Polish Model 98a (long Rifle)

Finally able to locate a reasonably priced version of what I believe is the final Polish version of their model 98 long rifle.
Polish rifle manufacturing in the interwar period is quite interesting. When they decided to standardize on the mauser
design, they copied the German Kar 98a and produced the K98. Then decided they needed a long rifle, so they copied the
German Gew. 98 and produced the W.98. Next they went back to the then current trend of short rifles and adopted the K29/WZ29.
And finally in 1936, reintroduced the long rifle as the W.Z.98a, basically a W.98 with an improved tanget rear sight. Apparently in an attempt to
speed production of the W98a, they modified existing stocks of former Gew.98s by removing the imperial German marks, including the sidewall
markings and then stamped them with Polish arsenal marks and the Polish eagle, the sidewall was simply stamped 98a. I should have prefaced all
the above by saying this is my understanding from reading what I can find on Polish mausers and speaking with other Polish collectors. I stand to be corrected on any or all of it.

I have heard it said that the scrubbed receivers on examples of 98a rifles indicate use in the Spanish Civil war, as is true with the k29/WZ29 series.
But these rifles were just coming into use as the Spanish war was ending, so I do not adhere to that theory.

The first photos are group shots of the three versions of Polish long rifles, then details of the 98a. I have previously posted details of the two
previous versions.

Details of model 98a (reworked Gew. 98)

While for the most part, original Gew. 98 parts are retained, The barrel and rear sight appear to
be of new Polish manufacture.

Stock and fittings for Polish 98a.

The correct bolt for this variation, would be an Imperial bolt with added Polish markings, usually a Polish eagle stamped on the bolt knob.
If anyone has one, I would certainly be interested.

That’s a neat study in Polish variations, I’ll be honest the sidewall simply marked 98a was new to me, thanks for posting, sure is an interesting rifle!

Is this the rifle you were talking about?

Gerst said:

Is this the rifle you were talking about?

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No, This is not a gew. 98b

flynaked said:

That’s a neat study in Polish variations, I’ll be honest the sidewall simply marked 98a was new to me, thanks for posting, sure is an interesting rifle!

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Strangely enough, I was at a small show today, and two very interesting Polish rifles showed up. One was a 98a, it had its original Imperial German bolt marked by the poles with their Eagle. They had also
stamped the stock. The barreled receiver was marked just like my example.

The other, which I would need to see more closely, appeared to be, an Imperial German Gew 98 that was taken into service by the Poles and marked with their triangle Z on the top of the receiver and a Polish eagle. The maker was not scrubbed from the top of the receiver. Then recaptured by the Germans and converted to K98k configuration. I only got a brief look, and no pictures. But for a rifle with this life span, it had an almost new appearance. Deep blue and the shiny stock. I think it was either a correct rifle that was refinished, or a fantasy piece. My first impression was the former. Both of these were snapped up by the same gentleman before I arrived. IF the Gew./K98k is still there tomorrow I will try to get more details, but I don't think pictures will be possible.

runner said:

No, This is not a gew. 98b

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No, the Polish rifle the guy who lives near you had.

Gerst said:

No, the Polish rifle the guy who lives near you had.

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Ok , my bad. The guy here in Virginia only had the stock and bolt, not a complete rifle. See my post asking for help on stock markings.
He brought me the stock today, supposed to bring the bolt tomorrow.

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...)

Loewe said:

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...)

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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.

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.

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.