacute soldiers who had them.

[Ron James]

The Brits were unaware that they were specialty bayonets for engineer use, the Brits believed the saw tooth was intended to inflict a more horrendous wound when used . As a result, as dave stated, any German soldier caught with a " sawtooth " bayonet was shot on the spot, it didn't matter if the captured German was a cook, baker or candle stick maker.