1917 Mauser Orberndorf

This is the only Gew 98 I have ever owned. I knew next to nothing about Gew 98 rifles when I bought it other than it looked to be in good condition. It has the 1920 German army property mark on the receiver and stock which I understood to mean it was approved for the Reichswehr. It is a bolt mismatch with the bolt assembled from gew 98 marked parts. The stock has been lightly sanded and cut in an odd fashion and the floor plate and follower have different serial numbers. Unfortunately the stock at the wrist was also cracked which caused me some concern, but the seller seemed REALLY motivated to sell it so I bought it with no real misgivings.

I have read that some 1917 dated rifles can be found in very good condition and saw little use. This evidently is one of those rifles. The overall condition of the finish on the receiver and barrel is very good with some standard wear on the barrel bands and floor plate. The barrel is in excellent condition and looks to have been fired very little. I have taken photos of the various marks for documentation purposes. Given the production date of 1917 I decided to post it in the Imperial 1918 and earlier section. If the 1920 Reichwehr markings means it should be in the Weimar section please move it there. Thank you.

More pictures

More pictures including the diagonal style duffle cut. I have seen several G98 type rifles cut this way, was this a typical style cut for the longer Mausers?

You have a damn fine rifle, extraordinary actually... I will move it to the interwar forum shortly as it fits there exceedingly well. I wish CB were around to marvel at this rifle, it is quite a neat rifle from the pictures I have seen.

The "1920" is a property mark, it means it was German government property during the military weapon round up, not necessarily only Army (Reichsheer), but RM (navy) and police weapons were also marked. It served no other purpose other than to identify a rifle the government possessed so thieves couldn't steal rifles and turn them in for the rewards. Uninformed people make up all sorts of ridiculous stories to its meaning, often bizarre stories, which 1919-1927 Germany was so full of bizarre and ridiculous events, there is no reason to make up stories. Literally it was a time of madness with massive amounts of sadness for average Germans.

Anyway, what is most remarkable about the rifle is its original rearsight, this is common enough among EWB rifles, - which rarely are property marked (because most were destroyed or found their way into the black Reichswehr inventory -illegal auxiliaries and militia type organizations, often paramilitary types, mostly in the east facing Poland). Your rifle obviously wasn't EWB and probably not EW either, but almost for sure this rifle found its way into one of the illegal arms caches, some of which were not turned in (Heye was Mr. Integrity and cooperated with the leftist Prussian government, revealing the illegal stashes and this led to some heartburn among the far right which often managed or had access, - when I say far right this generally wasn't "nazis" as they were as hated by the far right as much as by the communists until 1931-1932, though the early nazis did participate minimally in frontier defense organization, but not surprisingly were not trusted). Having the original RS and the property marking means it was early on in government hands, but avoided destruction (the vast majority of "1920" rifles ended up in the smelter, at the time Germany was massively over limits), that it wasn't upgraded it probably means it was hidden in one of the clandestine stashes and probably got "lost" by one of the paramilitary groups working with the army.

What is most remarkable about your rifle is it survived not only WWI (German used Mauser/17's are rare enough, most went to Turkey, what stayed in German hands were reworked), but it survived 1919-1923, and then it survived the nazi regime of thugs, - it is super rare to find a property marked rifle in factory original condition. Most that do turn up are EWB's (the Bavarians did not cooperate with the central government, they gave the Prussians and SPD led government headaches..) because the Bavarians didn't turn all their small arms in (though most eventually found there way into government hands).

A great rifle, but a little unfortunate it has small problems.

Thank you Lowe for the information. I was not aware the rifle was as uncommon in it’s current condition until your explanation. I appreciate it.