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My wife and I have a 1914 dated GEW 98 that her deceased first husband left her. It was given to him by his dad who picked it up in the Argonne after the battle of the Somme. My wife is younger than me, but she married her first husband very young. Anyway, her Father in Law found the rifle in a trench or a ditch after some fighting. It has the original bolt to the receiver, trigger guard and the original stock, but the barrel bands and the safety are numbered differently. You can see that the rifle had probably been reissued after it'd been cleaned and repaired over the years in the field. The unit armorers of course made sure that the original bolt always stayed with the barreled receiver for head space purposes I'm sure. Anyway, the rifle has a fantastic bore as whoever the soldier or soldiers were who used it made sure it stayed that way. Upon showing the rifle on line in a forum some time ago, a nice fellow offered to take the odd numbered parts on the rifle in a free exchange for parts with the correct numbers stamped onto them. I don't know if he had the idea of stamping some parts to match the rifle's receiver and bolt, but I politely turned his kind offer down, telling him that the rifle was used for some time with these parts on it and that these parts had been switched around by a unit level armorer on or near the German front line and that the fact that the armorer had made sure that the bolt and receiver and trigger housing and guard remained with each other was significant. That changing the parts out for correctly numbered but non original parts to the rifle would be a shame as probably all infantry rifles at that time on the Imperial German front line were constantly being policed up from battle fields and taken off to be broken down and cleaned before being re assembled and re issued to another fresh incoming soldier. The last of whom had used the rifle before my wife's father in law had found it with the body of the final soldier to whom it belonged. I wouldn't change it for anything. It even has the original sling with it and one of the original two cartridge carriers from the soldiers belt. Of course he'd obtained a butcher type bayonet for it from either that soldier or another near by, but the rifle does have a bayonet with it. That kind of direct provenance with a WWI rifle is pretty cool I think.
My wife and I have a 1914 dated GEW 98 that her deceased first husband left her. It was given to him by his dad who picked it up in the Argonne after the battle of the Somme. My wife is younger than me, but she married her first husband very young. Anyway, her Father in Law found the rifle in a trench or a ditch after some fighting. It has the original bolt to the receiver, trigger guard and the original stock, but the barrel bands and the safety are numbered differently. You can see that the rifle had probably been reissued after it'd been cleaned and repaired over the years in the field. The unit armorers of course made sure that the original bolt always stayed with the barreled receiver for head space purposes I'm sure. Anyway, the rifle has a fantastic bore as whoever the soldier or soldiers were who used it made sure it stayed that way. Upon showing the rifle on line in a forum some time ago, a nice fellow offered to take the odd numbered parts on the rifle in a free exchange for parts with the correct numbers stamped onto them. I don't know if he had the idea of stamping some parts to match the rifle's receiver and bolt, but I politely turned his kind offer down, telling him that the rifle was used for some time with these parts on it and that these parts had been switched around by a unit level armorer on or near the German front line and that the fact that the armorer had made sure that the bolt and receiver and trigger housing and guard remained with each other was significant. That changing the parts out for correctly numbered but non original parts to the rifle would be a shame as probably all infantry rifles at that time on the Imperial German front line were constantly being policed up from battle fields and taken off to be broken down and cleaned before being re assembled and re issued to another fresh incoming soldier. The last of whom had used the rifle before my wife's father in law had found it with the body of the final soldier to whom it belonged. I wouldn't change it for anything. It even has the original sling with it and one of the original two cartridge carriers from the soldiers belt. Of course he'd obtained a butcher type bayonet for it from either that soldier or another near by, but the rifle does have a bayonet with it. That kind of direct provenance with a WWI rifle is pretty cool I think.
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