South African K98 rifles

stefanvan

stefanvan

Member
Hi,
This is my first post and I hope I'm in the right category...
How much is known about the South African made Musgrave/LIW rifles?
I own a two of these, the two are quite different but both are built on K98 actions. I suspect that my .243 Lyttelton-Musgrave was built on a remanufactured Mauser K98 action since it's quite a bit more refined than my military-style K98 action .30-06.
Do you guys focus on keeping the weapons as original as possible or are you interested in modern rifles built on K98's as well?
Kind regards
Stefan
 
Pretty much, this is a military rifle collector's forum (the entire site), and there would be better sites out there that know more.

I believe the Musgrave rifles are NOT K98 actions at all, rather, they used Spanish made Model 98 actions for the most part, as well as I believe some Argentine '09's and others. K98's are generally too collected and too valuable for manufacturers to make new rifles from.

Basically, all Model 98 actions are the same (subtle differences) and of course the K98 action is a Model 98 action.

Anyway, I know Parker Hale used Spanish made actions for the most part in their Model 98 sporters, and I believe Musgrave bought left-over Parker Hale stuff. I even believe Musgrave made NEW actions of their own design also.

As to how well regarded these rifles are, well, opinion differs. I have heard and seen some great results from them, and I have also seen some medicre at best results from them, even with the premium barrels.
 
Thank you for the info! :hail:
Can you point me in the direction of a few forums who can give me info on upgrading these K98's? Aftermarket triggers etc.

For the rest I love this forum & thank you for the insight in the history of these fine weapons. :thumbsup:
 
Thx guys,
Regarding "Schutztruppe-marked small arms",
Namibia used to be German-West-Africa, I have a inkling that there might still be a few gems hidden away.
G.W.A. got handed to South Africa after WWII, before that they were armed by Germany directly as one of it's colonies.
I'll ask some of my Namibian friends to ask around. Although I have no idea how much effort will go into Importing.
regards
Stefan
 
Large quantities of KS DSWA arms were taken when DSWA surrendered; the Germans had over-stocked in anticipation that the SA Boers would come over to them - and indeed some tried to; there was a DSWA Boer Schutztruppe contingent and a fairly large number of SA Boers did try to make it into DSWA at the beginning of WWI. Many rifles and ammo were brought into SA after the surrender and according to the late James Hellyer are still around. The SAs also fought the KS DOA and a KS DOA M71 Jägerbüchse was sold in an SA auctiion earlier this year.
Schutztruppe arms are scarce in the US since we never fought them, although a KS Kamerun JB71 was in the Stern auction and later showed up at the gun show accompanying the SOS this year; it had a barracks bag cut. As some of you know I have a sub-collection of Schutztruppe materiel.
Import of anything into the US made prior to 1899 is no problem, but for 1899+ if a military weapon has to go through a US licensed importer. I'm not sure what the situation is regarding Police weapons (which are identifiable as such by unit markings) and some handguns (Roth-Sauers, for example) can't be imported because they don't qualify under the ATF point system.
I think you are more likely to find Schutztruppe arms in the RSA than in Namibia. The last I heard the Namibians had declared anything over 100 years old some sort of national treasure and require special export permits to get it out, but I can't confirm that.
 
original K98 actions

I believe that the musgraves in south africa were built on original K98 action. At least the first ones.. only just before they closed they used VZ24 actions wich is a copy of the K98. They did also make their own actions, the RSA action that is still VERY sought after for guys who want to built super accurate rifles.

My 30 06 musgrave is built on a K98 actions that still has the swastika and eagle stamped in on it. As far as I could find out it is a original action made in the Mauser factory in Oberndorf.
 
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