Landespolizei KS Gew 98.

All right I finally got my dream rifle. I won this rifle South African auction in August 2018. The rifle was built by Spandau in 1900. according to the description it's a service in Imperial German East Africa before being transferred to South West Africa and be used by the Landespolizei. I literally cannot confirm that this is true but I am still doing my research on it. The top part of the receiver and the unit disk on the stock are marked L.P. 200. from what I can see it's matching but I don't know if the stock is matching because one of the action screws is frozen. So I can't take the rifle completely apart yet. The previous owner of the rifle use the rifle as a target rifle so the left side of the stock has been cut into for a Redfield style of rear sight. also the stock has been broken from their trigger guard through the wrist. There has been a repair where the serial number would be on the wrist the person put in a screw. Other than that she is definitely the crown jewel of my collection. I will take more pictures of it when I have it apart. Enjoy.

It's sad to see such a rare rifle have stock issues like this but something like that I would not pass up on when it comes to extraordinary rare items. Michael very happy to see you get such a rare gewehr for your collection. Thank you for sharing.

Wow! Yeah, sometimes you really have to overlook such issues when talking about something this uncommon, issues aside what a piece of history!! It definitely came out of Africa with that stock repair style, they love pegging dowels in them like that! I have a 1910 JP Sauer that undoubtedly came out of Africa as well with similar style repair work. Thank you for posting this awesome find, this is the first I recall seeing a unit mark on the ring, is that fairly common in colonial service?

flynaked said:

Wow! Yeah, sometimes you really have to overlook such issues when talking about something this uncommon, issues aside what a piece of history!! It definitely came out of Africa with that stock repair style, they love pegging dowels in them like that! I have a 1910 JP Sauer that undoubtedly came out of Africa as well with similar style repair work. Thank you for posting this awesome find, this is the first I recall seeing a unit mark on the ring, is that fairly common in colonial service?

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I have seen LP marked receivers like that before. As for the unit disk. That's the first time I've ever seen marked LP.

Isn't that the truth! A fabulous rifle even with the distractions!

It is surely authentic, Spandau/00 is full of KS rifles, the c-block all are (4 others); once a dozen years ago a SA man, a professional naturalist photographer as I recall, traveled all of Africa and had some pretty amazing stories about the dangers involved (generally the two legged "official" types), he had a near pristine example, Spandau/01 I believe, truly a wonder to see... had the whole story, his Grandfather took it in some WWI adventure and it passed down to his mother, who cherished it, - he had a story where the local authorities wanted to seize the rifle, she told them to bring six cops because she would unload on them before giving it up. What a woman if true! He was worried about the new SA government and its new Policies towards guns. I am sure its history now if he didn't get it out, considering the new regimes views on old Afrikaners. (what a surprise that didn't work out...)

I am very glad you were able to save this one!

flynaked said:

Wow! Yeah, sometimes you really have to overlook such issues when talking about something this uncommon, issues aside what a piece of history!!

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With some careful inletting all that wood work could be repaired , if you wanted to.

gill120 said:

With some careful inletting all that wood work could be repaired , if you wanted to.

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Yes I would like to have the stock repaired. I'm not in any rush right now.

Pretty fantastic rifle. Very jealous!

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Great rifle! I love that they marked these on top of the receiver.

mauser1908 said:

Great rifle! I love that they marked these on top of the receiver.

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Thanks Sam.

What a great rifle. My honest congratulationt to you!

One interesting question that always comes for me with these Landespolizei rifles is where are the bayonets for them?

When it comes to colonial unit markings i have seen every possible marking (K.S., Sch.D.O.A., P.T.K. etc.) both on rifles and bayonets but i have never seed or heard of a L.P. marked bayonet. Did any of you guys ever came across one?


With kind regards

Vincent

I found this information from http://www.germancolonialuniforms.co.uk/
The African auxiliaries of the South West African Landespolizei were sometimes photographed armed with bayonets. "Unter dem Kreuz des Südens" by S Schepp records that the Landespolizei had varying numbers of bayonets at different times, (for example in 1912 they had seventeen S71/84 bayonets in Keetmanshoop, sixty-five ks98 bayonets in Maltahöhe, eight S98 bayonets in Schuckmannsburg in the Caprivi Strip, another four kS98 and four S98 bayonets in headquarters storage and one S98 in Lüderitzbucht). No examples of the markings of these bayonets have so far been recorded, though some may have been marked "L.P." followed by a weapon number as were Landespolizei swords and pistols (see Landespolizei Pistol Page). As the Landespolizei were often issued with old Schutztruppe equipment it is quite possible that many of these bayonets would have had cancelled "KS" markings from their former service. It seems especially likely that the sixty-five kS98 bayonets in Maltahöhe, were former Schutztruppe stock as the 5. Feldkompagnie had recently left Maltahöhe in early 1912 and the Landespolizei garrison there was only 15 Germans and 12 Africans.

Vincent[/QUOTE]