Herk1994
Senior Member
Auction find with some issues. I believe it to be a closet gun, as it was covered in speckled rust and dust in the auction pictures. This influenced my purchase decision making as I thought it to be at least mostly un-doinked with. Of course, with minimal information on the part of an uninformed auction house and poor quality pictures, a level of chance is always at play in cases like this. All said and done, an acceptable starter example of a Kar 98 IMO.
A few issues, duffle cut and heavily molested sling cutout. The wood (both stock and hand guard are matching to the rifle) was messed with, sanded right across the cyphers on the right side. It was lighter than the rest of the stock because of this, so I put a tiny bit of Ballistol on the light spots to even out the color. You can partially see the cyphers still at least. Wood looks to have had something put on it, albeit lightly. The recoil lug is sitting high, this will also have to be fixed. Lastly, someone ground the follower so as to rid the bolt lock feature... oh well, still a good part.
All in all, nothing astronomical in the issues department, now on to the rifle itself. As previously mentioned, speckled rust covered a lot of the metal, I soaked in Ballistol and lightly bronze wooled the bad stuff, rest was wiped with a cotton cloth. Bolt body matches the rifle (7016), bolt guts are matching to a different rifle (77). Oddly enough, the extractor and the bolt release match to yet another rifle (14). The rest, down to the screws is all matching. This begs the question, was this some sort of armory or depot work? I pictured the butt plate, no depot marks present as I can see. Price wise, it was obtained for under 800 all said and done. In hindsight, I feel it was high for the issues but not a heart breaker. I like it so far.
Any input or evaluation, lessons learned, or tips for repairing the wood? As always I appreciate all info.
Almost forgot to mention, this is my first example of a Kar 98
A few issues, duffle cut and heavily molested sling cutout. The wood (both stock and hand guard are matching to the rifle) was messed with, sanded right across the cyphers on the right side. It was lighter than the rest of the stock because of this, so I put a tiny bit of Ballistol on the light spots to even out the color. You can partially see the cyphers still at least. Wood looks to have had something put on it, albeit lightly. The recoil lug is sitting high, this will also have to be fixed. Lastly, someone ground the follower so as to rid the bolt lock feature... oh well, still a good part.
All in all, nothing astronomical in the issues department, now on to the rifle itself. As previously mentioned, speckled rust covered a lot of the metal, I soaked in Ballistol and lightly bronze wooled the bad stuff, rest was wiped with a cotton cloth. Bolt body matches the rifle (7016), bolt guts are matching to a different rifle (77). Oddly enough, the extractor and the bolt release match to yet another rifle (14). The rest, down to the screws is all matching. This begs the question, was this some sort of armory or depot work? I pictured the butt plate, no depot marks present as I can see. Price wise, it was obtained for under 800 all said and done. In hindsight, I feel it was high for the issues but not a heart breaker. I like it so far.
Any input or evaluation, lessons learned, or tips for repairing the wood? As always I appreciate all info.
Almost forgot to mention, this is my first example of a Kar 98
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