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My 98b rifle

povstalec

povstalec

Member
Hi, sorry for my English :) I also own a Gewehr 98 b rifle and I just wanted you to tell me something about it. The story of this rifle is interesting, I have bought it from an old man in a small village in Northern Slovakia, when he was young he brought it back from the German - Czechoslovak border shortly after the war. He told me that the retreating germans were cracking the stocks on the road and then just throwing rifles in the balk. So he picked one up. After this he just put it in an old grain sack, greased it with lots of grease and put somewhere in the attic for 70 years. The rifle is all matching in great condition except for some small pitting on the right side of the receiver, it has got a reproduction stock, that I bought from Polish PPHU Fox company, the original as I said could not make it, the bands and buttplate and the other small metal parts on the stock are original but not from this rifle, the original ones were lost with the original stock. Bore is in excellent condition, shiny and the grooves are deep. The finish on receiver, bolt, barrel and other parts is original, it has no marking on the side rail, only a big S on the receiver, serial numbers on the left side of the receiver and on the right side three eagle/6 markings, they are present on every part of this rifle. I will send some pics later, so you can see for yourself. I would like to know how much could it be worth...
 
It sounds like a type 1 receiver, the first variation after the dated variations. They have a "S" on the top of the receiver and some have no siderail designation. It is unusual to have e/6 x3 though, only a couple rifles have been seen with e/6 x3, usually there is a mix.

This is probably the rarest "variation" of the 98b, perhaps only 1924 more elusive. Under 5000 were made in this style, and all are early a-blocks. What is your rifles serial number? Without the siderail designation it would have to fall in a very narrow range.

If someone were a stickler for collecting every variation, every pattern, this would be the most difficult to find with ALL of these characteristics.
 
Hope I would be able to make some pics tomorrow, serial number of the rifle is 5710 a ,the barrel is also marked 5710 but without a letter and with nazi eagle with swastika. What I should say to the e/6 markings, the first one is clear and nice there is a nuber 3 behind it...now...there is a little pitting it´s difficult to recognize but I thing there are three of them in a row because they were weakly stamped, after the second one, there is another number I could not recognize if it´s 3 or 8 or something different.
 
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The rifle falls within the potential range, it would be the highest though and it is not known exactly where type 2 receivers start, but your rifle is before the lowest type 2 and above the highest type 1, so very probably yours is a type 1 and is correct. Sounds like a re-barrel unfortunately, - the numbers in-between e/6 acceptance are reworking acceptance. They were applied by an ordnance depot. Your rifle is very early, probably 1926 production, so it very likely went through an ordnance shop more than once.

povstalec said:
Hope I would be able to make some pics tomorrow, serial number of the rifle is 5710 a ,the barrel is also marked 5710 but without a letter and with nazi eagle with swastika. What I should say to the e/6 markings, the first one is clear and nice there is a nuber 3 behind it...now...there is a little pitting it´s difficult to recognize but I thing there are three of them in a row because they were weakly stamped, after the second one, there is another number I could not recognize if it´s 3 or 8 or something different.
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Ok here are the pics hope you enjoy.
 

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Thanks, quite nice, great that it has the original bolt body and trigger guard/floorplate. Looks pretty nice and it is a rarer variation of 98b, probably the rarest or tied with 1924 dated, which are also near impossible to find. Too bad about the re-barrel, but it is period. This extends type 1 receivers over 1000 rifles (total est. now rests at about 3000, which is more than they made in 1924), so makes them "less" rare in actual production, but only half a dozen are known. Compare that to later blocks, especially e & f blocks, where dozens are known, makes this an elusive rifle.

I doubt the RR acceptance is e/6 x3, probably e/6 x1 e/14 x2.
 
Thank you for info Loewe, it´s really interesting. I would like to know, how much can it be worth, I´m not going to sell it anyway, I´m just curious. Is there a registy where I can study numbers, how much of these rifles were made in which years, with which serial numbers etc? Who has made this particular rifle? How much of G98b rifles remained till now?
 
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Difficult to have an opinion on value considering you are in Europe, here it might be worth more to a specialist collector, - someone that knows the difference (and cares), but most probably do not collect sub-variations and yours is a sub-variation of a sub-variation, meaning it is a type 1, second type (without the siderail designation, most type I have a siderail designation.)

That it has been re-barreled and re-stocked will influence value significantly, the stock more than barrel, as at least the barrel is period. It is a fact that early 98b's are far more rare and elusive than later blocks, generally up to the b-block they are very difficult to find anywhere near matching and original. c-d blocks are tough too, e-f blocks are most common, especially in matching condition. So you have that going for it, very hard variation to find and the bolt body and TG is original (two damn difficult parts to find for such an early rifle); maybe in the US in the $700-1000 range, maybe more if you can find the right buyer. Most wouldn't know or appreciate the difference between the variations.

There is no registry (database) on line, Volume I of Mike and Bruce's book probably gives the best outline possible, I am not sure what breakdown Mike used off hand, I told him how I have broken them down, but i think he went his own way, as I am sure Mark Wieringa also has another method. I assume other researchers are out there that specialize in the 98b, but as they are private their opinions and database is unknown (and insignificant, information held by one man is meaningless if he keeps it to himself... to an extent everyone keeps hard earned knowledge and research to themselves, but at some point it only has value if it is utilized in a manner that others can see and evaluate it. There is not a shred of doubt that extremely knowledgeable collectors exist, probably know more about their specialty than Bruce, Mike, myself, etc.. but as they, and their work, is anonymous, they are irrelevant unless they share what they have learned because it will die with them. That is why Mike and Bruce's work is so important, - Mike and Bruce have given specialists an opportunity to make their research matter...)

The Kar.98b, in all its variations, were probably made from 1924-1931, going by my research, this rifle would probably be a rifle made in 1926. Before the IAMCC departed, but after their influence was in decline; the maker was Simson Suhl, but it was certainly reworked at a depot, probably twice, once for the upgraded RS and again for the barrel. Surviving rifles is impossible to know, but probably only a couple thousand at most of the approximately 70,000 made, most in thoroughly mismatched condition. Probably half known came out of the Albanian imports of the 1990's, which were thoroughly mismatched, though most did have some original parts. The 1924 I own is one such rifle, from the imports that came in from Albania.

povstalec said:
Thank you for info Loewe, it´s really interesting. I would like to know, how much can it be worth, I´m not going to sell it anyway, I´m just curious. Is there a registy where I can study numbers, how much of these rifles were made in which years, with which serial numbers etc? Who has made this particular rifle? How much of G98b rifles remained till now?
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