Late-War Phosphate Finished K98k

Snagged this at the HoCo show early Saturday morning. Looked it over pretty well and it seemed like a good deal so I jumped on it. I wanted to get outside to take some photos but as you all know, the weather isn't having it.

I took too many pictures so I just put them into a imgur album to make it easier. Click on the link below.

https://imgur.com/a/w3SnFp5

K98k rifles are one of the most popular milsurp rifles on the market and one of the most heavily faked, so unless you're buying a common import (Russian or Yugo Capture), it's good to know what to look out for. K98k's are especially tricky due to all of the variations. Late War rifles are a very interesting sub-group, especially all the differences between the manufacturers.

This one is a "bcd 4" coded rifle made in 1944. bcd was the code for Gustloff Werke. Towards the end of the war, Gustloff was one of the manufacturers who started switching from a traditional blued finish to a "bonderized" phosphate finish.

This one was probably made in late 1944. Somebody more knowledgeable could give a better guess but my estimate is November-December of that year. Gustloff switched to a 5-digit serial number group of which this rifle is in the first batch. Apparently the factory was using the same firing proof stamp at the beginning of 1944 and it began to wear out at the end of the year. You can see in one of the pictures where the "dirty bird" has its upper half missing. The stamp was replaced at the beginning of 1945.

At this point in the war, they only numbered some of the bolt parts and the barrel and used a mix of blued small parts. This rifle is all matching. It's also got the correct Astrawerke and other subcontracted parts so it appears to be an all correct rifle. Unfortunately the cleaning rod is missing but that should be easy enough to find.

The stock is in great shape and has never been messed with. All of the edges are crisp. One interesting thing of note is that it appears to have some kind of unit emblem on the side of the stock. Does anyone know what unit it could have belonged to?

The bore is in excellent condition. I originally thought it was frosted, but I pushed out about 70 years of dust to find it spotless.

Let me know what you guys think! I paid $700 for it which I think was a pretty good deal.

Considering the price on RC and Yugo K98's have been creeping up, I think you did well. Very interesting rifle!

He did more than "well". He stole it! Very, VERY Schweet Danno!! Post that puppy up over at the K98K forum. They know far more than I do but everything looks spot on to me.

I'm no Mauser expert but even I can see that's a good find. You got something very nice for probably what's a RC price. That unit insignia had me poking about Pintrest looking at them. Couldn't find it but there's a huge number to comb through. Worth the eyestrain IMHO if you can ID what it is.
BTW, I would check with Mauser collectors to see if a missing cleaning rod is abnormal. As a Japanese collector I know many late war examples were never issued with them and at the end they were deleted completely. For example, there are some series of last ditch T99 substitutes that have the hole for the CR but there's no threads to accept it.

Thanks guys! I’m very happy with it. Hard to find a nice rifle like this especially now when Russian Captures have been routinely fetching $600+ on Gunbroker.

Very nice.

Very nice. The unit insignia is really interesting. I hope you find out what unit it refers to.


Is there some sort of letter scratched into the bottom of the barrel band behind the bayonet lug?
Or is that random?

I'd bet the bank that mark was not made by a European. Maybe the guy who brought it home? Maybe his son? Maybe his buddy? The origin will probably never be known but I don't think it was a German. In the end, it doesn't matter.....it's just neato!

Looks like pirate art.... avast matey.

That looks like it was applied by a rubber stamp.
Dan, isn't it cool when you get to the point where your C&R "spidey sense" kicks in? You KNOW it's something special, even if it's outside your collecting knowledge base. It's happened to me on occasion too.

This is the second late war K98k to hit the forum lately and I've been fascinated by them. Lord help me if I get sucked back into the Mauser world after walking away from it 25 yrs ago. Yet I have two cool items on my radar. I must resist, I must resist, I must resist...

One heck of a deal I would have gladly paid that price

noddaz said:

Is there some sort of letter scratched into the bottom of the barrel band behind the bayonet lug?
Or is that random?

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I think it’s just some kind of random indentation/marking. Doesn’t really look much like a scratched letter in person. It does look kinda weird in the photo though.

I wouldn’t mind trying to get the whole rifle apart but the front band spring is on pretty tight. I don’t know if I want to risk messing something up.

mawkie said:

That looks like it was applied by a rubber stamp.
Dan, isn't it cool when you get to the point where your C&R "spidey sense" kicks in? You KNOW it's something special, even if it's outside your collecting knowledge base. It's happened to me on occasion too.

Click to expand...

Yup! There was a nice Irish Issued Enfield No. I Mk. I there also for $475. I was really tempted, but I literally spent every cent I had on me at the show on this before it even started. Somebody ended up buying it.

MilsurpDan said:

Yup! There was a nice Irish Issued Enfield No. I Mk. I there also for $475. I was really tempted, but I literally spent every cent I had on me at the show on this before it even started. Somebody ended up buying it.

Click to expand...

I think all the No1 MKIs I've owned and seen were ex Irish issue. $475 for one, if in good condition, is a steal these days. That would have been a good price 10 yrs ago.

noddaz said:

Very nice. The unit insignia is really interesting. I hope you find out what unit it refers to.

Is there some sort of letter scratched into the bottom of the barrel band behind the bayonet lug?
Or is that random?

Click to expand...

Is that a ISIS flag