Seeking for information on a Gewehr 98b

Hi

I was recently offered a Gewehr 98b and wanted to ask the experts what you think about it. I took some closeups of the important places, but if further images are needed, I can make them.

Thx in advance for any opinions / comments you may have.

Even from just those photos I can tell you that the rifle is a total fake. The markings on the receiver and barrel make no sense what so ever, and none of the markings look correct. I wouldn't purchase that rifle if I were you.

Who is offering the gun? I've been seeing a lot of humped Gewehr 98s with multiple royal cyphers (there should be only one) on the butt being auctioned on eGun.

@mrfarb: How can such a rifle be a complete fake? I couldn't see any traces where previous stampings had been removed. To fake it, someone would need a barrel without any markings on it and I don't think something alike exists or am I missing something here?

@PrayingMantis: It is beeing offered to me by a private person. But I'm quite sure he got it from a reseller in Germany.

That thing is really bad.

It is not difficult to remove markings from barrels and receivers, which may also make this rifle unsafe to shoot. If you study the way the markings look and compare them to originals, you can clearly see they are not original.

According to somebody, mrfarb and I (and anybody else) are living in some sort of "alternate reality":

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?271488-Seeking-for-information-on-a-Gewehr-98b

Here's an original Spandau marked receiver for you to compare to, see if you notice what is different (and wrong).

You know, re-reading your opening post, if you can disassemble the rifle and image the barreled receiver under the stock it might help to identify the date-origin of the receiver and barrel.

It is possible this receiver was once a Spandau receiver, scrubbed and re-engraved over the useful aspects. The right receiver first position is the acceptance found on S&H sub-contracted receivers, it is a little off but very close, possibly just the picture quality or the tough up engraving. The rest is not typical (what you would expect) but if it once was a S&H receiver the logo will be under the receiver, and i doubt they would have removed it. If so you can date the receiver to 1916-1918. Even if not a S&H receiver, it might offer a clue to the receivers origin-date.

Like wise the barrel will have a barrel code if German, might help with its origins.

Thank you all for your comments so far.

I visited my "friend" again and was able to completely disassemble the rifle. I tryed taking pictures of all stampings I could find.

The barrel itself has no code whatsoever beside the stampings on the left side.
If I get this right, this means the receiver was rebarreled at some time with a new barrel.

If the price is low enough (must be very low ;-) ), I plan on buying this one as an example of a faked weapon, as it nevertheless looks quite nice and the various parts seem to be in pretty good conditions. But do you think this one is reasonably safe to shoot or wouldn't you shoot it at all?

Well I guess if you are going to alter a rifle, it is best to start with a clean slate. Remove everything, or nearly so, and start fresh. That the barrel code has no markings means it is was sterilized also, as even the earliest rifles have some markings.

I wouldn't buy it at any price, as who knows what was done to it, but good luck with it. At least it is a good example of the progress underway with altering rifles for profit. It shows a certain level of skill, better than some, some knowledge of the rifles, though so far it falls short in several areas.

THunter said:

According to somebody, mrfarb and I (and anybody else) are living in some sort of "alternate reality":

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?271488-Seeking-for-information-on-a-Gewehr-98b

Click to expand...

And it all turned out pretty well didn't it? Move along, there's nothing happening to worry about.