A 1917 / 1920 Erfurt Kar 98 A...All matching Reichsbahn marked

I posted this on another forum a while ago...I'm stuck in my hotel and forgot I had some more pics of the rifle...I do have a couple questions about it though, First, Since it is property marked, Why didn't it go through a rebuild because the follower allows the bolt to close when empty and all metal that is supposed to be in the white still is? I figured if the rifle was part of the inventory on hand it would have been upgraded at some point in time. And my second question involves the sling that I found for it and included a couple photos of it...It is long like 55" and doesn't fit the rifle very well as the slider almost ends up at the frosch holes and there is about four inches of the end hanging out of the keeper because you need to use one of the middle holes...I guess my question about the sling is that appears to be dated 1917 and that it seems it was made for a longer rifle like a kar 98 b, but those didn't appear until after 1919 or so....Or is that not a date but a maker code or something else? Another question is about the stock which is matching.... looks like it was used as a hammer and has a repair as shown in the last couple photos....Why didn't they replace the stock? Or do you think that was done stateside?....Anyway thanks for looking... Mike

Having a "1920" property marking means nothing beyond that it was in government hands during the later stages of 1920. Not all rifles went through a rework or upgrade, in the Kar98a case it wouldn't need an upgrade and as it was property marked to the German railway police, it probably wasn't used enough to be repaired or reworked.

Generally the Kar98a was a second line rifle after the war, mostly used by police organizations and training units. Usually they have some sign of repair, sometimes a re-barrel, but not always.

The sling is a Kar98a sling, it is the right length and arrangement, you just need to put it on correctly. I doubt that repair is period.

Nice unit markings!

Simson thanks for taking the time to answer my questions...I was just curious about those couple items and as you well know there isn't a whole lot of info on these rifles....Its a shame the buttstock is so messed up on the rifle but it is matching. I picked the sling up 6 months ago...I was lucky on that one as I was showing the rifle to a guy that collects german rifles at a gun show. He was into ww2 k98's and said one of his rifles came with an odd sling from ww1 and since it wasn't "correct" I could have it for 50.00! Well anyway thanks again...

Well $50 is quite a deal for a kar98a sling, even crummy ones usually cost twice that. I have paid & sold them for over $200 before...

R.B.Mz. probably Reichsbahn Mainz. I don't think I've seen that before.

The "REV" ( Reichs Eisenbahn Verwaltung ) stamp is pretty hard to find. They only existed for a very short period. Have one K98 with the "REV" stamp, but the stamp is different.

thanks to everyone that responded with a comment...It's my favorite rifle...Picked it up locally. It was my first all matching German rifle...

For comparison my "REV" marked K98.