Polish Model 98a (long Rifle)

[Loewe]

These are nice and pretty rare, recently I posted the details of the 11-12 of these Z-builds I have recorded over the years, - they do come in some diversity of patterns, typically scrubbed, but not always, K-suffixes, slight variations of SR, but yours is most typical (very early serial too, I assume these were progressively built by serial and indicated an early example). This is probably a pre-war DWM receiver, though the scrub leaves little evidence to go on, but the RR remnants and FP leads me to that guess. Typically though DWM used assembly numbers under the receiver (and original barrel) and I do not see one here, but it is still the best guess.

I too have a significant interest in these Polish variations and would like to do something about Polish rifle developments and variations.

Seeing as I have some room for research threads on this forum, I will try and set aside some time to do a thread on Polish variations, something simpler at first that may become more complex if we can develop it further (most Polish rifles are little more than barreled receivers or heavily Germanized examples unfortunately, add to that the complexity involved "interesting" Polish markings, I doubt there will be much room for great complexity...)

[runner]

These are nice and pretty rare, recently I posted the details of the 11-12 of these Z-builds I have recorded over the years, - they do come in some diversity of patterns, typically scrubbed, but not always, K-suffixes, slight variations of SR, but yours is most typical (very early serial too, I assume these were progressively built by serial and indicated an early example). This is probably a pre-war DWM receiver, though the scrub leaves little evidence to go on, but the RR remnants and FP leads me to that guess. Typically though DWM used assembly numbers under the receiver (and original barrel) and I do not see one here, but it is still the best guess.

I too have a significant interest in these Polish variations and would like to do something about Polish rifle developments and variations.

Seeing as I have some room for research threads on this forum, I will try and set aside some time to do a thread on Polish variations, something simpler at first that may become more complex if we can develop it further (most Polish rifles are little more than barreled receivers or heavily Germanized examples unfortunately, add to that the complexity involved "interesting" Polish markings, I doubt there will be much room for great complexity...)

Paul, what are your thoughts on when these "Z" builds with the 98a sidewall were built. I am guessing in the same time period as the newly manufactured W.Z.98a due to
the similarity of the sidewall markings.

[Loewe]

I would like to pretend that I know something about these enigmatic rifles, or in general about Polish rifles at all... All I could do is regurgitate posts I saved on the subject and the comments published in the MRJ 20 years ago... I will review them tomorrow if possible, but certainly soon... I will see if I can put them up in the research tread I have in mind. One is especially well done, both by Polish collectors, though only one was especially detailed. His included chart I sometime post outlining the years-variation made along with quantity each year, which is especially helpful. Unfortunately this article makes little note of these Z-builds and FBR reworks, though it does outline early efforts of Poland to rearm (arm actually as Poland was dismembered by Austria and Russia in the 18th century, - the Prussians seem to get a lot of blame but it was mostly Austria and Russia that were the main thugs)

ANyway, give me a few days or so and I will create a series of posts similar to the G88 study I produced a couple months ago, then perhaps we can learn something together, - reviewing the posts I saved of merit, the articles I saved and start on developing trends for each type Poland produced after WWI.

[runner]

Looking forward to your review. In addition to the three long rifles I have a K98 and VZ29 and K29 I can provide information on.