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Please help... is this a Polish K98?

Hello,

I am new to the forum and to Mauser rifles. I'm an avid militaria collector and have always wanted a Mauser, just never pulled the trigger. Yesterday I was presented with a great opportunity to buy one or two Mauser rifles for what I think are very very good prices ($250-350 each). My friend is a gun broker and told me an old lady consigned three Mauser rifles for him to sell and he immediately thought of me. One is all rusted, but the other two are nice. One he had no back story for. The other one had a very interesting story and from what I've been able to find in my research so far I think it might be accurate.

The Mauser belonged to this woman's father-in-law. He was Polish and fought with the Polish resistance using this rifle. I've tried to identify the markings but they appear to be limited. Several numbers match but I'm not sure if it is a complete match. Can any of the experts here shed some light on this rifle and if it would a good deal to buy as a first Mauser?

The second rifle has no back story, but one making leads me to believe it was from the Thai arsenal. Not if historical interest but I also plan on shooting it so if the price is right I'll make an offer.

At this time I do not know their working condition. They appear to be in good shape but I have not fired them.

Thanks in advance. If I need to clarify anything or you need additional photos please let me know.

Jim
 
Welcome to the forum, your post count is why you have limitations to posting, the restrictions disappear when you reach a certain number of posts.

Polish rifles are not a specialty of mine, but it looks like it once was a Polish carbine, the earlier model that was replaced by the K29, but yours was scrubbed and it looks like it might be a Spanish purchased rifle (Poland sold quite a few rifles to Spain, the Spanish leftist-communist government, not from sympathy, but for gold and hard currency). I doubt this rifle is as described, a Polish service rifle used by the Polish resistance... for one it looks scrubbed, the only Polish used rifles that I have seen scrubbed are the "Z" depot rifles, which seem to be reworked German rifles, they have a "Z" in a triangle on top of the receiver and are not common.

It should have the Polish crest on the top, plus it looks refinished to me. Also, the "Polish resistance", it would be quite a feat for a rifle to have survived the invasions of 1939 (Germany and USSR), the savage occupations by both countries, one following the other, and considering modern Poland's gun laws, which I hear are pretty stiff (barely 1 per 100 of its citizen own private guns). How could such a rifle have gotten to the US? Most of the Polish rifles got here through rifles captured by the Germans, either bringbacks or imports from countries that recovered them from German sources after 1945.

Anyway, you might take this to Gunboard's Mauser forum, they have some Polish rifle collectors there, but my database of Polish rifles show no rifle that compares well with this rifle, - though it does compare well to many Polish-Spanish rifles i have seen.
 
Ok great thank you. I'll check out that other forum you mentioned. Any idea on value. Looking around, even the Spanish ones seem to be going for least $350 and up. If I can get it for $250 is that a good deal?

Jim
 
I am not sure what they bring, but it is hard to go wrong at $250 if it shoots reasonably well.. Personally, I would save your money for a better rifle (assuming the rifle is just a Spanish Civil War rifle), but of course many do not have enough patience to do the waiting for a better rifle game. I was never much good at it either...
 
I registered for the gunboards forum three days ago and I'm still the moderation queue to be added to the forum.... Three days plus to register? Anyone know how long it takes before I can post? I can't even read the forums while logged in. I've never seen a forum that took days to register... Odd

Jim
 
I am sure Gunboards gets a lot of spammers and trolls, they get a lot of traffic, - you can't even read posts without logging in?
 
No the opposite... I can't read posts while I am logged in! If I'm logged out I can, if I'm logged in I have no access to anything. Very strange, never seen a board like this.

Jim
 
I've given up on gunboards. Going on 4 days and they don't even reply to emails. I registered twice under different emails. Nothing. That's kind of ridiculous.

Are there any other good Mauser forums you know of where there might be some Polish experts?

Jim
 
I've given up on gunboards. Going on 4 days and they don't even reply to emails. I registered twice under different emails. Nothing. That's kind of ridiculous.

Are there any other good Mauser forums you know of where there might be some Polish experts?

Jim

Gunboards will send you a verification email to register, more than likely you either didn't see that email or it went into your spam folder. With the huge number of people that register it's pretty tough to get someones attention to finish your registration process.
 
It's all good. I did get the activation email and I did click the link to activate the day I registered. I'm "in the queue for moderator activation". Waiting is tough in the land of instant gratification.
 
None that I know of... TP's Mauser forum is the only good "general" Mauser forum which covers all the variations, including German models, All the specialized collectors go there, many do not go anywhere else.

Sorry to see you not able to register, but I am pretty sure this rifle is a Spanish used Polish K98. You might spend sometime on the Polish thread that is stuck at the top, it has a lot of posts, it has some good insight to Polish rifles. You would have to weed through it all, but if you like Polish rifles, it is a good place to start.

I've given up on gunboards. Going on 4 days and they don't even reply to emails. I registered twice under different emails. Nothing. That's kind of ridiculous.

Are there any other good Mauser forums you know of where there might be some Polish experts?

Jim
 
The one with the K98 marking and the letter A (typical SCW marking) on the stock was a Polish Model 98AZ carbine a.k.a. Polish KBK Wz. 98 carbine made in Poland. The receiver was scrubbed and the rifle was shipped to Spain where it was used in the Spanish Civil War.

The other one was possibly a Wz. 29, I'm not sure. With a scrubbed receiver and side rail it's hard to say what it was. Same story here, if the receiver and side rail was scrubbed it was probably also shipped to Spain where it was used in the Spanish Civil War.

Anyway I don't think these rifles have anything to do with "Polish resistance" or "Thailand".
 
Thanks guys. I finally got on gunboards and the guys there are in agreement that it's Polish made exported to Spain for the civil war. Thank you for the feedback. I'm probably going to offer for at least one gun. I'm also going to try and get some more details about the back story. I know why someone would embellish but this is a local elderly woman, not sure it fits her. Maybe she has some more details or photos... It could have made its way back to Poland after the Spanish war and still been used in the resistance there. Being part Polish and having a Master's degree in history, that would be icing on the purchase.

I'll let you guys know if I find out anything.

Thanks again,

Jim
 

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