Project rifle complete! Operation "Double Claw" is a success!

[Matt Weber]

Well, some of you may have known that I was working on a K98 project rifle. Well it is finally complete, and turned out to be quite a success as well!
Take a look at it!

The rifle is a "bcd42". It is a MM, and finish is a bit rough, but bore is good, and stock is good. I got the rifle from Bob Wittington. I then search the earth for an original sniper scope and mounts. (not as easy as it sounds!) I finally found a guy named Harold in Canada who had both! He had this lovely double claw sniper scope and also had the proper double claws mounts for it! I got the whole set.

I then took this to my gunsmith friend Charlie Justmann. I asked him if he could properly mount these to make it look "right". He did the job, and I think it turned out great!
So now I have my own "poor mans'" sniper! The nice thing about this sniper is that I can go and shoot the piss out of it, and don't have to worry about lowering its' value!
I can't wait to get it to the range!

Matt

[Matt Weber]

More pics of the K98 double claw sniper.

[Rich G]

That's a beautiful rifle, Matt. I'm sooooo jealous of you guys in the States and your gun laws. If I had that rifle here, I'd be in the cells so fast my feet wouldn't touch the floor, that is unless it was deactivated.

I love to shoot and would love to own such a rifle but I just wouldn't have the heart to have one deactivated.

Enjoy her

Rich

[Matt Weber]

Richard,

Yes Richard, I think the project turned out great. I sent pics of the rifle to Harold (the guy I got the scope and mounts from) as well. He was very impressed, and a bit jealous as well I think! He thought perhaps he should have kept them, and put them on one of his rifles?

As for the gun laws here, I was just telling Douglas about them. They are much better than some other countries.
However, every year there are government officials who are trying to make things worse. They are trying to ban gun shows, handguns, assault rifles, and all guns all together!
Right now they are trying to follow Canadian laws with a twist. They want every single gun to be registered here in the US. Here is the trick. When you register your gun (every single one), you have to pay a fee (tax) every year for owning it! By doing this, they hope that most Americans won't be able to afford the cost of keeping thier guns, and give them up!

So you see, gun laws are better in the US, but that is because American gun owners have to fight for thier rights to own firearms every single year! It never stops!

Matt

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Matt, it is the same over here; in mainland Britain we can have bolt action rifles, but you have to pay for the licence, and all are registered with Big Brother, opps, I mean Her Majesty's Govt. Keep up the work to hold on to your rights.
The K98 has come out great btw!

Rich is worse off living in the province of Northern Ireland where firearms ownership is totaly impossible.

Cheers, Ade.

[Matt Weber]

Pitts Duncan,

Here is the thread I was referring to. You can see how my project turned out. It was completed in 2003, so about 7 years ago. I began gathering the parts about a year in advance though.

HOpe this helps
Matt

[kingtiger]

Matt, why do you feel so strongly about not doing this to a numbers matching rifle assuming you have a skilled gunsmith and the right parts? I have three rifles and only one with a matching bolt. I am just curious about the reason.

Mark

[MikeP]

Any collector knows better than to permanently alter an original matching piece.

Many years ago they were fairly common.
Today a matching piece on the market is a rarity and commands premium prices.

It makes no sense to destroy one of these, no matter who does it.

You end up with a fake reproduction based on an original collectable weapon.

Why do this?

There are too many RCs and mismatches readily available.

Great example i this post.

[kingtiger]

I agree Mike. I thought there was some reason, other than that obvious one, that had some bearing on the subject. Thanks...

Mark

[Gimpy117]

nice gun!!

and on a side note: holy necro batman!!

2003? ha ha this is the most epic bump i've seen yet

[AKKO]

nice gun matt, Just a question how much would it cost me build a k98 similar yours with out the scope
I had some one offier me a 43 date stock few weeks ago, So Ive been toying with the idea of building one.

[Matt Weber]

Ok, lots of questions to answer here.

First Mark, As Mike stated, you NEVER want to alter an original all matching rifle!!! That would ruin it. Therefore, that is why I stated use a RC rifle for this project.

Gimpy,
Pitts Duncan started another thread asking about making a K98 sniper on his own. I dug up this thread, because I have actually done it, and wanted him to see the results and read about it.

AKKO, This rifle was built between 2002-2003. Here are the prices I paid back then as best I can remember:
- K98 Russian import from Bob Wittington- $150
- Commercial mounts and 4x scope from Harold- $600
- Gunsmithing (labor, took about 4 months!)- $300

So all total, it was around $1050. It may have been a bit more or less, I'm just going off of memory here, as I don't have the receipts any longer.

I would guess today that it would probably cost much more to do. I would estimate at least $1500 or more?

Matt

[Gimpy117]

lucky you. repro scopes and mouts are like 699.00 usd on ebay