Third Party Press

Steyr Single Claw Rifles

mdarnell19

Beavis Moderator
Staff member
This thread will be dedicated to everything related to the Steyr Single Claw. Please post any pictures or threads with good info on the single claw here.

When posting a link to a thread please post the rifle maker and serial number for quicker reference in the future. Thanks in advance for your help.


Picture Reference

Steyr Rifles

Steyr Serial Number 8276 i
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?43703-1943-Single-Claw

Steyr Serial Number 9333 G
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?33649-bnz-single-claw&highlight=Single+Claw

Steyr Serial Number 8003 D
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?6273-bnz-single-claw-find&highlight=Single+Claw

Steyr Serial Number 6543 D
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?24786-BNZ-Single-Claw-98k-Sniper&highlight=Single+Claw

Steyr Serial Number 2808 D
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthrea...er-d-Block-all-Matching&highlight=Single+Claw

Steyr Serial Number 5611 D
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?33185-Single-Claw-BNZ&highlight=Single+Claw

Steyr Serial Number 163 H
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthrea...ingle-Claw-Sniper-163-H&highlight=Single+Claw

Steyr Serial Number 3995 D
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthrea...gle-Claw-with-bmj-scope&highlight=Single+Claw

Steyr Serial Number 9231 H

Scope and Rings

https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?25693-bmj-single-claw-scope-and-can&highlight=Single+Claw

https://www.k98kforum.com/showthrea...aw-ZEISS-ZIELVER-Scopes&highlight=Single+Claw

https://www.k98kforum.com/showthrea...ount-sniper-rifle-scope&highlight=Single+Claw

https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?40952-Single-Claw-Scope-1721E&p=301755&posted=1#post301755

Discussion Threads

Letter Suffix
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthrea...-serial-suffix-question&highlight=Single+Claw

Scope Cans
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?9841-scope-can-dimensions&highlight=single+claw

Single Claw entry in Soldbuch
https://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?10122-Zeiss-SC-in-pay-book
 
Last edited:
We've also had an interesting discussion on the highest known SC serial in here: http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?35474-Highest-known-SC&p=263727

For general purpose I'd also repeat myself in here on why the "Steyr Single Claw" is a collector designation and not correct:

The Germans officially named it "Marholdt'sche Montage" ("Marholdt Mount"), the name of the company who outcarried the sniper conversion.

AHA didn't call the mount "Steyr Single Claw" (or "Steyr Klauenmontage"). They also did not call other mounts "High Turret" nor "Short Side Rail". They differentiated between "Mauser'sche Montage" ("Mauser Mount"), "Sauer'sche Montage" ("Sauer Mount") and "Marholdt'sche Montage" ("Marholdt Mount"), so obviously the name of the company who did the sniper conversion.

AHA gave order on 29th October 1943 to keep producing the Marholdt Mount since otherwise training of snipers in previous scale would be useless. In the same document they mentioned to try and find a new (uniform) mounting system ("Einheitshalterung") or at least a mount superior to the Marholdt mount.

Since they gave order to continue the Mauser mount, discontinue the Sauer mount BUT also to continue the Marholdt mount until a new mounting system is adopted, it makes perfect sense that the Sauer mount is the Short Side Rail mount, the Mauser mount is the (Low and High) Turret Mount and the Marholdt mount is the Steyr Single Claw mount.

And in a second sentence, it also makes sense that on this date the Short Side Rail Mount was officially stopped, the Turret Mount was officially continued and the Marholdt Mount (Steyr SC) was continued until a "new mount" was adopted - the LSR mount.

Richard Marholdt was gunsmith in Innsbruck in Austria. He took over the business from the very famous gunsmith Johann Peterlongo.
 
We've also had an interesting discussion on the highest known SC serial in here: http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?35474-Highest-known-SC&p=263727

For general purpose I'd also repeat myself in here on why the "Steyr Single Claw" is a collector designation and not correct:

I would agree with you that it isn’t the correct designation, but it is a correct description. Good luck getting people to stop calling them single claw, I’m still trying to change G29ö to G12/34 and it’s not happening.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the post, I was just mulling over the Single Claw system other day.

Anyone have any pictures of them in the wild? I'm only really aware of 2 pictures of them in use.
 
Thanks for the post, I was just mulling over the Single Claw system other day.

Anyone have any pictures of them in the wild? I'm only really aware of 2 pictures of them in use.

I have a few in my photo collection . I find it interesting and I have noticed every SC photo the Single Claw is always in the hands of a Gebirgsjäger .
 
I have a few in my photo collection . I find it interesting and I have noticed every SC photo the Single Claw is always in the hands of a Gebirgsjäger .

Well guess where Gebirgsjäger-courses were held ... at Truppenübungsplatz Navis (nowadays Lizum, still used by the Austrian Army) which is located in Tirol. Additionally Gebirgsjäger were at Hochfilzen where a shooting range is located, which is even nowadays used by the Austrian Army, and is also located in Tirol. Same state where Marholdt was located in!
 
Well guess where Gebirgsjäger-courses were held ... at Truppenübungsplatz Navis (nowadays Lizum, still used by the Austrian Army) which is located in Tirol. Additionally Gebirgsjäger were at Hochfilzen where a shooting range is located, which is even nowadays used by the Austrian Army, and is also located in Tirol. Same state where Marholdt was located in!

Well imagine that , sounds like a coincidence , maybe to some but not the way I see it .

I am not saying that for this reason that only Gebirgsjager received or used the Single Claw Sniper Rifles . Just saying I have never seen such a photo that proves other wise .
 
The pics of yours that I know do not look like these are pictures from the front line. They appear to be from school. I'm not claiming either that ALL of the SC snipers went to Gebirgsjäger, just that it would be logical that Gebirgsjäger sniper school would use sniper rifles from the local manufacturer rather than to get them supplied from a company very North in Germany.
 
The pics of yours that I know do not look like these are pictures from the front line. They appear to be from school. I'm not claiming either that ALL of the SC snipers went to Gebirgsjäger, just that it would be logical that Gebirgsjäger sniper school would use sniper rifles from the local manufacturer rather than to get them supplied from a company very North in Germany.

Then I suspect You must not remember the Pics very well . 2 of the photo show 2 Gebirsjager Soldiers one with G/K43 other with Early Single Claw sitting on side of Mountain in Winter Wear . None of my Single Claw photos show Sniper School . The other is Sniper on Mountain Side and Sniper is a top of huge bolder and the other was taken in Romania . The only photo I have that looks like it could be Sniper School is one and its only a copy of original photo .
 
I have a few in my photo collection . I find it interesting and I have noticed every SC photo the Single Claw is always in the hands of a Gebirgsjäger .

Is there a thread where you have shared them? Or privately if its a issue of being out in the open.
 
We've also had an interesting discussion on the highest known SC serial in here: http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?35474-Highest-known-SC&p=263727

For general purpose I'd also repeat myself in here on why the "Steyr Single Claw" is a collector designation and not correct:

“….so obviously the name of the company who did the sniper conversion.”

“….was continued until a "new mount" was adopted - the LSR mount.”

So was the official name of the LSR “new mount” or “Gustloff Mount”?
 
Heavy off topic: no, they called it "Einheitshalterung" which is tough to translate but closest might be "uniform scope mount". But basically they referred to a future scope mount that should work for various scopes, they didn't knew whoever would develop it nor who would produce it.
 
This one has just gone up for sale in the UK yesterday.......a well known dealer selling on commission basis, most likely an estate sale on behalf of family after a collector passed away.

http://www.highwoodclassicarms.co.uk/Firerms%20For%20Sale/0013.htm

It's not a live auction so guess a link to it is OK(?) its for sale for the equivalent of $17,500, which is way too rich for my blood, even if it's the genuine article.....of which I have no knowledge to say yes or no to that question.
 
A question: was the single claw mount designed by Marhold especially for the K 98k rifles, or did it exist in a civilian version too?

The "Single Claw" mount is a claw mount. This is one of the most common German mounting systems used from the very beginning in different designs. Please therefore elaborate what you mean by "civilian version" more precise to be able to answer your question.
 
A standard civilian claw mount is the double claw mount, in German speaking countries known as the Suhler Einhakmontage. It has two bases centered along the bore and uses two claws in front and spring loaded catch in the back. The question is: was there a civilian version of the offset single claw mount for the Mauser 98 system? Was it something Marhold was producing in the interwar period, or did they invent it specifically for the army?
 
I'm a native German speaker, so you don't need to explain this to me. Marholdt wrote a book on firearms, it is widely available in several languages. In it he also treats the advantages and disadvantages of various scope mounts. He however does not show the scope mount he had used on K98k rifles during WWII. Still nowadays most name this the "Steyr Klauenmontage/Steyr Single Claw Mount", despite the sniper rifles were set up by Marholdt. A document unveiled these sniper rifles were set up by Marholdt and not by Steyr. There are no further documents upon who ordered Marholdt to make these mounts, why this design and if it was his invention or not. I suppose post WWII he might also not had been keen to let everyone know he had set up sniper rifles for the Germans as well.

As a result to this, I am not aware of a civilian rifle that carries Marholdts name on it and has an identical or similar scope mount. It seems this was a design set up during WWII and also made only during WWII.
 
Thanks, I appreciate the info. I was wondering if the Marholdt mount has been used on hunting rifles as well, as it borrows quite a lot from the layout of the Mannlicher-Schönauer mounts, especially in the rear. But the fact that Marholdt does not mention it in his book combined with the fact that I never saw it on a hunting rifle either speaks for the fact that it was a purely military mount just like you wrote.
 

Military Rifle Journal
Back
Top