Third Party Press

counterbored muzzle

i recently picked up a 1935 (Wiemar eagle marked) 98K and noticed the barrel seems to have been counterbored long ago. having heard this was typically done to repair a damaged crown and/ or improve accuracy, i was just wondering how common this is and its effect on value if any.

thanks...gary
 
All things being equal, any buyer is going to prefer a muzzle with no belling and a sharp crown, with no counterbore.
 
Seems unlikely that it was done during German service. WW2 era likely would have been a barrel replacement.

It was done during WW1 on German service arms; Gew.98 and Gew.88 rifles have been documented with counterbored muzzles. These carry an additional crown inspection mark on either the barrel shoulder (G98) or on the receiver head (G88).
 
..recently picked up a 1935 (Wiemar eagle marked) 98K

As was said all things being equal most would prefer it NOT to be there. On a really rare rifle likely not a deal-breaker. So welcome and I hope you'll show some photos of said rifle.
 
... I hope you'll show some photos of said rifle.
i do not think it is particularly rare, but so far with only the bolt being out i have located 19 full & partial matching serial numbers and to me is has a lot of character. today is the first sunny day in a while so i'll try to bring it outside and see what i can do. here is just a small ID pic i took earlier.

1935 Mauser 98k.jpg
 
If it is mostly matching and not horribly worn, the chances of it being a legit German rework increase greatly.

My previous comment was predicated on it being an import, Eastern Europe/Balkan/Albanian, used post war, often largely mismatched when imported. Those folk would have counterbored it, while 3R Germany would've (likely) rebuilt it with a new barrel, IME.

Imperial era was far more frugal; I've seen bolts serialed 3 times, barrels with 2 serials and 2 clocking marks, mismatched parts that are clearly original to the armorer rebuild assembly, X'd out/reserialed bits, et.al. You really don't see that much use of salvaged parts during the 3R era, outside of SS reworks of Imperial/Weimar rifles, and the later war use of armorer parts, likely evacuated from eastern region depots.

Does anyone have a legit example of a 3R era rifle being counterbored? If so, is there inspection markings to reflect that?

OP, please load some more images. If you can get measures of depth and diameter of said counterbore, all the better.
 
.... If you can get measures of depth and diameter of said counterbore, all the better.

the counterbore is 1 3/16" deep, a .36 cal lead ball fits in with a bit to spare (.375). if i track down my calipers later today i can get that much more exact. as i seem to have your ear, may as well ask, i was going to look for something smaller (.31 cal), but would a .36 ball be ok to slug this barrel? i just have those on hand.
 

Military Rifle Journal
Back
Top