16 Erfurt Kar98a

[cj556]

This was another poorly photographed and poorly described auction gamble that paid off. All matching that I can find. Sling I believe is original and marked “L&F“ on the buckle. Not a scarce maker/date combo by any means but a nice honest example. I plan to get more pictures of the bolt and stock acceptance later in the week,

 

[Loewe]

Quite a looker, these are hard than they should be to find this nice, especially a bolt & stock matcher, - C/P at the lower, under serial is most common, it is typical for the wrist too, but unlike almost every other maker Erfurt can be erratic on acceptance patterns, though lower and wrist are fairly stable. RS is quite diverse usually, but so too is Danzig.... these two arsenals are the most diverse in patterns, I suspect due to their massive production they used more inspectors, though WMO & DWM made similar numbers at better quality, but that is the nature of state run enterprise, or even firms that are heavily regulated or financially reliant upon government contracts (it overlays the burden of bureaucratic intervention and oversight, though then as now, bureaucrats in important positions are no fools, they know "friendly" or "lenient" oversight opens doors to later employment in cushy, well paid jobs... and back then, unlike now, bureaucrats were pretty poorly paid...)

Anyway, the bolt lower flat and wrist interests me, so I look forward to your next set of photographs (but bolt accpetance is notoriously weakly struck, DWM too are terribly difficult to interpret (but DWM is highly consistent and one good clean bolt can be an aid to identifying others nearby, Erfurt not so much...)

 

[chrisftk]

That's a solid 98a Marc, glad you spotted it. Paul is right, even though a high production year, not usually seen this clean. Definitely worth having.

We haven't drilled getting bolt and stock acceptance into you yet??

 

[cj556]

I neglected to get it when I was in a rush Saturday I hope you all can find it in your hearts to forgive me

 

[mauser1908]

That’s a screamer Marc!

 

[37th Div Ohio]

Awesome score Marc. Congrats

 

[cj556]

Thanks Sam and Matt! Here are the bolt and wrist acceptance photos.

 

[Nick S]

Great looking carbine, I love the color of the wood!

 

[Loewe]

There was no rush on the pictures, I just wanted to note what was of interest... The bolt lower is most interesting, not 5% have been documented, and only about 10% (probably less) even have a matching or potentially matching bolt, so every one counts to narrow probabilities... this is quite a different case with stock markings, probably 20% or more have original stocks of one flavor or another, some are sanded, damaged or replaced, but with the larger pool of documented it is easily more accurate to guess. Most take shots of stock markings, sometimes missing one of the three, but it evens out and I have a decent idea what is right for ranges.

In this case the bolt flat looks more C/M to me, but almost in every case this range it is C/W, but the nature of the picture probably distorts my impression... I will do some comparisons tomorrow when I add this to Erfurt trends. Anyway, thanks for the shots, bolt markings are the new thing for me, I was focused upon BC's but bolt acceptance is even more difficult to acquire (and potentially more important if you are trying to buy or sale or restore a rifle... a collector might wish his barrel is original but who would want to replace it to be more correct, but bolts commonly are replaced and often collectors like to get the right one -a period-maker "right" bolt)

 

[cj556]

There was no rush on the pictures, I just wanted to note what was of interest... The bolt lower is most interesting, not 5% have been documented, and only about 10% (probably less) even have a matching or potentially matching bolt, so every one counts to narrow probabilities... this is quite a different case with stock markings, probably 20% or more have original stocks of one flavor or another, some are sanded, damaged or replaced, but with the larger pool of documented it is easily more accurate to guess. Most take shots of stock markings, sometimes missing one of the three, but it evens out and I have a decent idea what is right for ranges.

In this case the bolt flat looks more C/M to me, but almost in every case this range it is C/W, but the nature of the picture probably distorts my impression... I will do some comparisons tomorrow when I add this to Erfurt trends. Anyway, thanks for the shots, bolt markings are the new thing for me, I was focused upon BC's but bolt acceptance is even more difficult to acquire (and potentially more important if you are trying to buy or sale or restore a rifle... a collector might wish his barrel is original but who would want to replace it to be more correct, but bolts commonly are replaced and often collectors like to get the right one -a period-maker "right" bolt)

Paul, thank you for chiming in. I believe its a crown over M on the bolt but even in person it’s hard to tell. My remark about not getting pictures earlier and asking for forgiveness was a joke with Chris.

 

[Loewe]

Thanks! I agree, probably an M though in comparisons they are all similar and I have recorded them as C/W and as the nature of this type of research is highly subjective and all the characters are open to interpretation,, the exact letter interpretation is less important than recording the right or wrong character consistency as we are looking for changes and can't identify the name of the inspector in any case!

Thanks for taking the time to get the extra details!