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K98az Question

AbleArcher

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Did the Polish get German K98Az rifles and rework them into their sling configuration? I am looking at a rifle that is a 1915 Erfurt but has sling points on the bottom like the Poles did. No 1920 mark either. The Bolt is the only thing not matching. Could this be a Spanish Civil War thing? Remnants of shellac on the stock as well. Any idea what this would be?

Thanks
 
Sure the Poles took possession of Kar.98a carbines, they are far less commonly encountered than the G98 variation. So far I have not encountered one rebuilt at FBR, but I suspect they were, for whatever reason most reworked by FBR were G98's, at least insofar as I have recorded.

I wouldn't attribute a Kar.98a to Poland by its sling arrangement alone however, that could mean anything. Rifles that made it to Spain, supplied by Germany to Franco's Nationalists or the far left's "Republicans" (what a laugh, more communists than "republican" - anticlerical/atheistic, church and press burning murders...) who were supplied by the USSR (with Spanish gold) typically have other signs we use to attribute Spanish connections. (surplus German rifles were common after both world wars, Belgium and the Dutch peddled plenty after WWI, plenty were smuggled into neighboring countries, no telling where they all ended up..)

Try and do a few pictures of the original (matching) components.
 
Interesting. I would expect WW1 German Kar 98a's, or Gew 98's that the Polish had obtained would lack the 1920 mark.

The Polisch Gouvernement confiscated and where handover many guns and machines from the factory also from the arsenal in the area of Danzig after 1920.
Many of this guns where first under German control in the early 20's but must be hand over to Poland
On that time Poland was taking any gun that they get there hands on, thats why many variations in the gew 98 and kar 98a's with no specifiek Polisch markings

The P and the additional slingswivel cut on the buttstock says enaugh , this is not German work.It was quickly pressed on a Polish unit,don't forget there was still a War with Russia going on for there indenpendence in the early 20's


greetings Bat
 

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