Gew98 - DWM 1917 475r

[Cyrano4747]

I saw Chris make a comment elsewhere that 1917 DWMs are a touch uncommon, and that got me off my butt to post some pics of this one. I've been combing through my collection to re-photograph stuff over the last year or so and did this one maybe six months ago, so happily I had them on hand.

The rifle is a bolt m/m with a duffel cut. I picked it up maybe 15 years or so from a collector buddy. The duffel cut has some earlier attempts at a repair that did not hold. I've been looking at fixing that for over a decade now, just never got around to it. There is one oddity with one of the screws that I'll get to in a bit.

It's a very clean gun, to the point that I have gone on and off thinking the receiver in particular had been cleaned. Having it apart on my bench more recently and looking at the receiver above and below the wood line I'm now leaning to it just being really clean to begin with. Opinions appreciated on this if anyone feels strongly one way or the other.

As always, if anyone needs or wants specific pictures of a part tell me, I'm taking pretty exhaustive pics of every marking and part I can while it's apart on my bench. If there's something you're interested in chances are I have an image of it.

First the basics. Over all view of the rifle:




Receiver.



Sidewall, SN, and stamps:





Barrel SN, stamps, and manufacturer info:






Rear sight and front sight.

 

[Cyrano4747]

Now for the stock. One thing I'll note is that the color is kind of hard to photograph on this one. Most of the pics you see here were done with indirect lighting from a 100w bulb bounced off a wall, but I've got one that I took on a cloudy day with no flash. It looks much darker there, the first pics I have from the seller made it almost look like oak. In reality it's somewhere between the two.

Stock markings. Beech, obviously.



Here's another shot under different lighting to give you an idea what I'm talking about with the color shifting depending on camera and lighting conditions:



Same stock, not cleaned or treated in any way between pics. Photography can be weird.

SN on the keel:



Duffel cut on the stock side. It was "repaired" using nails and epoxy. It looks fine from the outside but the repair failed long ago:



Bayo lug side. A s you can see it's just short of the cleaning rod holder:

\

More fun stock color weirdness. Check out how different the two pieces look set next to each other:



Vs. "attached" (not really attached, put put together as if they were)



Cameras, man.

Just in case anyone thinks the front piece might have been replaced and that answers it, here's the SN on the bayo lug:



A shot of the recoil lug area just because. Very good condition



And a nice shot of the stock under the buttplate. The wood is fairly raw there.



The buttplate itself:



Finally inspection stamp on top of the hand guard and the serials stamped inside the hand guard:

 

[mauser1908]

That’s an excellent VERY late ‘17 DWM! Well Done! It’s right at the post 1916 stock feature adoption point. Old feature stocks were still common through the ‘q’ block.

 

[Cyrano4747]

Now on to the rest of the parts.

The bolt as I said before is a mismatch, so I won't go too in depth on it. The bolt itself is a total grab bag, and the safety is un-numbered. Bolt root looks to have been renumbered, I'm assuming it was reworked at a depot at some point.







If anyone is interested in the bolt I can throw up some more pics.

Triggerguard:



Mag follower and floorplate:




Bands:



Sear and ejector box.




Interestingly the trigger appears to be unnumbered. I can't remember off the top of my head if that was normal for later war DWM.






Finally the screws.

 

[Cyrano4747]

Finally I mentioned there was something funky with one of the screws.

When I first got it one of the screws (the longer, rear one) snapped in half when I was disassembling the rifle. I wish I still had the pics I took at the time, but the metal was obviously rotten. It looked like there was an inclusion inside the shaft of the screw and it just let go. Proper tools, hand pressure only.

Given that the screw matched the gun I had it repaired. I knew a guy at the time who was a bit of a welding genius and he was able to attach the head to a donor shaft from another Gew98 action screw. So the shaft and threading etc. for that screw aren't original.

The inclusion was bad enough that the guy who repaired it didn't trust it for welding, so he cut it a touch above the break to save the head and put that in the proper spot on the donor.

You can see it if it's out of the gun and you know what you're looking for.

 

[Cyrano4747]

That’s an excellent VERY late ‘17 DWM! Well Done! It’s right at the post 1916 stock feature adoption point. Old feature stocks were still common through the ‘q’ block.

Thanks. One of the other things that got me off my butt to post it was when I checked the index to see if there had already been a thread on it (I didn't think so given how long I've had it, but I've found rifles I own in there before) I noticed we didn't have any r-blocks.

 

[chrisftk]

That thing is a peach. It's crisp as hell. It's a shame the bolt is mm, but that doesn't bother me at all on one this nice.

 

[hale1940]

Really nice DWM. Loving the stock.

Did DWM roll out both late stock features (takedown disk & grasping groves) pretty much simultaneously in their production or do we see one feature pop up a lot first?

 

[Jdt]

Gorgeous example!

 

[AN-94]

That is a fantastic DWM Gewehr 98, that stock is the highlight with how crisp the stamps are on it. Congrats and thanks for sharing in nice pictures of it here!

 

[37th Div Ohio]

Very nice!! Great pictures!

 

[Loewe]

Thanks. One of the other things that got me off my butt to post it was when I checked the index to see if there had already been a thread on it (I didn't think so given how long I've had it, but I've found rifles I own in there before) I noticed we didn't have any r-blocks.

I have it recorded twice, G/K 2008 and again in 2009, - very poor pictures, show little detail other than serial and some stock acceptance, nicer rifle than expected but below are the DWM/17 r-blocks recorded, all but 5676/r are poorly documented, the latter is only good because Peter Kuck owned it...

475 r – RR- n/a
568 r – C/F(F) C/W C/W
4484 r – RR- n/a (G98M)
5676 r – C/F(F) C/W C/W (bolt C/W / Sfp / C/G) (RR-qualifiers) (G98M)

DWM is highly interesting, undoubtedly the best wartime maker (peacetime WMO-DWM were unsurpassable... largely carried into the war); damn fine example!