Identification Mauser Markings Chart

[Alexandrin Chaples]

Backa few years ago 2018, I had a very long post on the now gone forum SRF (Surfpusrifleforum.org) about military surplus K98K rifles commonly found on the us market. In the 2000s there was a flood of surplus Mausers. I wrote a post describing the attributes of each specimen with many research links, examples, and mostly details from the rifles I own. None of these are deactivated. I will up date the 14 pages and post the new update information here. Most important, I am in the process of updating all the reference links so they function and can be view a number of ways depending on the age of the reader's computer. Some references are gone, but I saved most to the Wayback Machine Archive. I am providing fresh links. While saved on the archive, I have removed all links to the outdated version. And most important I would like to thank all on this forum for the help they offered.

Hi USMC, best to post from scratch as you suggested with around 5 -10 images per post. PDF files won't work just jpegs, pings etc. To place the image in the correct position , just move the images around by left clicking on them then moving them to where you want, any problems let me know.

Surplusrifle.com started around May 2000 by Jamie Magnum as a home grown web site, it was a very popular early forum in the US around 2002 with emphasis on Surplus Military firearms. It ran from 2000-2006.The owner got ill and by 30 March 2007 it was shut down. After its disappearance, a new revised forum called Surplusrifleforum.com began around 4 Aug.2006 with a new name and header. The old information/posts from Surplusrifle.com are archived on the Wayback Machine.

Surplusrifleforum.com was very popular and had as many as 28,519 members prior to the Great Extinction of this forum on 26 or 27 July 2017. All information, stickies, posts, and pictures were gone due to the single owners access to the old host being lost. All membership info was lost and everyone had to reregister. Surplusrifleforum.com was restarted by elricfate on 2 June 2017. The access to all older posts was gone. It started as a fresh slate.

So in the Wayback Machine Archive: you have old posts from Surplusrifle.com (2003-2006) and then Surplusrifleforum.com (2006 -2017). Some also saved posts on the Wayback Machine from the post Extinction of June 2017. As of 16 Nov. 2020 surplusrifleforum.com has been updated to surplusrifleforum.org. This update of the host also caused a loss of photos for a second time. Most rebuilt their important posts. Surplusrifleforum.org (SRF) was in operation from 16 Nov. 2020 until it unexpectedly went off line in June 2022.

This is an overview of commonly found K98k rifle types easily and inexpensively found in the United States at gun shows during the great influx of Surplus Military Rifles from the late 1990s till around 2021. It was posted on SRF on 11 January 2018. Times have changed and prices have climbed as the demand has increased while rifle availability has declined. Some of the price information is out of dated.

This SRF post originated as 4 pages of information and over time received 216 replies providing added comments, new links to background information, more photo documentation of rifle examples and questions that enlarged the post to fifteen pages. Instead of just providing the Wayback Machine Archive links, I have reorganized this old post providing first, the basic attributes for identification and description of the rifle types (the basic 4 pages); then second providing some of the more interesting replies, and photo documentation showing detailed examples of the rifles with in each type.

You got to love the backbone of the Germany Army, Paul Mauser's design came to a climax in Karabiner K98k. And who would have known that those $200 bring backs in late 1960s would be pushing beyond $1000 depending on its state of matching numbers, metal condition, stock condition, German code & date, bring back papers, sling, bayonet and provenience. Every one would like an intact, bring back K98k. Even one with a miss matched bolt is a great find. But for most, the German K98k rifle is hard to find since most of the WW II guys are gone, and the intact specimen's cost is beyond reach. In addition, due to their high cost, there is a lot of fakery by guys converting almost-matching rifles or sporters back into the more valuable, complete, all-matching German K98ks. Unless you are knowledgeable and well versed in K98k rifle collecting, I would not pay top buck for an intact specimen K98k rifle without consulting an experienced collector. There are just too many fakes to fool a beginning shooter/collector.

Most shooters and even new collectors now have to settle with the common surplus market rebuilds: Russian captures (RC Mausers), Yugoslavian capture M98/48s, Mitchell's Mauser's frauds, or Romanian/Albanian/Balkan captures. There are other types like the harder to find French or Israeli captures; then there are the almost impossible to find Portuguese contract K98, a Yugo refurbished German K98k with markings intact, an Israeli 8mm, German K98k not converted to 7.62 NATO, and the Norwegian K98k captures converted to 30-06. Neither of which I have seen at gun shows for some time. If you find one of these rare ones, it will cost a few more bucks than a common working guy or gal really cares to invest. Other more common K98k rifle types on the surplus market are different versions of the Arctic, Czechoslovakian post-war made K98k rifles with a winter trigger guard and the Israeli 1952 FN Belgian made, NATO K98k with the IDF Crest. From what I observe, these seem to be the more common surplus market K98ks currently found at gun shows.

DISCLAIMER: what I'm about to say should not be construed as the bible, they are just my observations that may be right or wrong on the different attributes used to help identify different kinds of K98k rifles I have encountered over the years, some I own, others I was never lucky enough to find or could buy. The comments are just my personal take on the most obvious traits that help identify the more common surplus K98ks found at gun shows. All observations are subject to correction by expert collectors that own more examples and can provide better details.

Please realize the prices mentioned by people in these old posts are from days past and in US dollars. Furthermore, a good number of the US sellers and US companies are long gone. This post provides a historical perspective, it is not a post to read for the location or place to buy a firearm. This post provided the attributes and photo documentation in order to identify a particular type of K98 commonly found in the US surplus market around 2000. This post's present value is in the verbal and photographic description of each rifle's attributes for identification. In todays market in the US, it is currently rather rare to find K98 for sale at gun shows. The export sources overseas have dried up and vanished starting around 2017. The second golden age of surplus rifle is gone. The political climate, and deposition of surplus rifles has changed. In the US, most surplus firearms have tripled in value or more and are now generally found at rather specialized, well know auction houses or a few firearm's dealers. Most firearm parts companies do not sell parts outside the US. In the US, the firearms are not deactivated, although some are non shootable drill rifles, or replica pellet or BB gun conversions.

"Many people have asked the question "What is a Kriegsmodell?". Well, the answer is easy. The term Kriegsmodell is what the Germans used to define the simplified version of the standard 98k, or literally translated as "War Model". Many of the features of Kriegsmodell rifles were simply shortcuts instituted by the German armaments industry to speed up production of rifles at a time when quantities of guns were needed- not quality. Many of these changes were instituted in late 1944 (Nov.-Dec.) and were almost in full effect by January of 1945.

All manufacturers went to simplified versions to one degree or another, but the 2 most common terms thrown about are "Full Kriegsmodell" and "Semi Kriegsmodell". These terms are modern descriptions for collectors. A "Full Kriegsmodell" will have no bolt disassembly disc in the buttstock, a hole drilled in the buttplate to aid in disassembly, no band spring for the front and rear bands, no bayonet lug, and both bands will be held to the stock with screws. The only manufacturers to completely switch to the "Full Kriegsmodell" style were bnz and byf/svw. The others never fully switched over, and are known as "Semi Kriegsmodell".

A "Semi Kriegmodell" will have a mix of features, such as no bayonet lug or band spring, screws holding the front and rear band, but still have the standard buttstock with bolt disassembly disc- this style is found on dou and dot/swp marked rifles. On some bcd rifles, the stock will not have a disassembly disc, have a hole drilled in the buttplate, but still have the bayonet lug and bands held by a band spring- BCD never finished switching over, and 45 dated rifles will be found in regular configuration earlier in the 5 digit serial ranges.

During World War II, the Soviet Union captured millions of Mauser Karabiner 98k rifles and re-furbished them in various arms factories in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These rifles were originally stored in the event of future hostilities with the Western Bloc. These rifles, referred to by collectors as RC ("Russian Capture") Mausers, can be identified by a crude "X" stamp on the left side of the receiver, the dull, thick reblueing and mismatched parts and electro-pencil serial numbers on smaller parts. The Soviet arsenals made no effort to match the rifle's original parts by serial number when reassembling them, and some parts (the cleaning rod, sight hood, and locking screws) were deemed unnecessary and melted down for scrap metal.

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