So... this isn't good.

ShellShock1988

Active member
Recently purchased a K98, and Reddit told me to come here. Apparently this is the "worst recoil lug offset" they have ever seen, which caused the stock to crack. So, I was told to come here so I can maybe:

1) Get some advice on got to fix this, if I can fix it.

2) Buy a new stock, reproduction preferred as I plan on using it for hunting and living history. Don't wanna beat up an original. (cupped with stock disk needed)

3) Maybe give you guys a good laugh.

Any advice for a new K98 owner?
 

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More detail needed.

You can buy a sporterized K98k stock cheap enough that will be fine for hunting or of course a newly made hunting type stock.

As mentioned GB may have a complete K98k stock although "cheap" is a relative term for an RC stock maybe $200.00 to $300.00 but a non RC will cost a bit more coin

What is the code on the receiver and year
 

I recently repaired one that wasn't quite that bad. It took a lot of surgery and I had another stock project that made it more worthwhile to find a surrogate stock to butcher. I would say best bet will probably be to replace the stock, honestly.

I guess may depend on if it's original/matching and not butchered other than refinishing and what date/code the rifle is...
 
It would make me concerned what loads have been fired in that rifle, and how many, to cause damage to that extent...

I tend to think it's a material quality issue more than anything. Lower availability of good stuff combined with an increased production tempo. Not sure if they were rushing and gluing layers of wood that still had too high a moisture content or if the glue was lower quality or what, but if you compare early war laminate to 1944-1945 laminate you see a lot more splits and delamination in the later war stocks. If that happens behind the recoil lug, the entire front bedding section will knock loose and slide backwards and at that point the tang and rear action screw becomes the new recoil lug and it splits the tang in short order.
 
I tend to think it's a material quality issue more than anything. Lower availability of good stuff combined with an increased production tempo. Not sure if they were rushing and gluing layers of wood that still had too high a moisture content or if the glue was lower quality or what, but if you compare early war laminate to 1944-1945 laminate you see a lot more splits and delamination in the later war stocks. If that happens behind the recoil lug, the entire front bedding section will knock loose and slide backwards and at that point the tang and rear action screw becomes the new recoil lug and it splits the tang in short order.
When rifles start walken outa there bedding ya in for a bad time.
 
Okay, since I have no idea how to quote reply to you guys, I'll say no, it's not a matching stock, so I think I'll just take your guys' advice and invest in a new one. Three things I forgot to mention;

-This rifle has an issue with the safety being stuck on "fire", and supposedly needs to be filed on the selector switch piece. I tried but my files wont even scratch hardened steel.

-When I removed the butt cap, it appeared to have the late war disassembly hole underneath it. Normal?

-The stock disk seems "new", and doesn't look well placed (chipping around the disk), and there seems to be a spot where one was drilled before.

I dont know if any of this is normal or a fatal flaw, being new to the K98 rifles. I paid $900 for it, likely over-paid, but I really wanted one so it was worth it to me. Heres some more pics. Sorry I was gonna post yesterday but had some business to attend to, so I got drunk instead of doing any of, that and forgot to post these pics.

Again thanks for any advice. I'm really wanting to find her a good historically accurate stock similar to the one pictured, and to fix the safety. I cant be expected to invade Poland with a bad stock n' safety.

edit: I pushed the recoil lug forward a bit just for looks, but thats as far forward as it will go without interfering with the trigger guard screw that sits right by it.
 

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Some Mickey Mouse stuff was done to that stock. Honestly, most of the time… a k98k rifle with its matching stock will not really split or have bedding issues unless it was stored improperly or abused with loose trigger guard screws. Sometimes, of course for whatever reason an original rifle will also develop a crack, delamination, or whatever. I don’t want to be quoted saying that it doesn’t happen, lol…. But generally no.

Now yes, late war quality is not pre 1942…however, the Germans took real care to bed each stock to the action, even until the end. Sure, corners were cut and procedures were expedited but rifles were still test fired for accuracy and rejected when not performing and subsequently fixed before leaving the factory.

I think this is a case of somebody slapping that action into A “whatever” stock and just taking it to the range and blasting rounds with little regards to bedding the action or properly torquing the triggerguard screws….
 
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Some Mickey Mouse stuff was done to that stock. Honestly, most of the time… a k98k rifle with its matching stock will get really not split or have bedding issues unless it was stored improperly or abused with loose trigger guard screws. Yes, late war quality is not pre 1942…however, the Germans took real care to bed each stock to the action, even until the end. Sure, corners were cut and procedures were expedited but rifles were still test fired for accuracy and rejected when not performing and subsequently fixed before leaving the factory.

I think this is a case of somebody slapping that action into A “whatever” stock and just taking it to the range and blasting rounds with little regards to bedding the action or properly torquing the triggerguard screws….
Oh, so this is how you quote people. And I had no idea they were so precise to their own stock, seems like I have a lot of looking to do. Now I'm not sure what stock I need to get. Is there something specific I need to be looking for to get something to fit this issue of rifle?
 
Okay, since I have no idea how to quote reply to you guys, I'll say no, it's not a matching stock, so I think I'll just take your guys' advice and invest in a new one. Three things I forgot to mention;

-This rifle has an issue with the safety being stuck on "fire", and supposedly needs to be filed on the selector switch piece. I tried but my files wont even scratch hardened steel.

-When I removed the butt cap, it appeared to have the late war disassembly hole underneath it. Normal?

-The stock disk seems "new", and doesn't look well placed (chipping around the disk), and there seems to be a spot where one was drilled before.

I dont know if any of this is normal or a fatal flaw, being new to the K98 rifles. I paid $900 for it, likely over-paid, but I really wanted one so it was worth it to me. Heres some more pics. Sorry I was gonna post yesterday but had some business to attend to, so I got drunk instead of doing any of, that and forgot to post these pics.

Again thanks for any advice. I'm really wanting to find her a good historically accurate stock similar to the one pictured, and to fix the safety. I cant be expected to invade Poland with a bad stock n' safety.

edit: I pushed the recoil lug forward a bit just for looks, but thats as far forward as it will go without interfering with the trigger guard screw that sits right by it.
safety: these required fitting, & its possible/likely that the original got broken & the replacement installed but not fitted. When in the ‘up’/middle position it is quite vulnerable.

takedown hole under the butt plate: it’s likely that the stock left the factory with the hole that you found, notice how dark/unfresh the sides of the hole appear. I think someone switched butt plates, because….

takedown discs: I think this stock didn’t have them & they added them, along with/no hole butt plate. The lower filled in one is the 1st crude try, then they figured out that was in the wrong spot & tried again. notice how the ends of the tube & the high spot on the discs look beaver chewed? that’s not factory work.

look in the Photo reference section of the forum, under dot rifles, at the bottom of that subsection, there are swp marked rifles.
is the firing proof an eagle or a lion? (German wartime proof vs Czech post war proof) if lion proofed, you want a stock without takedown discs, the “butt hole” style is what it most likely had.
 
Honestly, my opinion on what your should do. Keep that stock as is for repairs. You never know when you may find a good deal on sporterized k98k that’s missing its forend. You can use a stock like this for grafting pieces onto another stock. Basically a donor stock. The damage to it is intense and would probably require professional work of you were intending on shooting with this stock. Not saying it can’t be done in a garage, but this is not a minimal amount of setback.

I would look for a replacement stock. If you want to be “historically accurate” on which stock to look for, we would need to know what code and year the rifle is…
 
safety: these required fitting, & its possible/likely that the original got broken & the replacement installed but not fitted. When in the ‘up’/middle position it is quite vulnerable.

takedown hole under the butt plate: it’s likely that the stock left the factory with the hole that you found, notice how dark/unfresh the sides of the hole appear. I think someone switched butt plates, because….

takedown discs: I think this stock didn’t have them & they added them, along with/no hole butt plate. The lower filled in one is the 1st crude try, then they figured out that was in the wrong spot & tried again. notice how the ends of the tube & the high spot on the discs look beaver chewed? that’s not factory work.

look in the Photo reference section of the forum, under dot rifles, at the bottom of that subsection, there are swp marked rifles.
is the firing proof an eagle or a lion? (German wartime proof vs Czech post war proof) if lion proofed, you want a stock without takedown discs, the “butt hole” style is what it most likely had.
Interesting. I just want what would be historically accurate for this rifle. In 45, were they doing the hole instead of the discs? And the proofs are all eagles. Yeah, those beaver chewed disks looked shady to me.
 
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