K98: Please Help

[Tiger 1]

Who or what organization this rifle was made for is a mystery at the moment.

The facts we have to go on are the Suhl proofhouse commercial eagle N, the 944 date. and the Suhl shield. Something else to consider is the 359 waffenamt on the rear sight base. 359 was the inspector's waffenamt number used at J.P Sauer. Interersting to say the least.

Arms for use outside of purely military channels were produced late into the war. I used to own a J.P.Sauer SxS shotgun that I bought off a vet many years ago. The barrels were proofed 844, August of 1944! This was a commercial shotgun not a military weapon. Why the Germans would be producing commercial sporting arms that late into the war is beyond me. I have also seen other late war commercial shotguns proofed in Suhl.

Another similar anomaly I still have is a Standard Model 98. It has the commercial BUG proofs and just one (1) waffenamt stamp on the reciever just forward of the Mauser Banner. Go figure.

Hope this helps some.

Tony

[sszza2]

Jim,

In response to your response:

Yes, I imagine many small machine shops continued to produce items for the war effort.

I also imagine this would include firms capable of producing K98 parts.

But in this case, these parts and this gun apparently came from Suhl and JPS is a possible candidate for final assembly.

Suhl is a location and does not exclusively represent JPS. The subject Suhl guild marking does not appear on std JPS military contract throughout production. Suhl was a location full of small gun makers. Remember what we are speaking of in this weapon is a firm capable of assembly not stem to stern manufacture of each component part.

For sake of information - E/359 is a Walther proof not a JPS proof and is found on the parts and receivers of numerous other manufacturers. E/37 during this period is JPS.

"Even if we were to accept JPS production premise the real question remains - who were these rifles produced for? It sure wasnt the Wehrmacht."

I am afraid we will have to agree to disagree on the point of who the intended end user was, which exactly illustrates the problem with mis-matched guns.

IMO - there is no such thing as factory mismatched K98k's. If the manufacturer chose to number parts at all - rest assured the bolts and bbls and or receivers were numbered to match. The exception is late commercial unnumbered bolts utilized in late commercial assemblies.

There is no evidence to suggest that the Wehrmacht ever contracted for the purchase of commercially proofed rifles. Therefore, IMO this rifle was never meant for the Wehrmacht.

I would be interested to see any evidence you have to the contrary.

Too bad we couldn't ask the Vet who he got it from :-)

Agreed - If only they could talk.

Scott

[reach147]

This has been a very interesting thread, take care guys:-)