PrayingMantis
Senior Member
My first Gewehr 98 of 2022. This was a very lucky find on Gun Broker. Fortunately a good friend found it and sent it to me. There was a Buy It Now low enough that it would not have lasted long.
It came in great shape and original, albeit dirty. Whoever shot it last neglected to clean it. The follower and floorplate were mismatched, and the striker assembly was cobbled together. I put in an armorers floorplate and follower, but need to find an armorers shroud, safety, and cocking piece. The screws are unnumbered, which is odd, and the disc was flipped to the cleaner side. Perhaps work of a prior collector. I did flip the disc, preferring the side with acceptance even if it’s rough.
Disassembly wasn’t difficult with an impacting screw driver. The dirt cleaned off easily with Ballistol. I used bronze wool on some of it, but mostly smothered the parts in Ballistol then used a toothpick to scrape off the congealed dirt. The results speak for themselves.
I’m very glad to be able to dissect an early Amberg. The barrel has the double lot number, like on a couple other prewar Ambergs. The major parts almost all have an assembly number: 1. The rear sight leaf and slider are mated with the number 55. I suspect the bands and rear spring may have been supplied by WMO, and the trigger, the acceptance doesn’t look Amberg. Rest of the acceptance is text book Amberg: c/R, c/J, c/G.
Undoubtedly it is a rare year (and a year I didn’t have, so that’s nice) but I have seen a couple over Amberg 1912s. I don’t think either had original stocks, so it’s great to see the acceptance on this one. This one went through Amberg for the stock repair, you can see the double wrist acceptance. The c/J was probably first, then c/G for repair. The stock was patched but the handguard replaced, the replacement has the serial penciled it.
AMBERG 1912
Receiver 5578 c/G c/J c/J
Barrel 5578 c/J c/J c/J BO 927
Front Sight 78 c/J
Rear Sight Leaf 78 c/G
Sight Slider 78 c/G
Sight Slider Tabs 78, 78 c/G, c/G
Ejector Box 78 c/G c/G
Trigger Sear 78 c/W
Trigger c/W
Front Barrel Band 78 c/W
Rear Barrel Band 78 c/W
Trigger Guard 5578 c/G, c/G
Trigger Guard Screws unnumbered
Floor Plate armorer
Follower armorer
Stock 5578 c/O c/J c/G
Stock Wrist c/J c/G
Stock Disc c/J
Handguard 8208 5578
Buttplate 5578 c/G
Bayonet Lug 78 c/G
Cleaning Rod 69
Bolt Body 5578 c/R
Extractor 78 c/R
Safety unnumbered
Cocking Piece unnumbered
Bolt Sleeve unnumbered
Firing Pin unnumbered
It came in great shape and original, albeit dirty. Whoever shot it last neglected to clean it. The follower and floorplate were mismatched, and the striker assembly was cobbled together. I put in an armorers floorplate and follower, but need to find an armorers shroud, safety, and cocking piece. The screws are unnumbered, which is odd, and the disc was flipped to the cleaner side. Perhaps work of a prior collector. I did flip the disc, preferring the side with acceptance even if it’s rough.
Disassembly wasn’t difficult with an impacting screw driver. The dirt cleaned off easily with Ballistol. I used bronze wool on some of it, but mostly smothered the parts in Ballistol then used a toothpick to scrape off the congealed dirt. The results speak for themselves.
I’m very glad to be able to dissect an early Amberg. The barrel has the double lot number, like on a couple other prewar Ambergs. The major parts almost all have an assembly number: 1. The rear sight leaf and slider are mated with the number 55. I suspect the bands and rear spring may have been supplied by WMO, and the trigger, the acceptance doesn’t look Amberg. Rest of the acceptance is text book Amberg: c/R, c/J, c/G.
Undoubtedly it is a rare year (and a year I didn’t have, so that’s nice) but I have seen a couple over Amberg 1912s. I don’t think either had original stocks, so it’s great to see the acceptance on this one. This one went through Amberg for the stock repair, you can see the double wrist acceptance. The c/J was probably first, then c/G for repair. The stock was patched but the handguard replaced, the replacement has the serial penciled it.
AMBERG 1912
Receiver 5578 c/G c/J c/J
Barrel 5578 c/J c/J c/J BO 927
Front Sight 78 c/J
Rear Sight Leaf 78 c/G
Sight Slider 78 c/G
Sight Slider Tabs 78, 78 c/G, c/G
Ejector Box 78 c/G c/G
Trigger Sear 78 c/W
Trigger c/W
Front Barrel Band 78 c/W
Rear Barrel Band 78 c/W
Trigger Guard 5578 c/G, c/G
Trigger Guard Screws unnumbered
Floor Plate armorer
Follower armorer
Stock 5578 c/O c/J c/G
Stock Wrist c/J c/G
Stock Disc c/J
Handguard 8208 5578
Buttplate 5578 c/G
Bayonet Lug 78 c/G
Cleaning Rod 69
Bolt Body 5578 c/R
Extractor 78 c/R
Safety unnumbered
Cocking Piece unnumbered
Bolt Sleeve unnumbered
Firing Pin unnumbered
Attachments
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