That is indeed a wonderful rifle to have survived, even if demilitarized; such early rifles are very uncommon. Recently several KS (Colonial) rifles (with original 200 m sights) have come forward from my website, from South African owners; one was in extraordinary condition, still fully functional too. Unfortunately, the new order in South Africa places these rifles in danger. One owner told me that upon his death, the rifle must be destroyed, they are not usually transferable and no museum has any interest in them. He is trying to get his rifle, probably one of the best ones still in existence, transferred to his son who lives in Germany. It will be a tragedy if the rifle is destroyed; it is a wonderful original-matching rifle.
Currently, I am working on creating an article on the KS rifles (Kaiserliche Schutztruppe or Imperial Defence Forces, but essentially Colonial Forces), which will also be part of an expansion of my website. It is a very dated website, Gewehr98.com, and we are going to update it and create two new sections, one on Imperial Naval rifles and one on the Colonial Service rifles. The Colonial section will feature this rare rifle from South Africa. Naturally, the article will run in the MRJ in a more complete form, largely based around my trends work, everything previously written, - significantly relying upon CB's numerous outlines on the topic, who has agreed to help where he can and this one rifle from South Africa.
Regarding your rifle, I assume this Erfurt/1899 is a first block rifle, no suffix in the serial number? So far all Erfurt/1899 rifles are in the first block, no "a" blocks have been recorded? Is yours an 8000 block rifle, looks like it might be, (8708, but maybe 5xxx), if it is an 8000 block or higher, it would be the highest so far recorded. This is the only early 3rd Seebataillon so far recorded, quite a rifle to own!
