New BYF44 K98 opinions

[AlexV]

I'm being offered this nice K98 but want to check with you guys first...

Rear barrel band not milled.
Serial number matches hand guard.
Only stamp on the right butt is TG over 2 in a Triangle.
Firing pin has serial number on the end and matches the rifle's #.
All matching AFAIK.

Anything bad (or good ) to say about this one?

[AlexV]

[robcox1]

I'm being offered this nice K98 but want to check with you guys first...

Rear barrel band not milled.
Serial number matches hand guard.
Only stamp on the right butt is TG over 2 in a Triangle.
Firing pin has serial number on the end and matches the rifle's #.
All matching AFAIK.

Anything bad (or good ) to say about this one?

I assume you realize it has been reworked. The markings to the stock were applied during the rework. The bolt is not original to the rifle either.

I have to ask; what does "AFAIK" mean?

[AlexV]

AFAIK means As Far As I Know

What tells you that the rifle has been reworked? How you spot replaced bolt too?

Thanks for your input.

[Mccallion]

If i am not mistaken the Serial numbers are all wrong becuase the germans would at the starting of the year make 1-9999 then after that it would be 1-9999a block and so on througth the alphabet, with some companys that made alot of rifles you can see a aa or ab block, so i do not know why you gun is stamped 20337, this is strange....

[Johnny Peppers]

I believe in 1943 and 1944 Mauser used a five digit serial number with suffix.

[CVM]

It looks like a Tsjech rebuilt K98.?

[robcox1]

AFAIK means As Far As I Know

What tells you that the rifle has been reworked? How you spot replaced bolt too?

Thanks for your input.

Thanks! Not knowing what that acronym meant would have drove me nuts, AFAIK!

I can tell it is a rework because it does not have the markings on the stock that it should have, and the marks that it does have should not be there.

The stock should have a Waa135 in 3 different places and nothing else on the outside. All of the markings on that one are added post-war. They look like the type of markings added by Yugoslavia, but I am not certain about that. (CVM says Czech, so he may be right.) You could probably research the markings applied by various Eastern European nations and find out which country did the rework.

I can spot the replaced bolt because the numbers do not look anything like the correct German markings. Obviously, they would not have removed the original markings and then replaced them with the same numbers they just erased, so it must be replaced.

All of this aside, it looks like a nice rifle that could possibly be a good purchase at the right price. Just don't buy it thinking you are getting an all original rifle.

Here is a link to a good article on the Oberndorf made rifle:
http://www.ycgg.org/pdfpages/ww2/mauser-oberndorf.pdf

Here is another link to what a correct byf 44 looks like:
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=445694

If you are looking for an all original rifle you should really study them much more before purchasing anything. I am far, far, far from an expert on these and I could spot this one easily. That should give you pause.

[AlexV]

robcox1: Thanks for the great help. Well I will pass on this one then (because of the premium price that was asked). All matching in Canada are really really rare! I already have a non matching non-RC 1942 BYF but still I'm not really familiar with K98s Slowly learning!

[Joe N]

Beautiful rifle, nicely refurbished postwar. Note the Crown over U which is indicative of an East german rebuild. Good luck!

[Craig W.C. Brown]

General rule for all German service bolt-action rifles 1871-1945, with a few exceptions (G33/40, G24t): all external SNs read from left and are viewed from the left side. Exceptions are gas shield and cocking piece, stock, buttplate, triggerguard and floorplate (if SN'd at all). Some later WW2 stocks have no external SNs.