Third Party Press

1916 Kornbusch

Intruder196

Senior Member
I've had this for a few years and haven't gotten around to photographing it till now. Found it in a local shop. It came with the muzzle cover and the rear sling swivel. The bore is one of the nicest I have ever owned. What would you value this one at?
 

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More photos
 

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Very nice WOK, very illusive to find in this shape. Given recent auction prices, I would assess $2,000 give or take a couple hundred for this example, it's beautiful.
 
Loewe will probably be by to comment and add more information. I do know they are elusive and given the right audience will pull a nice price. Very nice rifle.
 
That's a damned wonderful rifle, what a score!

Looking forward to Loewe's assessment....
 
What a wonderful rifle and glad to see another collector in the Kornbusch club! Really an exclusive rifle to find in this type of condition. Thanks for the good pictures as well.

Thinking about taking mine back out and doing a revised picture edition. Have a better camera now
 
Why buddy its one of the hardest Gew98 rifles too find? Put it this way it took me over 5 years to find one. And that was thanks to good collector friend. Which the only payment he took was a Waffle House breakfast!
 
Why buddy its one of the hardest Gew98 rifles too find? Put it this way it took me over 5 years to find one. And that was thanks to good collector friend. Which the only payment he took was a Waffle House breakfast!

It's just time to let it go. I was thinking of thinning the collection.
 
I agree with the consensus, it is a very nice rifle and I would think Sam's $2,000 range is probably a good general starting price. I could see this pulling more though... somewhat scarcer in observations than Simson/16 (105), WOK/16 (91) is probably the scarcest general production G98 for 1916. The Suhl makers are pretty close competitors though, JPS/16 (94), CGH (107) and VCS (79), but their production is so intertwined they can only be groups together is such a statistic.

While the decision to part with the rifle would depend upon your specialty, you might take a little time to think it over, you are almost certainly not going to be able to find a finer example and if you did it would probably cost you more unless you happened across it under the same circumstances.. at auction this rifle would probably go for more than $2000 if auctioned properly.

If you feel adventurous, you might slip the handguard off and see if you can see the barrel code, it would be in front of the rearsight, though it is hit or miss whether it is rotated above the stock to see.
 
I would seriously reconsider on selling it, I've been actively collecting these for seven years and haven't found a nice WOK.
 
I would seriously reconsider on selling it, I've been actively collecting these for seven years and haven't found a nice WOK.

Been collecting Imperial for almost 10 years. Searched for a WOK for five years until I finally found one. Only saw two complete factory original rifles come up for sale in that time frame. And one of them I bought! I did find a WOK Stern for sale once.
 
If the OP has no interest in Imperial or a desire to have a type collection, then it makes sense to sell the rifle to fund something he is interested in. It really depends on the man, if his interest has settled and it isn't likely to change he should move it to further something he is interested in...

I know my interest (focus) changed several times before i settled on Imperial and Republican era, - Loewe and Simson in particular. I started with pre-39 98k, then G43's, then 98k in general, all before i owned my first Imperial. The process can take time to develop as you study the subject, but if the OP has gone through the evolution then by all means sell it to fund what does interest you.
 
From having regretted selling certain guns in the past,(like a matching bnz 45 with hardwood stock) I changed my approach to selling anything I have collected to

1. Will I regret/miss it when it is gone?

2. Could I ever afford replace it if I wanted another?

I don't think I would miss it when its gone. I doubt I would want another at the price I would have to pay. I have owned other Imperial era Gew98's before, but none were as nice as this (3 were turked imports, one was a mismatched duffle cut, and another is a sporter rescue Spandau).

So I'm kind of on the fence right now.
 
Just thought I'd give a little update on this thread with some cool pictures. It's no secret to some who ended up with this rifle and that was me, hard to believe I own two rifles made by the scarce manufacturer. But I didn't end up with this rifle on my own I really want to thank my Canadian buddy Brandon for passing it along to me. He called dibs on it first but he passed it on to me which I greatly appreciate it buddy thanks again man. I wanted to get pictures posted of the barrel markings because any extra pictures of a rifle made by this manufacturer is greatly appreciated for the research and data information. I did find it cool that the cleaning rod I believe was made by this manufacturer because the font on it matches the rest of the rifle.

I'll be honest I don't think this will be the last one I own from this manufacturer because after all it's one of my favorites to collect! Anyway enjoy the extra pictures guys.
 

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Glad you wrangled it up, these extra details are helpful... this is always the case with the more elusive, and hence less observed/recorded manufacturers. Note the quality is pretty far below DWM, WMO and Amberg, actually Danzig could probably do as good a showing... I guess they are the SDP version of the Imperial era, - anything the government involves itself means efficiency (profit) and quality suffer, they can take the best material and resources (in this case FN and DWM know-how) and make it complex, inefficient and crude, - and unprofitable... which is at the root of the problem.

Of course in the case of WOK, much of the resulting inefficiency can be laid at the fact that starting a new rifle factory in the middle of a war was impractical, skilled labor was in short supply and men were being called to service (though the Germans were more intelligent is selection, deferments for skilled labor was far superior in Germany than England or France, - but they had the US to supply them, AND eventually to finance the supply, which made the USA a belligerent.. which meant a negotiated peace was not possible and a vicious peace unavoidable). Rather than looting FN to start up WOK, the resources should have been used to supplement DWM and WMO or at least allow DWM to decide what to do with FN and its machines (they were majority owners of the company). Like most things, the right thing to do is allow the owner decide what is the best use of "their" property and resources.
 
Indeed it's actually quite amazing when I took that rifle apart let alone my other one made by the same manufacturer you see so many tool markings. It's like it was pretty much that's good enough send it out. From the research I've gathered it actually was costing the German government 250 reichsmarks for each rifle made by this company compared to 65 reichsmarks made by one of the government Arsenal's or Mauser. Now it makes sense why dwm took over complete control of this manufacturer it was costing too much money and they sure as hell knew how to run a company better plus knew more about making rifles.

And I agree Paul it really doesn't make sense why you would want to start another manufacturer in the middle of the war that has never made rifles before. It would have made more sense to send those machines back to dwm and just start another plant ran by them.
 

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