Mystery Mauser 98 type rifle

[Griff Murphey]

A friend wanted to show me his dad’s 98 Mauser. At first glance it appeared to be a WW-2 Kar 98. It had the cleaning rod and typical front end, but the handguard went all the way back to the receiver like an 03A3 but a rectangular cut for the rear tangent sight (in fact the handguard was so humped up I could not get a sight picture with it set at the lowest elevation), there was no slot for the sling but there was a sling swivel under the buttstock and a fixed sling lug on its left side. The buttplate resembled an Enfield; there was no flashing around the buttplate. The gun appeared rearsenaled and fully refinished blued brightly. The receiver had no markings save for a tiny 7.92 cal. Bore looked nice, all the numbers matched. Yugo, or ????

[JimF]

Can you post a pic?

[Griff Murphey]

Probably can do may be next week. No import markings no crests receiver ring clean clean clean. Another thing it has a P stamped in the wood on the underside of the semi pistol grip, much like a US arsenal mark.

[Griff Murphey]

4791247913479144791547916Hopefully here are pix

[Griff Murphey]

One of my gun friends says it’s a Spanish M-43 with the crest removed... for some reason.

[fguffey]

I do not know; the rifle appears to be stamped 7.62.

F. Guffey

[JohnMOhio]

I think it is stamped 7.92.

[bruce]

Very nice scrubbed M-43 Spanish K-98 Mauser. Would love to get my hands on one. You are most fortunate. Sincerely. bruce.

[Griff Murphey]

Very nice scrubbed M-43 Spanish K-98 Mauser. Would love to get my hands on one. You are most fortunate. Sincerely. bruce.
So this is some kind of "secret squirrel" CIA etc. gun? The US style "P" on the pistol grip may be a clue. But it seems an odd choice of firearm for that type of work. Not a common caliber by say, the 1960's, in much of the world. Does this increase the value? (Not my gun - friend's) FYI the caliber is 7.92.

[bruce]

Cannot speak to CIA squirrel gun issue. US type P stamp is probably going to be a unsolved mystery. In the 60's there were 7.92 chambered M-98's all over the world as witnessed by the later flood of such rifles and ammunition when import was permitted by Reagan. Happy days! The stamp is an oddity that will not likely be explained. Perhaps some of the better quality books on the Mauser rifle series would be helpful. Possibly someone associated with one of the Mauser sites will be able to help. For my part, if I could get my hands on such a nice rifle, it would definitely be put to very good use! Sincerely. bruce.

[jon_norstog]

I blew the photos up, it didn't look like the receiver was scrubbed, more like it never had a crest. There is a serial number, so I don't think it would be part of a purchase for super-secret work, maybe for some kind of armed militia or rebel group? Or a contract that fell through?

jn

[Art]

The upper band assembly/bayonet lug looks like a Belgian Mauser Model 1935 but the stock is wrong and the pictures of Model 1935s I've seen don't have a turned down bolt handle. The Belgians were big arms exporters between the wars so who knows.

When I read the first post I thought it might have been a Yugo Model 48 B, Model 48Bs were made for export where "plausible deniability" was important.

[Hal O'Peridol]

Caliber was stamped by the pre 1968 importer Interarms.

[BudT]

Quiet a few scrubbed or made without any identifying marks and ammo made the same way post war for clandestine stuff. My uncle a OSS officer talked about this, Ye Old Hunter was a front for the CIA post WWII OSS for weapons. A front company. Guns get captured and at some point get sold on the open market, no big deal. Start watching for about 90 billion in American stuff to start showing up in places around the world, gonna be interesting to say the least. Maybe we can get a good deal on some 5.56 or 9mm ammo when the Taliban decides to sell it off.

[jon_norstog]

Ye Olde Hunter! Man I bought a few guns from them when I was a kid. Back when you could mail-order any weapon that wasn't regulated under the 1934 Act. I still haVE A Mexican 7mm rolling block I got from that vendor.

jn

[BudT]

Ye Olde Hunter! Man I bought a few guns from them when I was a kid. Back when you could mail-order any weapon that wasn't regulated under the 1934 Act. I still haVE A Mexican 7mm rolling block I got from that vendor.

jn

They advertised a lot in the American Rifleman magazine, sold a lot of stuff cheap back then.

[jon_norstog]

They advertised a lot in the American Rifleman magazine, sold a lot of stuff cheap back then.

I still regret not buying one of the surplus Finn Army 20 mm single shot anti-tank guns they were selling. They sold the ammo too, a couple dollars a round. Someone took one of those to a range we used to use as kids, we weren't there when it happened but everyone was talking about it for a couple weeks afterward.

jn

[Hal O'Peridol]

John, if you are talking about the Lahti anti tank gun in 20mm, that was a semi auto magazine fed beast. And as a teen I wanted one sooooo bad after seeing one at a local gun shop.

I eventually settled for a Boy(e)s anti tank rifle in .50 BMG

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