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New to me Gew 98m

CJZKU93

Member
I picked up a Gew 98m rifle from a LGS over the weekend. The rifle is a complete mix master of parts. The receiver is a Danzig that appears to have been dated 1903. But most of the Danzig and Gew98 have been warn away over time. The Imperial proofs can still be made out on the receiver though time has not been kind to them. The rear sight has S/42G Marks and proofs from when the site was changed in 1935. The front barrel band has the same serial number as the barrel but the rear barrel band is a mismatch. The bolt is a total mix master and looks like a late war K 98k bolt that is mostly blank except for some marks on the underside of the bolt and bolt handle. The bolt handle has a flat spot ground on it and a serial number stamped there. The stock on the rifle has been sanded a lot but on the right side below the bolt take down disk an MP over 8 inside a circle is stamped. Below that a W L has been burned into the stock. There is also a faint impression on the wrist of the stock that might at one time have been an Imperial inspection mark. I could not find any import marks.

I wish the receiver could talk, it might have some interesting stories over the last 112 years and where all it's parts came from.
 

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More pictures
 

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Pictures of the stock and bolt.
 

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The brand isn't "EL", its EWB. This is short for Einwohner Wehr Bayern, a Bavarian militia type group from the early '20s, I think.
 
The flaming bomb with the MP 8 is a Spanish Ordnance stamp / EWB means that this rifle was used by the German equivalent of a local militia / Your gun first was reworked from WW1 standards to revised standards in the early 1930s for German troop use, [ the rear sight was changed] later it was sent to Spain during Hitler's support of Franco in the Spanish civil war. The Spanish ordnance stamp means it was reworked in Spain after the civil war and placed in storage for possible reuse.

Look carefully for a small 8mm stamp somewhere on the metal which would indicate importation by Potomac Arms Corporation in the early 1950s.
 
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Look carefully for a small 8mm stamp somewhere on the metal which would indicate importation by Potomac Arms Corporation in the early 1950s.

How small is the "8mm" and where did they tend to put them? I tried to photograph every mark just to have record of it and I don't remember seeing anything like that.
 
Sometimes on the barrel, often on or near the rear sight base. The 8mm markings are small and often faint.
 

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