1916 WMO Gew 98

I won this one at auction recently. Aside from the unnumbered rod and front action screw it’s matching. There are no depot markings on the buttplate and this one was once part of Craig Browns collection. This rifle is my first wartime production Gew 98 and it pairs well with the pre war 1904 Spandau I have which also came from Craig’s collection.

Marc, I really liked this rifle the first time I saw it, and now I like it even more! Great score!

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That is a beauty and nothing like that Mauser quality either. Glad to see someone here win that rifle I remembered it as well.

Super rifle! I love the dark stock on that one.

Marc, it's a good rifle indeed when all three of the gew98 musketeers chime in. Haha. Congrats again!

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Lol. Chris, Sam and Jordan, thank you all. I’m curious to hear Loewe’s thoughts on this rifle and anything I may have missed.

Sorry for my absence, been very busy and the next month looks just as hectic...

Yes, a nice rifle with several interesting things to comment on; this is a transition point for the RR as it changes in this range, twice actually (inspector changes), do a right receiver shot to see if it follows the earlier ranges or the two changes around and shortly after this rifles range. Also the underside of the bolt handle (acceptance under the flat where the serial is placed); also, more important as this is a transition point (r-t and then again when rolling over to dual suffix serialing) for stocks, this C/B under the cypher seems to pop up randomly early in the year and then again later in dual suffix ranges, although too few recorded to get a firm picture of how common these ranges change, it would be good to see the rest of the stock acceptance (wrist, lower stock). Wrist acceptance is the most stable acceptance on any G98, though the "real makers" like WMO, DWM do tend to be most stable.

All I have on this rifle is CB's brief comments regarding in the lists he sent for my database, as everyone knows he never did pictures of his rifles and rarely extensive descriptions, though on occasion he would go into great detail when it was part of a broader discussion or something interesting to him or another discussion (almost never regarding standard rifles like this one); of course the Amoskeag auction where it sold for $750 (a damn bargain) is the first real details on the rifle, but of course almost no details in such reports... this is before the Turks became really common, though they start earlier than the s-block.

Anyway, do more pictures of this fine rifle, maybe it will reveal more interesting things!

Loewe said:

Sorry for my absence, been very busy and the next month looks just as hectic...

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Paul, yeah, I know the feeling. Banking has been a minefield lately what with PPP mandates dropped on us and a month later, still only limited guidance on said mandates-- and putting in 70-80 hour weeks-- plus the challenges of teaching online for my professorial gig. Looking forward to calmer days... Not sure when, but hopefully soon.

I do have two more Gew98s (a screamer of a 1917 WMO among them) and a nice Republican Kar98a rework to takedown and photograph, but there will be time for that soon.





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Loewe thank you very much for chiming in. I always appreciate your information. I will get photos of the receiver and bolt acceptance stamps later but I do have a picture of the wrist stamp handy.

Here are the bolt acceptance and RR markings.

Chris, I guess we are lucky to being busy with this farce of a crises underway, though I would be busy this time of year regardless as this is always the busiest time for us... look forward to the rifles, though I am behind on trending most posted here over the last month or two.

This rifles acceptance follows the earlier ranges and is the last so far that does so, by 6573 s it begins to change and changes again in the t-block, then stabilizes shortly after and runs through the dual suffixes, though it is impossible to know how consistent this is (with the limited observation). Like DWM and Amberg and to a degree Suhl makers, even Spandau, there is considerable consistency in ranges.

The bolt acceptance is too limited to be sure of much, though is certainly consistent with the few reports we do have, - check the top of the buttplate to confirm the serial suffix, I forgot to ask about this, no picture is needed, just confirmation the suffix is there. We still have very limited observations regarding this placement, almost no one takes pictures of it or notes its existence or absence, but I tend to think most makers follow this practice.

Loewe, the buttplate is faded unfortunately and I can’t make out a suffix. However the serial is lightly visible.