Kar. 98az 1918 Erfurt - Any Extra Info?

I have the following Kar98az (the z designating the "zusammensetzvorrichtung" or stacking hook, although not an official designation as far as I know). I'm hoping to find out if there is any information to be gained by any markings, that might indicate it's usage (Did it go to a particular division, area, etc, in WWI?) and whether this was a WWI or WWII bringback (it is likely that it is one of the two, being in the United States with no import marks indicates it was brought in a good time ago at the very least).

Serial numbers match on every part of the rifle except the bolt, which is a serial number about 300 later than the rest of the gun. It has the checkered bolt handle. Is this common?

The buttplate is stamped with the serial number as well as the number "76."

A few images are attached.

Hello Eli,
Sadly no Division or Area can really be told from a rifle, Unless it has a unit marking on Kar98az's they are usually on the top part of the Buttplate. as for the 76 on the buttplate that can be interesting i know depots were marked there, im not the very qualified here, but that's the trend. Mismatched bolts are common on bringback rifles. The Checkered Bolt handle is correct for all WW1 98's

Rutche said:

Hello Eli,
Sadly no Division or Area can really be told from a rifle, Unless it has a unit marking on Kar98az's they are usually on the top part of the Buttplate. as for the 76 on the buttplate that can be interesting i know depots were marked there, im not the very qualified here, but that's the trend. Mismatched bolts are common on bringback rifles. The Checkered Bolt handle is correct for all WW1 98's

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^ what he said. I'll also add that you are correct "az" is not an official designation-- if you want to be correct it's simply Kar98, though the majority of folks here use Kar98a, a Weimar era term to differentiate them from Kar98b. The "az" designation was a trials period term at best.

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Rutche said:

Hello Eli,
Sadly no Division or Area can really be told from a rifle, Unless it has a unit marking on Kar98az's they are usually on the top part of the Buttplate. as for the 76 on the buttplate that can be interesting i know depots were marked there, im not the very qualified here, but that's the trend. Mismatched bolts are common on bringback rifles. The Checkered Bolt handle is correct for all WW1 98's

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Thanks for the info. Do you know if there is a chart or documentation on depot markings?

Im for sure not the one for that. I know some people here know for sure

EliJosephs said:

Thanks for the info. Do you know if there is a chart or documentation on depot markings?

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WWI depot markings are usually a number and a letter stamped in the middle of the buttplate. The number is the depot, 1 through maybe 20 or so. Some are known, some not. The letter is presumably the inspector's initial.

76 is too high to be a depot (so far as I know) and I don't see a letter either.

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Here is the list of known depots as published in Storz's excellent book. To Ryan's point, several are not known. Later depots show up, but we don't have specific locations for them. It is suspected the higher numbers may have been located in occupied territory or possibly been linked to various army corps,but at this point, nothing concrete.

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RyanE said:

WWI depot markings are usually a number and a letter stamped in the middle of the buttplate. The number is the depot, 1 through maybe 20 or so. Some are known, some not. The letter is presumably the inspector's initial.

76 is too high to be a depot (so far as I know) and I don't see a letter either.

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chrisftk said:

Here is the list of known depots as published in Storz's excellent book. To Ryan's point, several are not known. Later depots show up, but we don't have specific locations for them. It is suspected the higher numbers may have been located in occupied territory or possibly been linked to various army corps,but at this point, nothing concrete. View attachment 261020

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Very interesting information. 76 seems very high considering the known listed depots presented here are only going up to 11. Not to derail the direction of this topic, is it possible that markings changed late in the war which could mean this may have a meaning other than a depot mark?

EliJosephs said:

Very interesting information. 76 seems very high considering the known listed depots presented here are only going up to 11. Not to derail the direction of this topic, is it possible that markings changed late in the war which could mean this may have a meaning other than a depot mark?

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Best guess would be a rack or inventory number added sometime during post-WWI service, possibly with the police.

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