1945 Czech 98k, BRNO Factory. Have some questions!

Hello all!!! I am new here; I am also a new Mauser owner in general! Very happy to have one of these lovely rifles. I certainly hope I am posting in the correct place.

I picked up this rifle from Classic Firearms when they received a surplus crate of them. They were all allegedly produced by the Brno factory in Czechoslovakia after WWII. I know Kar98ks made in this factory have a lengthy history and many were sold to other countries. I also do have the serial number for this one; will update once I get home and can look at it.

When I received the gun, it did NOT have a front sight hood. The one affixed in the picture is from Amazon. It also is unfortunately slightly bent, giving the front sight picture a canted look. ): I’ve been trying for the past couple days to clean this bad boy and get it nice enough to shoot. The barrel had all this awful crud lining it inside! Whether it’s dirt or surface rust, I do not know. Classic Firearms said the bores of all rifles in the crate were dark. The good news is SOMEthing is coming out and it sure doesn’t look like it’s supposed fo be there lol. Reddish-black-brown stuff. I also noted that all the rifling grooves are very visible and well-defined.

I just had a few questions about this specific rifle. I was wondering if anyone recognizes the symbol in the buttstock (picture attached).

Additionally, I wanted to ask if anyone knows why the manufacturing code is “dot” when the date on the rifle is 1945. From what I’ve read, the “dot” code was changed by the factory in late 1944.

That’s all for now. I appreciate any responses you all can give me. Please also forgive me for any ignorance; this is a whole new world for me and I know I’m just scratching the surface.

First off, welcome! You have a post war k98k known as the VZ.98n. Made in Czechoslovakia by Czechoslovakia. In 1948 I believe 15,000 of these rifles were sold to Ethiopia. The stock disk I believe is the St. George coin. Below are photos from 1955 of Ethiopian soldiers marching with these rifles. If you pay close attention you can see that they have the coins in the buttstock like yours. Your rifle could even be in the photo! The dot factory was known by the germans as the Brunn I factory. dou was known as the Brunn II factory. Brunn I transitioned from the dot code to the swp code in late 1944 into 1945. There are ZERO dot 1945 k98ks that were made by the germans. When germany fell Brunn I continued to manufacture k98ks under the swp45 code. Eventually transitioning back to the dot 1945 code. Why they did this I do not know. Looks to be a good rifle to get you into the mauser world. The stash of rifles coming out of Ethiopia are pretty neat!

It's one of the Ethiopian rifles that came in recently through IO. If you haven't seen it yet, I suggest you watch the series of videos about these posted on the Forgotten Weapons Youtube channel.

Any chance it is matching?

IO is supposedly going to be selling the best stuff on their other site Royal Tiger Imports. Could be a good chance to get a FN or German made Ethiopian

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capt14k said:

Any chance it is matching?

IO is supposedly going to be selling the best stuff on their other site Royal Tiger Imports. Could be a good chance to get a FN or German made Ethiopian

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I wasn’t able to find any German markings. ): I’m not too familiar with the “matching” aspect of Mausers. Does that mean all the parts have the same numbers on them?

bnz41john said:

First off, welcome! You have a post war k98k known as the VZ.98n. Made in Czechoslovakia by Czechoslovakia. In 1948 I believe 15,000 of these rifles were sold to Ethiopia. The stock disk I believe is the St. George coin. Below are photos from 1955 of Ethiopian soldiers marching with these rifles. If you pay close attention you can see that they have the coins in the buttstock like yours. Your rifle could even be in the photo! The dot factory was known by the germans as the Brunn I factory. dou was known as the Brunn II factory. Brunn I transitioned from the dot code to the swp code in late 1944 into 1945. There are ZERO dot 1945 k98ks that were made by the germans. When germany fell Brunn I continued to manufacture k98ks under the swp45 code. Eventually transitioning back to the dot 1945 code. Why they did this I do not know. Looks to be a good rifle to get you into the mauser world. The stash of rifles coming out of Ethiopia are pretty neat!


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I sure am happy to know more about the history of my gun!! I really want to clean it up real nice and clean this barrel so I can shoot it. Do you have any tips on cleaning (not refinishing) the stock? I was told that wiping it with a bit of Ballistol could do the trick. Just want to get the dirt and grime off.

Additionally, about how valuable are these rifles? I bought this for $700, but I’ve seen these also sold for like $300. I know wartime rifles (especially “matching” examples) are worth quite a bit more. If it’s not too valuable then I want to see if I can buy a German-style trigger guard and swap it out. I’ve got to find out if the stock will accept that little pin that holds the floorplate on those trigger guards.

I know many people might gawk at that, but if it’s not valuable to begin with then I want to make it my own. I plan to keep the original one anyway in case I ever sell this.

Stands24 said:

I wasn’t able to find any German markings. ): I’m not too familiar with the “matching” aspect of Mausers. Does that mean all the parts have the same numbers on them?

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Honestly not sure which parts should be matching, but at a minimum is the receiver, bolt, and stock matching?


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capt14k said:

..on their other site Royal Tiger Imports. Could be a good chance to get a FN or German made Ethiopian

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Is Royal Tiger IO? Never knew that. Either of those would be pretty cool unless they were mangled.

heavy_mech said:

Is Royal Tiger IO? Never knew that. Either of those would be pretty cool unless they were mangled.

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Yes. I suspected it. Then when IO sent me an email stating they would be listing them on their other site Royal Tiger Imports that confirmed it. Both IO and Royal Tiger have terrible reviews. IO BBB complaints are atrocious. I wouldn't risk $2k with them on Ethiopian with their return policy which is none for Milsurp, and less 20% restock you pay shipping both ways and you only get store credit for everything else. $1,000 maybe.


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the best Czech rifles came in during the late 80's early 90's I had some old catalogs.. Mint dot44/45's and scrubbed Lion crested Czechs once the Dot markings were depleted. Not sure what country they came from originally but, they were flat new. This one is browned up and the wood darkened due to moisture or sun exposure ?

So after reading other forums and watching a few videos, I decided to scrub the barrel real nice with some 0000 steel wool (not stainless). What a simple copper bore brush couldn’t do, that steel wool sure did. Got all the gunk spots and protrusions out and the barrel’s looking real nice. Still dark, but nice. Rifling is still very visible and defined.

Took the magazine/trigger guard out and steel wool’d all the rust spots and got it lookin’ nice too. Oiled the bolt’s travel space and slid that sucker in. Works so much better than when I bought it!

Then came a coat of boiled linseed oil to the stock. What was once an almost matte, brown/black stock immediately became a beautiful brown-red color. Wiped off the excess of that first coat; will apply more coats in the coming days. That wood color really got me excited; I love the color and can’t wait to have it looking beautiful for good.

Also CAN’T WAIT TO SHOOT THIS THING!!!