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Auction find: 1915 Erfurt Kar 98

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
 
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In 2007 this rifle came up in an email through my website, a woman in Indianapolis had inherited it from her Grandfather in California and said she “heard” the story regarding the rifle was he was armed with this rifle in some militia formed to deal with a potential Japanese invasion... that aside the rifle is in the same condition as it was 14 years ago (judging by the pictures)

DO a picture of the lower flat of the bolt handle stem?
 
I can't say I have a great connection, so i can't see these pictures completely, but it looks like a decent example as 1915's are hard to find matched to bolt and stock, and the acceptance is right for this range. It is too bad the mauling of the sling slot, but this is probably due to it having a US military type sling mated to it in 2007, I can't make out much from those pictures as they were poor quality, but it did have a US sling (military or civil not sure, but similar) attached to it.

Regardless of the story, which is absurd, not only due to the use of German rifles to form a militia, but use of a DC stock for that purpose. However, this probably was in her family for some time, but only wanted a valuation, which was difficult with the pictures she provided.

** not the greatest pictures but maybe help to understand the alteration to the slot.
 

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I can't say I have a great connection, so i can't see these pictures completely, but it looks like a decent example as 1915's are hard to find matched to bolt and stock, and the acceptance is right for this range. It is too bad the mauling of the sling slot, but this is probably due to it having a US military sling mated to it in 2007, I can't make out much from those pictures as they were poor quality, but it did have a US sling (military or civil not sure, but similar) attached to it.

Regardless of the story, which is absurd, not only due to the use of German rifles to form a militia, but use of a DC stock for that purpose. However, this probably was in her family for some time, but only wanted a valuation, which was difficult with the pictures she provided.

It was certainly a civil sling, I looked it over well when I received the rifle. That sling and it's attaching "hardware" are probably in a landfill somewhere (yes that was my doing). It was tattered and torn and just didn't belong. I'm not sure what they were thinking mauling the slot like they did. It could have been attached just fine leaving it alone. I swear some people do the greatest damage when they find and hit their "good idea" button.
 
Should also be stated that the DC was very crudely repaired with three nails that I have also carefully removed as a first step to a proper repair. Not that this adds any to the tale, but it was more or less stable when I received it. It will be properly repaired while in my possession. As for the sling cutout, I’m not decided at this point, either a period sling or a proper fix.
 

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