I like to watch military drill on youtube; question on Bundeswehr 98Ks

[Griff Murphey]

The YouTube pictures of parading German Bundeswehr and Bundesmarine ceremonial troops make it clear they have a big inventory of ceremonial use 98Ks. They not only look real, they sound real when they slap them around and produce the classic "clash of arms" during drill. I'm just curious as to how deactivated they are, I suspect totally welded barrels but bolts removable so they can slop around and produce the sound. Whatever they are they are certainly more convincing than the toylike M-1 dummy rifles our forces have gone to.

Anybody know?

[Conductor]

I don't know about welded barrels, but I have heard that all of the Nazi-era proof marks and WaffenAmt stamps have been removed.

[Sunray]

"...toy like M-1 dummy rifles..." Where'd you see those?
Your 'Old Guard' 3rd Infantry guys at Arlington use modified(note the grip area of the stock) M-14's.
Those Wachbataillon K98's very likely are DP'd rifles. Like the 3rd's M-14's, they make doing the rifle drill easier. It's not the bolt that makes the sound. It's the butt plate on concrete, etc.
"...all of the Nazi-era proof marks..." Supposedly not until 1995(from an unreliable on-line source.). Kind of surprising considering Nazi stuff is illegal in Germany. That stuff was banned by the Allies in 1945. Legally by the new West German government in 1949.

[Griff Murphey]

I?ve seen the toy-like M-1 rifles usually chromed used by color guards on tv and we’ve had them at our dental society’s veterans’ honors we do every November, particularly college rotc units. The high school rotsees use the dummy O3-A3s. Local Marine reserve color guards used to have M-14s now using M-1s which I assume are dewats. We had a color party from MAG-41 Nov. of 2022 - I started to ask if I could field strip one of the rifles.

[Major Tom]

Movie prop M1 Garands were 100% fiberglass except the ones used in close ups when showing loading, firing, etc. It was way too expensive to use real M1 garands for back round scenes.

[Allen]

At one time ebay had a few Garand and M-14 movie prop rifles made of resin for sale.

Claim was they were made for "The Band of Brothers" and other movies.

I thought about buying one of the M-14's for a wall hanger but backed out due to all the warpage especially the barrel. Some of the sellers had several and showed pictures that were sort of crude along with the bent barrels so I can imagine what they sent to the buyers was even worse.

If the rifles had been straight a little sanding, painting and wood stain would have made them quite presentable (at a distance).