Just bought a BCD 4 K98k, let me know what you think of it!

The rifle is a BCD 4 with a fantastic looking bore, and a strange plum undertone to the bluing that I haven't seen on any k98 other than on the extractors in some cases. I want to know what you guys think about that... is it likely a re-finish job gone wrong or could it be the Germans were getting sloppy and leaving their rifles in the hot salt bluing bath for too long? Note the images showing the bottom of the mag well, where there seem to be rust spots. There may also be some pitting around the rear sight, but it looks blue still. Could have possibly been re-blued over old pitting? The stock looks good to me, the markings don't seem suspiciously crisp and I see no sanding marks or obnoxious varnish. I don't see any Russian capture marks either, but there do appear to be two parallel lines on the left side under the rear sight... they could just be some kind of love mark. It looks like there is some grease on the rifle too in a few spots, like under the sights, but I cannot tell if its cosomoline or something that was put on later by a collector to help preserve the finish.

I paid a total of $2400 shipped. The good thing is, I can still return it if need be. There is a 3 day inspection period and I haven't received it yet. When I do, I will be checking under the bands to see if its duffel cut and making sure all of the numbers do in fact match internally, like the listing claimed. I will also be running a bore scope down it.

If it has in fact been refinished, I would say its definitely not worth what I paid. That's ultimately why I'm here to post this, to see what ye more experienced folks think on the matter.

Here is a link to the listing with all of the pictures, which should still be accessible: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/897573073

I will attach some of the more relevant ones here.

Borescope: https://youtu.be/8diq2LnlfJk

I hate to tell you this Bud, but it looks to me like even with the fuzzy photos, you've bought yourself one hell of a nice 100% correct rifle. Congrats! It shows no apparent signs of being refinished, judging from the photos that is.
Get all the expert advice you can and proceed with extreme caution if you intend to clean it up, because this is where you can rapidly devalue the rifle.

swjXE said:

I hate to tell you this Bud, but it looks to me like even with the fuzzy photos, you've bought yourself one hell of a nice 100% correct rifle. Congrats! It shows no apparent signs of being refinished, judging from the photos that is.
Get all the expert advice you can and proceed with extreme caution if you intend to clean it up, because this is where you can rapidly devalue the rifle.

Click to expand...

Good to hear for now. I will be able to upload some more clear photos once I receive it as well, but I'll have to make my full assessment within those 3 days. I don't intend on doing anything to it other than maybe wiping off that grease under the rear sight.

the only thing I could pic up on originally was the lack of eagle /H on the stock.. It might just be hard to see or not there ? Im not sure when in 44 they started adding them back on ? BCD and bnz both dropped and then added the eagle/H
IM sure the books might say ? Other than that its a nice blued bcd4 with nice wood ect. Lots of nice k98k's came out of Amoskeag from Vincents collection . If you go on Amoskeags site youll see your rifle. C.A. bought a ton at the last two auctions.

mauser99 said:

the only thing I could pic up on originally was the lack of eagle /H on the stock.. It might just be hard to see or not there ? Im not sure when in 44 they started adding them back on ? BCD and bnz both dropped and then added the eagle/H
IM sure the books might say ? Other than that its a nice blued bcd4 with nice wood ect. Lots of nice k98k's came out of Amoskeag from Vincents collection . If you go on Amoskeags site youll see your rifle. C.A. bought a ton at the last two auctions.

Click to expand...

Very interesting, I likely wouldn't have put that connection together on my own. Thank you very much for bringing that to my attention! Amoskeag looks like a great place to watch (and waste my savings ). There are some incredible rifles in that Mar 27-28 sale.

Here is a link to the listing if anyone else is interested in seeing it. The rifle sold for $1880. My purchase price before taxes, fees and shipping was $2207, so that's not too bad.
https://live.amoskeagauction.com/m/lot-details/index/catalog/67/lot/35617?url=%2Fm%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F67%3Fpage%3D1%26view%3Dlist%26key%3Dk98%26sale%3Dundefined%26catm%3Dany%26order%3Dorder_num%26xclosed%3Dno%26featured%3Dno

EDIT: Here's the other one I was looking at from CA too. It was in similar shape, and ended up selling on gunbroker for $2400 I believe (so probably closer to $2600 shipped).
https://live.amoskeagauction.com/m/lot-details/index/catalog/67/lot/35619?url=%2Fm%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F67%3Fpage%3D1%26view%3Dlist%26key%3Dk98%26sale%3Dundefined%26catm%3Dany%26order%3Dorder_num%26xclosed%3Dno%26featured%3Dno

This is an 'i' block, so pretty sure it shouldn't have the E/H. They don't start appearing again for another letter block or two.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

RyanE said:

This is an 'i' block, so pretty sure it shouldn't have the E/H. They don't start appearing again for another letter block or two.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Ryan chimed.. much younger and much better memory. The side proofing was phased out not all stopped the practice all together MO for instance. Some stopped and started again some never again dou.
Keeping it all straight is hard when your brain ages and you are getting away from k98's a little. Both bcd and bnz picked up the practice again in 44.

C stock is correct and its a nice rifle.. You can see what CA made on the rilfe by comparing if you care. The duv42 just sold or stupid money for some odd reason and it wasnt even that nice..

mauser99 said:

Ryan chimed.. much younger and much better memory. The side proofing was phased out not all stopped the practice all together MO for instance. Some stopped and started again some never again dou.
Keeping it all straight is hard when your brain ages and you are getting away from k98's a little. Both bcd and bnz picked up the practice again in 44.

C stock is correct and its a nice rifle.. You can see what CA made on the rilfe by comparing if you care. The duv42 just sold or stupid money for some odd reason and it wasnt even that nice..

Click to expand...

I'll be honest I don't believe that was a legitimate sale. A NR bidder purchases this rifle for over $4,400. I believe the gentleman that kept bidding was legitimate buyer but it looks like the shill got too greedy before he finally pulled off. You'll see this rifle relisted or it'll be a completed sale but you'll see no feedback from either of the two.

Love the plum tone!! Looks like a great gun. C stock and no e/H is right from sometime in 42 I believe to mid 44.

Warrior1354 said:

I'll be honest I don't believe that was a legitimate sale. A NR bidder purchases this rifle for over $4,400. I believe the gentleman that kept bidding was legitimate buyer but it looks like the shill got too greedy before he finally pulled off. You'll see this rifle relisted or it'll be a completed sale but you'll see no feedback from either of the two.

Click to expand...

It sold for 4400?? That is definitely fishy. Do you have a link to that listing by any chance? I want to see if the NR bidder was bidding on any of the other CA rifles out of curiosity.

Update!

I just received the rifle a couple days ago. I have given it a thorough inspection. I decided to spot cold blue that white patch on the left side of the rear sight so the finish looks uniform. The stock was also a bit rough to the touch, so I gave it a solid sanding. Although you can't see any of the inspection markings anymore, it is nice and smooth, like my brain.

Ok, just kidding, I didn't do those things. I did notice some interesting things during my inspection though. The butt plate has that red paint/anti-rust primer in it... no visible numbering on it though. It seems like the stock had to be ground or sanded so it could be forced on. Not sure if that was something done during the war or not. The rest of the rifle appears untouched. There is also a small crack between the trigger and magwell, going along one of the laminate lines. I'm not sure if that would be an issue when firing, what do you guys think? I am tempted to put a few rounds through it, just to see how accurate it is, but I don't plan on doing that very often.

snowskijunky said:

I just received the rifle a couple days ago. I have given it a thorough inspection. I decided to spot cold blue that white patch on the left side of the rear sight so the finish looks uniform. The stock was also a bit rough to the touch, so I gave it a solid sanding. Although you can't see any of the inspection markings anymore, it is nice and smooth, like my brain.

Ok, just kidding, I didn't do those things. I did notice some interesting things during my inspection though. The butt plate has that red paint/anti-rust primer in it... no visible numbering on it though. It seems like the stock had to be ground or sanded so it could be forced on. Not sure if that was something done during the war or not. The rest of the rifle appears untouched. There is also a small crack between the trigger and magwell, going along one of the laminate lines. I'm not sure if that would be an issue when firing, what do you guys think? I am tempted to put a few rounds through it, just to see how accurate it is, but I don't plan on doing that very often.

Click to expand...

Can't see a thing wrong with the wood under the buttplate, looks completely undorked with to me, and the crack is probably the most common thing in the world and it seems to happen to most laminated stocks just from drying out and the resulting shrinking of the wood because there's so little wood in this area. I could tell you how to fix it, but I don't think it's necessary, Congrats!

That's red oxide primer on the inside of the buttplate. My bcd 4 has it as well. Nice rifle!

snowskijunky said:

I just received the rifle a couple days ago. I have given it a thorough inspection. I decided to spot cold blue that white patch on the left side of the rear sight so the finish looks uniform.

Click to expand...

Ok so you had me up to here. Glad you didn't dick with it.

snowskijunky said:

It seems like the stock had to be ground or sanded so it could be forced on. Not sure if that was something done during the war or not.

Click to expand...

Yes, contract supplied C stocks are notoriously beefy and had to be fitted as you see on yours. Totally legit. Nice piece! Congrats

Nice Rifle. One thing about it is it has had some sort of finish applied. Likely BLO. The inside of the stock should be "raw" wood. The pic of the trigger area shows signs of it being applied as well as the recoil lug and take down disc, you can see dried up finish that has aged. Not a big deal to me as the rifle is nice.

mto7464 said:

Nice Rifle. One thing about it is it has had some sort of finish applied. Likely BLO. The inside of the stock should be "raw" wood. The pic of the trigger area shows signs of it being applied as well as the recoil lug and take down disc, you can see dried up finish that has aged. Not a big deal to me as the rifle is nice.

Click to expand...

The Germans had their own BLO finish named Schaftol. It came in three different types, clear, brown and red. It was available then, and it's still available now on German Ebay. I agree it's a non issue. It's hard for me to believe that finish was never applied to these later stocks. I think it was just a matter of availability.

swjXE said:

The Germans had their own BLO finish named Schaftol. It came in three different types, clear, brown and red. It was available then, and it's still available now on German Ebay. I agree it's a non issue. It's hard for me to believe that finish was never applied to these later stocks. I think it was just a matter of availability.

Click to expand...

I agree but it looks like it was applied under the wood. I picture of the barrel channel would confirm this. Either way it was done a long time ago and is part of the rifles history. At least it was not messed with in any other respect. I would take it in a heart beat. Hell I am guilty of adding BLO to a k98 stock back in the 80's, it had previously been sanded though and had some applied. Nothing since.

mto7464 said:

I agree but it looks like it was applied under the wood. I picture of the barrel channel would confirm this. Either way it was done a long time ago and is part of the rifles history. At least it was not messed with in any other respect. I would take it in a heart beat. Hell I am guilty of adding BLO to a k98 stock back in the 80's, it had previously been sanded though and had some applied. Nothing since.

Click to expand...

I don't understand why BLO in the barrel channel would mean that it couldn't have been period applied. Applying it to the barrel channel would be one of the smartest places to put it because swelling or possibly warping of the stock
in this area can cause a change to the point of impact of the bullet, although it doesn't appear to have been the typical thing to do.

swjXE said:

I don't understand why BLO in the barrel channel would mean that it couldn't have been period applied. Applying it to the barrel channel would be one of the smartest places to put it because swelling or possibly warping of the stock
in this area can cause a change to the point of impact of the bullet, although it doesn't appear to have been the typical thing to do.

Click to expand...

It was not done at the factory level to my knowledge, looking at untouched rifles will show that, none of mine that are original have it. They often sealed around the action and barrel with a waxy grease though. Looking closer it almost looks like a shellac was applied.