Need help identifying K-98

[squee116]

Marked S/42 1938 on the receiver. It has Eagle stamps, "729" stamps, and a weird angled "C" with a ambulatory line going from the lower left of the C at a slanted down angle to the left. Several stamps on the other side of the receiver have 3 eagles, the farthest toward the barrel with W.A.a.63( best as I can read) stamped underneath. Two more eagles with that same stamp are underneath the sights under the rifle's rear sights on the right side of the receiver, as I'm holding the rifle to the shoulder. These same Eagles and text stamps are on the mag floor plate. Illegible text is on the barrel as well, and looks worn. Bore is mirror bright.

Can anyone help track this rifle back?

[SKSer45]

http://www.k98kforum.com/forum.php

[squee116]

So is finding the year and place of manufacture about the best I can hope to learn about it?

[paul0660]

So is finding the year and place of manufacture about the best I can hope to learn about it?

Dunno, but this is the go to place:

http://forums.gunboards.com/forumdisplay.php?6-The-K98-Mauser-Forum

[SKSer45]

yeah or go here for a quick place to see the factory codes.

http://mauser98k.internetdsl.pl/kodyen.html

should make a great shooter.

[TRAP55]

Russian captured by the "X" and the "pinged" swastika under the eagle.
S/42 is the code for Mauser, Oberndorf, for 1936-38 production. The 729a is the serial and production number for that year, for the second run of 10,000 at that plant. 1st rifle made there in 1938 was 0001, last of that run was 9999. Then they started over at 0001a.
The WaA63 on a 42 code, was the waffenamt code used at Mauserwerk Oberndorf for 1938 and 1939.
That's all I can see, so that's all I can tell you.

[Anubis Laughed]

Nice rifle! I have one of it's brothers, another Russian-Capture 98k, marked with the "42" code, and also dated 1938. Mauser Oberndorf switched from using the S/42 code to just 42 sometime during 1938, supposedly around April. Yours would have been made earlier in the year.

About the only other thing we can tell for sure about these is at some point, it went to the Eastern Front, and was captured by the Red Army (Taken from a prisoner, picked up off from the German dead on some battlefield, taken as part of an supply depot capture, etc.). After the war, it was refurbished and rebuilt in a Soviet arsenal and stored as Emergency War Reserve, and eventually sold off to a US Importer sometime during or after the 1990's.

It's an authentic part of WW2 History, and looks to be in great shape, especially the bore! Should be a lot of fun at the range. Enjoy

[rojocorsa]

S/42 (Mauser Obdf. AG factory, found in Southern Germany in what is now Baden-Wurttemberg.)

Wa 63 is the pre-war waffenamt for this factory.

Looks like a nice piece. Thank you for sharing.



After a while, you kinda memorize the major codes/waffenamts so that you don't even think about it, lol. And I'm not even a Mauser guy.

[squee116]

Thanks for that guys! I was curious what that "X" was and had forgotten to write that in.

[7.62x63mmUS]

Looks to have a nice bore so +100