Please Help! Information on this German WWII Era K98 would be appreciated

[anton67]

Picked up this rifle today.
Looks mostly matching.
The biggest issue I see is that the trigger guard and floor plate are NOT matching to the receiver.
The remainder of the rifle appears matching.
I would like input on the rifle.
Also any info would be appreciated.

[anton67]

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[anton67]

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[anton67]

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[anton67]

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[fjruple]

Your 98K was made by Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG, Steyr, Austria in 1941. The butt plate is original to the rifle as a lot of small parts were subcontracted out in this case to H.W. Schmidt, Doebeln in Sachsen. The serial number on the butt plate is original which is the tip off. Your 98K is probably one of the best looking ones that I have seen.

[anton67]

Good morning.
Thank you for your input so far.
The concerns that I had with the rifle were two fold:
First, the bolt parts seemed to have been re-stamped from a number 2 to a number 7 on most of the parts. But it seems to be on all of the bolt parts so I am wondering whether it could have been done at the factory.
Second, the numbers on the trigger guard and floor plate do not match (and there are no numbers on the capture screws).

I know you are going to say buy the gun and not the story however I got this rifle from a friend of mine who is the son of a WWII vet.
He was a combat photographer during the war and has many bring backs. The son assures me that his pop brought the rifle back from WWII.
I have purchased a number of items from his bring back collection and all are top notch.
I am wondering whether it was arsenal rebuilt by the Germans who added the trigger guard and floor plate?
And maybe the bolt was renumbered at the factory?
Thoughts would be appreciated.

[JimF]

Being that the band spring is missing, check for the “duffle-bag” cut under the lower band.

[anton67]

No duffle bag cut.
Also strange is that the bolt stop seems to have been re-numbered (7 stamped over number 2).
So it would be one thing if someone re-numbered the bolt to match.
But why would someone need to re-number the bolt stop?
The bolt stop is attached to the receiver and stock which are both correctly numbered.

[Fred Pillot]

Since the bolt stop went from 26 to 76 and the bolt parts went from 9526 to 9576 I would think that when new, the numbers were mistakenly misstamped then corrected. IMHO.

[anton67]

Thank you for your input.
I just want to know for sure whether the bolt was re-stamped to match by someone other than the German army.
And if so I would like to know how one can tell.

Also what would account for the trigger guard and floor plate being replaced?

Here is information regarding the Waa stamps.
Here is what I have found.
77 is marked on the: Receiver (next to the 3 swastikas); bolt stop (top); Rear of the bolt; under the bolt handle; under the safety;
Waa623 is marked on the: Barrel (right side); stock; muzzle band;
Waa497 is marked on the butt plate.

There are NO import marks.

Hope this helps.

[anton67]

Update: Also marked 77 on bolt sleeve and firing pin.

[anton67]

I took the bolt apart and found that the firing pin was also re-stamped (7 over 2).

At the suggestion of another member I posted it on the K98K forum and here is what they said:
bolt assembly was most likely renumbered at the factory before final acceptance. anybody's guess about the bottom metal but since the band spring is missing, other parts could have gone missing too since that rifle came into this country. there are plenty of k98k parts around.

[anton67]

For informational purposes, I was told on the K98K forum: The bolt assembly was most likely renumbered at the factory before final acceptance. Steyr had big problems with marking. Crooked, mistakes and such happened on the regular. They would do this. The font and correct acceptances are what has us thinking it's a corrected factory error.

There would be specific stamps if it were arsenal reworked and I haven't seen any.

e/77 is Radom and at this time they were in full supply mode to Steyr with a wide variety of parts. e/623 is Steyr so no problems there either.

Would anyone remove the Tung oil or leave it be?

[Tuna]

Are you sure it's Tung oil and not a poly like varnish? It can be removed but what would you replace it with?