Polish mausers at the range W98 and Wz 98a

[Gew 98]

Hi all,

First post in this subsection I believe Polish mausers can be posted here if not I apologize I advance. Took my only two Polish mausers to the range today and I thought it would be a good idea to post them. The W98 I got a couple of years ago from a fellow collector which is all matching minus the wehrmann gewehr bolt that came with it. The stock sadly is cracked really bad around the wrist making it unsafe to shoot so that's why it's in this polymer stock currently, I was able to stabilize the crack with some epoxy but there are more around the whole stock that need to be attended to. Whats interesting too is this rifle doesnt have a standard serial number just two letters GE. Nobody seems to really know why this is from what i could find, if someone has a idea i would appreciate information on it! The Wz98a I got from a estate sale when I first started collecting the bolt, receiver, and barrel match but the bands and trigger guard are imperial german parts. The stock is a reproduction from the Fox stock maker in Poland. I'm really glad I was able to add these rare Polish mausers to my collection now only if I can add a wz 91/98/25 or 26.

Thanks Nathan

 

[Gew 98]

Wz98a pics

 

[krukster86]

Beautiful rifles, although the Archangel stock made me puke up a little

 

[Gew 98]

Beautiful rifles, although the Archangel stock made me puke up a little

Haha I know I know, i definitely hate it as well. I think now that you said that imma go swap those stocks around lol.

 

[tokarev38]

That 1924 Warszawa is a real beauty. You have a very rare rifle here. Most of them were shortened later and not too many were produced in a first place. PFK marked stock is rare too. GE markings instead of serial number are a mystery to me too. Maybe short for Grupa Eksportowa, but I am only guessing here.

 

[Gew 98]

That 1924 Warszawa is a real beauty. You have a very rare rifle here. Most of them were shortened later and not too many were produced in a first place. PFK marked stock is rare too. GE markings instead of serial number are a mystery to me too. Maybe short for Grupa Eksportowa, but I am only guessing here.

It really is a awesome looking rifle, I was really fortunate when I stumbled across this rifle a couple of years ago! I believe it's in Robert ball's book they only made about 20,000 or so rifles and I can only imagine how many are left after reworks, accidents, ww2, bubba, and neglect. Probably only a handful or so exist. I know someone on gunboards stated they had one marked JE I believe but I never got to see any photographic evidence of that rifle, believe he said his was 1923 dated. What is Grupa Eksportowa? I don't believe I've heard of that before?

 

[tokarev38]

Grupa Eksportowa would be an export batch, but it is only my guess. I don’t know if GE stands for something or it is a serial number substitute.

 

[tokarev38]

They made like 10k in 1923 and 12k in 1924. Most were shortened to this.

1924 PFK WARSZAWA Polish rifle

1924 PFK Warszawa. It started its life as a long rifle, then it was rearsenalled and shortened in Warsaw armory in 1934. Poles were producing their version of long K98 in 1923 and 1924 in Warsaw factory. In 1925 they changed conception, stopped making long rifles and started producing short...

www.k98kforum.com

 

[Gew 98]

Grupa Eksportowa would be an export batch, but it is only my guess. I don’t know if GE stands for something or it is a serial number substitute.

Hmm interesting, I wish records still existed for alot of these Polish arms it definitely would help with mysteries like these! I suppose the only people that would know would be that Polish arms museum, I believe it's in Warsaw but I could be wrong I remeber watching a video from forgotten weapons on it.

 

[tokarev38]

Hmm interesting, I wish records still existed for alot of these Polish arms it definitely would help with mysteries like these! I suppose the only people that would know would be that Polish arms museum, I believe it's in Warsaw but I could be wrong I remeber watching a video from forgotten weapons on it.

Yes, it is still an open subject. No deep research exist until now. Most books on the subject give only basic information. In Poland nice complete rifles are scarce, therefore not much material to study. Most rifles are dug up specimens. Majority of collectible ones are here in the US, I think. I wonder if in Polish archives there are still preserved related period documents that could shed some light.

 

[krukster86]

They made like 10k in 1923 and 12k in 1924. Most were shortened to this.

1924 PFK WARSZAWA Polish rifle

1924 PFK Warszawa. It started its life as a long rifle, then it was rearsenalled and shortened in Warsaw armory in 1934. Poles were producing their version of long K98 in 1923 and 1924 in Warsaw factory. In 1925 they changed conception, stopped making long rifles and started producing short...

www.k98kforum.com

Tokarev38, maybe you can clarify: OP’s Wz98 long rifle is a large ring receiver and the shortened conversion example (marked W98) in the link is a small ring receiver.

When you wrote that “most were shortened to this”, does that mean that large ring receiver “shortened” rifles were produced? Or were the converted rifles all just limited to the batch of small ring long rifles made before 1924?

It would be neat to see an example of a small ring W98 long rifle in original configuration! I'd be curious to see what sort of handguard is fitted to it. Whether it is the short Gew.98 style hanguard or a full length one like the K98.

 

[krukster86]

It really is an awesome looking rifle, I was really fortunate when I stumbled across this rifle a couple of years ago! I believe it's in Robert ball's book they only made about 20,000 or so rifles and I can only imagine how many are left after reworks, accidents, ww2, bubba, and neglect. Probably only a handful or so exist. I know someone on gunboards stated they had one marked JE I believe but I never got to see any photographic evidence of that rifle, believe he said his was 1923 dated. What is Grupa Eksportowa? I don't believe I've heard of that before?

You know, it’s rather strange, for Poland only producing a very limited number of Wz98 long rifles with the Langevisier sights, they are the rifle that I see most often in period photos of Polish soldiers during the interwar period in my collection of Polish reference material.

Despite the Wz.98a with the flat tangent rear sight being the “new” standard long rifle after the small arms doctrine change in 1936, I haven’t seen too many period photos of their use. I think I inquired about this in another thread on this forum.

 

[krukster86]

 

[krukster86]

I'm really glad I was able to add these rare Polish mausers to my collection now only if I can add a wz 91/98/25 or 26.

No desire to dabble in a K98 or a Wz.29? Just teasing, you have some really desirable rifles here, I don't have any of these in my collection, just a FB Radom rework of a former Imperial German Gew.98.

 

[Gew 98]

No desire to dabble in a K98 or a Wz.29? Just teasing, you have some really desirable rifles here, I don't have any of these in my collection, just a FB Radom rework of a former Imperial German Gew.98.

Oh I will definitely dabble in them at some point I mean I'm already half way there collecting all of the main polish rifles lol. But I was recently watching a yt video about the polish used berthiers, m95s, and mosins during the bolshevik war so I thought I might change gears and pick up a rifle or two from that Era. But is that the rifle you did a yt video on? That Gew 98 was really interesting I might go re watch that video now lol.

 

[krukster86]

Oh I will definitely dabble in them at some point I mean I'm already half way there collecting all of the main polish rifles lol. But I was recently watching a yt video about the polish used berthiers, m95s, and mosins during the bolshevik war so I thought I might change gears and pick up a rifle or two from that Era. But is that the rifle you did a yt video on? That Gew 98 was really interesting I might go re watch that video now lol.

Oh, I need to watch that. Do you have the link?

Yes, I did a video on that rifle. Thanks for watching!

 

[Gew 98]

Oh, I need to watch that. Do you have the link?

Yes, I did a video on that rifle. Thanks for watching!

I'll see if I can find it again I'm pretty sure it was on yt unless I'm confusing another site. Also of course! Keep them polish videos coming!

 

[krukster86]

Thanks! Unfortunately, my videos have grinded to a halt, as my little kid is now taking up all of my free time, and my gaming PC that I was using for video editing has kicked the bucket last year. I have thought about making simpler shorter videos with less editing (I have a couple ideas for new content), but I don't think I would be happy with the "product". Who knows, I may jump into it in a couple years.

 

[tokarev38]

Tokarev38, maybe you can clarify: OP’s Wz98 long rifle is a large ring receiver and the shortened conversion example (marked W98) in the link is a small ring receiver.

When you wrote that “most were shortened to this”, does that mean that large ring receiver “shortened” rifles were produced? Or were the converted rifles all just limited to the batch of small ring long rifles made before 1924?

It would be neat to see an example of a small ring W98 long rifle in original configuration! I'd be curious to see what sort of handguard is fitted to it. Whether it is the short Gew.98 style hanguard or a full length one like the K98.

I meant that they were shortened.
You are right about small/large receiver ring difference. That’s a mystery. You got me confused. Interesting if they used small receivers in long rifle production or they made K98s in 1924, not starting in 1925. Somewhere I saw picture of 1924 Warszawa marked K98

 

[ArmyMP595]

Here's some pic of the Polish 1936 F.B. Radom Wz98a 8mm Mauser I picked up couple weekends ago basically numbers matching except rear sight. Kicks like a mule but perfect shooter.