Danzig 1917/1920 98M

Hello all, just thought I'd share my 98m that I picked up a few years (probably 10 years ago) ago at an auction, it was in a sporterized stock that with a little work could made to look somewhat original. I have it currently residing in a Brazilian 1908 stock and some time in the future will have the original stock repaired. It is surprisingly in great shape with no import marks that I've seen. I haven't had it out of the wood in a while but can get more pictures of under the wood if anyone wants. The barrel looks to be replaced and is in great shape, although I haven't slugged it for size and I still haven't shot it yet. I know the stock it came in was a force match as can be seen by the serial numbers in the barrel channel. I don't know a lot about these rifles and don't know how much of the rifle was force matched but most of the metal does match. The rear band is from a K98 so I know that isn't correct and the front band is actually from the 1908 stock.

I will have more pictures in a reply post. I tend to go overboard with pictures. I'm also trying to figure out resizing them to fit here.

You have to post a few more times to get past the limitations imposed upon new member. I think like 3 posts or something like that.

Yes, your rifle is a property marked rifle, so it was in government hands (police, army or navy) in 1920. The barrel is a JP Saur barrel, the code might date the barrel if you can show it, would give a baseline for when it was possibly re-barreled, which was probably mid-1930's. The rear sight would also aid in this determination, but my guess is late re-armament, 1935-1938 or so, earlier have more markings and more character. Once the "nazis" let the army loose to pursue re-armament as it saw fit, they pulled out all the hidden arms and reworked-upgraded them. This rifle "probably": was hidden because most rifles that stayed in government hands openly got reworked/upgraded earlier. The frontier defense forces used hidden stores and the rifles used for training illegal reserves/paramilitary probably never saw depot work until 1931-1933 at the earliest.

The rear sight is marked S/42k. Yeah I thought I was lucky as I bought it at auction without even really looking at it as I really hadn't known it was there and I didn't know what it was anyways. Picked it up for $100 plus buyers premium and tax.

Here are some more pictures.

Some more. The only thing I did to the stock that the rifle came in was to remove the varnish or whatever it was with a Q-tip with alcohol which loosened up the 3 squares that were filled with some kind of wood filler. Would like to have known what was originally there though. Man I hate Bubba.
The 2 pictures are of the rifle in the 1908 stock next to the original one it came in when I bought it.

matching bolts are difficult to find these days, too bad about the stock. Can't go wrong at $100!

Barrel probably dates to late 1935, typically the barrels carry a date starting in late 1935 (G) or starting in 1936 the last two digits (36), but the e/214 means it is certainly not earlier than late 1935. So this is probably a fairly early re-barrel, before the war anyway.

The locations of the cutouts are not normal areas where a depot would have accepted the rifle, they could be anywhere on the buttstock, but they are off to one side and probably of little importance to its history. By this time frame, 1936-1938 most depots were accepting rifles at the wrist. Early work done by depots can be any ole where, varied by depot and probably armorer, but by 1936 things were tightening up and you see less variation. I would look at the wrist for a potential acceptance stamp, but if sanded you probably won't be able to tell.

It is a little curious why there is no fireproof on the barrel next to the serial, typically by the 1930's there will be. See if you can find one below the woodline. There should be one and the style could be a clue, so could the rear sight markings.

13bravo said:

The rear sight is marked S/42k. Yeah I thought I was lucky as I bought it at auction without even really looking at it as I really hadn't known it was there and I didn't know what it was anyways. Picked it up for $100 plus buyers premium and tax.

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Will get it out of the stock for more pictures. The only other markings I really find on the stock are just behind the inletting for the rear sling mount. I'll get pictures of that too, but it's fairly unreadable but looks something like 855. Still have to get rid of all the varnish on the stock. I like the wood grain of the stock and can't wait to get the varnish off and see what it looks like with the proper finish on it.

Firing proof I assume is on the bottom of the barrel. I haven't found any letters or numbers on the barrel other than what is already pictured. Here are the latest pictures. A lot of letters on the bottom of the receiver.

Last of my pictures.

Yes, that is the fireproof, more typically they are above the wood next to the serial on the barrel. This was done around 1925, when the Reichswehr got its legs back, - before 1925 was chaos and great uncertainty for the German military, the left was very powerful at that time and little was certain (90% created by the French and Belgian governments, whose illegal actions 1919-1924 directly led to radical extremism and eventually Hitler...)

Occasionally you see the fireproof under the barrel, in the old way, difficult to date such things, but early before the war. The barrel is before they started dating them with the "G", with the e/214 it places it in 1935, not after as it would be dated by 1936.

13bravo said:

Firing proof I assume is on the bottom of the barrel. I haven't found any letters or numbers on the barrel other than what is already pictured. Here are the latest pictures. A lot of letters on the bottom of the receiver.

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I was thinking about the 3 cutouts and thought could this have been something like an EWB marked rifle that Bubba cut the mark out? Just a thought as we will never know now.

Possibly, when the EWB was disbanded some rifles were returned to the central government, probably many went into the hidden stashes, - most were probably destroyed. Infamously many went to smugglers and subsequently to Austria. Could be any other EW also, Bavaria wasn't the only one, - just the most ornery (they didn't like the central government at all and hated Prussia(ns), and Georg Escherich had his own plans separate of all the parties in government.

13bravo said:

I was thinking about the 3 cutouts and thought could this have been something like an EWB marked rifle that Bubba cut the mark out? Just a thought as we will never know now.

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