Kar98a with trench cover.

First time posting on very informative site. I thought I would share some pictures of a neat rifle I picked up yesterday.

While I'm no Imperial collector, I thought it was neat, priced right for me and needed to come home. It's a matching Erfurt 1918, looks to be in the bb block serial range.

Enjoy
-Mike

Welcome! Looks pretty darn nice from where I sit!

Nice! That is a great find.

Thanks for the comments, any idea as to what letter block Erfurt went up to in 1918 for the 98a ?

One other question for those who may know, I'm not sure about the sling it came with, however, it didn't fair as well as the rifle. I looked it over however I could find no markings... here's some pictures

Thanks in advance!
-Mike

Looks like it might be real deal- these are much tougher to find than the Gew.98 trench cover versions.

Erfurt/1918 Kar98a went well into the "hh" block- that is a lot of rifles! The totals are deceiving though, as the rifle, while not scarce or rare is still much tougher to find "Imperial" than you'd expect with such a high production total.

One must remember that millions of rifles were destroyed in 1918-1923, and 1918 dated almost certainly accounted for a large percentage. Plus many were retained in German service, so went through reworks, and subsequently are not "Imperial".

Anyway, not a rare rifle but not nearly as common as you'd think with a production total that high & the last year of the war, when you'd expect many never got anywhere near the front line. (Germany was in complete chaos long before the Armistice)

Oh, and your sling is real deal too.

They are as rare as the trench covers, and I only know of one in a collection- JeffN owns a minty one. Looks a lot like yours, though his is intact and looks like it was hardly used.

I have a really cool picture of a bunch of recruits standing in a doorway, one of them has a 98a with one of these slings, - the only picture I have ever seen of one in action. The picture was taken in 1918, so these are a latewar development for the 98a.

Most ersatz slings are an early war development- the Gew.98 jobs are almost always seen in early war photographs.

There are different versions of ersatz slings, early war & late war. Yours is imo a latewar variation (and real).

Correction.. your sling has leather on both ends- the 1918 period image & JeffN only have leather on the adjustment hole end.

Otherwise the same. I still think yours is real deal though, as you see the Gew.98 versions with leather on both ends.

Those slings just may be the same strapping and buckles found on gasmasks. A direct comparison would be interesting.

SimsonSuhl,
Thank you for you excellent insight, I had just got done posting the same questions on another firearm site regarding the rifle. I had poured through my books the last couple nights trying to find out information... I read about the armistice figures, which really prompted my questions about the letter blocks and then of course survivability. As I profess I’m not an imperial collector, however, I love these fine pieces of history.

I have to admit the sling that it came with had me. I could see the resemblance to the leather sling with the nine holes and such and I’ve seen erzat slings on WWII weapons, however, with out better books with details I couldn’t draw any conclusions

Once again, sincerely thank you for your excellent insight and wisdom!!

-Mike

CB, I emailed you the pics, - I can't post JeffN pics as they do not belong to me, but perhaps you can review them and give your opinion.

I sent the May 1918 pictures too, I plan to do an article on the topic, one day, so I do not want to put them up where all the pirates can snag them.

Your welcome of course, - but lets hear CB's thoughts, as he is someone who's opinion is important to consider.

tacdriver66 said:

SimsonSuhl,
Thank you for you excellent insight, I had just got done posting the same questions on another firearm site regarding the rifle. I had poured through my books the last couple nights trying to find out information... I read about the armistice figures, which really prompted my questions about the letter blocks and then of course survivability. As I profess I’m not an imperial collector, however, I love these fine pieces of history.

I have to admit the sling that it came with had me. I could see the resemblance to the leather sling with the nine holes and such and I’ve seen erzat slings on WWII weapons, however, with out better books with details I couldn’t draw any conclusions

Once again, sincerely thank you for your excellent insight and wisdom!!

-Mike

Click to expand...

WaPrüf2
whatever infomation that I could provide for any compairson would be fine by me sir.

Same for the rest of the rig... what ever I could do to help the collecting community with studies or information for records would be fine my me as well... just let me know and I'll send it.

-Mike

98az

great rifle. I must of missed this post the first time you posted up. You're sling could probably be repaired by taking an all leather 98az or later mauser banner sling and cutting it down and using it as a doner and stitching back to the cloth section. Of course it's you'res but, if it were mine thats what i'd do. The action cover is the over the top feature..Consider youreself lucky to own that rifle..