balkslak
Senior Member
I'm getting this rifle in a a couple of days and it is the first time I have seen an ax coded rifle. These poor pictures is all i have at the moment. The seller says the barrel is mismatched and I hope the rest is matching.
Scarce rifle to locate would like to see more pictures when you get this k98k.
I got a feeling this barrel is matching but the barrel is set in the rifle where you can't see the numbering. I can almost see numbering at the stock line. Best course of action would be to remove the action from the stock carefully. Rifle is also interesting having a Luft marked stock. Have only seen one AX Feima Luft marked stock. And that is the one I have in my collection and its an AX41. Will have too see what letter block it is. Could fall close to this AX 1940. All I know is Luftwaffe contracted K98k rifles made by Feima was very low. Was glad too see that rifle of mine be put into the vol II book to show that.
So great find to say the least.
Why I think its the original barrel is the sight base is still marked for Feima/Erma production, it is made in 1940, and the overall condition matches the rest of the rifle. It would not make sense to me that someone would replace the barrel with another 1940 made barrel. And made sure too have a Erma/Feima rear sight added on to it. Also check the front sight for 280 mark as well.
This may be the case. When it's disassembled we can see the barrel s/n. It might also be that the rear sight assembly is original to the rifle and was reused as well. Do the rear sight components all match the rifle? Seems like about the third barrel-clocking thread in the last few weeks!
The stock is also marked with a P above the serial number, any ideas to it's meaning?
Barrel is off a very late 42/1940, or very early byf/41, it should be serialed for sure and have a "D" on the barrel shoulder. Really can't be ERMA, or any other maker, as Mauser was greedy with barrels. They generally do not share barrels with others.
I noticed on this 1940 dated u block 42 K98 I owned previously the barrel is marked very similarly to this 1940 ax.
..I suspect the rotation was intentional, this being a modern re-barrel, probably to restore a deactivation or change out a Norwegian barrel perhaps. All designed to make it more collectible.