1940 Gustloff Werke K98k

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phosphorus32

Active member
Recent auction find. I'm a Fabrique Nationale fan so the FN barrel was appealing. I saw the contractor codes on stock parts, the seemingly uniform patina, and thought it worth a gamble.

It has a peculiar letter block. With "n" being the highest letter block observed for 1940, mine ought to be simply "m" but it has a following "o" ... or possibly a circle, not an "o"? Any thoughts?












 
That's really odd, and it looks intentional since the 'mo' is on all the major parts. It's not the usual 'm' you would see on an m block either.

The 'm' looks more like the larger 'm' you see on the Navy builds. I don't think this is KM though, it clearly is Gustloff production.

I don't know what to make of it.
 
RyanE said:
That's really odd, and it looks intentional since the 'mo' is on all the major parts. It's not the usual 'm' you would see on an m block either.

The 'm' looks more like the larger 'm' you see on the Navy builds. I don't think this is KM though, it clearly is Gustloff production.

I don't know what to make of it.
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Thanks! Good points. I hadn’t noticed that the font of the m itself was unusual but now I see it, comparing it to the picture reference m block rifle that was recently posted. That’s interesting.
 
I’ll note that the m is generally centered under the 320 (not so well on the barrel), and the o is generally not on the same horizontal line as the m. I think the o was added after the standard letter block m, but likely still during production, since it’s visible inside the stock.
 
phosphorus32 said:
You’re welcome.

I ought to have cited the reference for the exhaustive list of contractors: Karem & Steves, Vol. IIb, p. 535
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I also have a Gustloff Werke K98k - mine is 1943 and probably went to the Romanians. I was happy that they have that table in the GW chapter with the suppliers -- not every chapter has that detail!
 
Here are some comparison photos of another m block. The m looks smaller
 

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biggymu said:
Here are some comparison photos of another m block. The m looks smaller
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It's a different size and it looks like a different font...the one in your example has a small "tail" on the left leg.

I also looked at all the Gustloff Werke examples in Karabiner 98k - every one of them with a 3 in the serial number uses the flat-top 3, not rounded. The other serialized parts may have the rounded top - but none of the receiver serial numbers did. :unsure:
 
Navy87Guy said:
It's a different size and it looks like a different font...the one in your example has a small "tail" on the left leg.

I also looked at all the Gustloff Werke examples in Karabiner 98k - every one of them with a 3 in the serial number uses the flat-top 3, not rounded. The other serialized parts may have the rounded top - but none of the receiver serial numbers did. :unsure:
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There are other threads that make mention of the same observation. The receiver “337” changed from flat top 3’s in 1939 to the round top version in 1940. I don’t know if that is true in all cases. None of that really explains the “O” however.
 
biggymu said:
There are other threads that make mention of the same observation. The receiver “337” changed from flat top 3’s in 1939 to the round top version in 1940. I don’t know if that is true in all cases. None of that really explains the “O” however.
Click to expand...

Well, there are 7 Gustloff Werke examples in Karem/Steves from 1939-1945 with a 3 in the serial - and every one of them has the flat top 3 on the receiver serial number. Unfortunately the only 1940 337 listed doesn't have a 3 in the serial number -- so that one year could be an anomaly...but that would be strange.
 
As for the ‘m’: in one of the left receiver pix, you can clearly see the ‘stem’ (or tail) of the letter on the left leg; in one of the bolt pix, I can see that there is a stem/tail on the left leg AND the center leg of the ‘m’, as if an ‘n’ struck twice to create an ‘m’. And the upper loop of that particular 3 looks messy, not partially struck, but messed with? I’m not saying “humped”, the flat doesn’t look ground & restamped, just pointing out another odd feature of a curiously marked rifle.
 
Here are the receiver codes. Note the “3”’s
 

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Good discussion. Looking at the SN and letters on the receiver and barrel, the baseline seems off as does the kerning, indicating that the serial number was stamped with individual number and letter dies, not an indexing roll stamp or die holder. If my observation is correct, then picking up one of the many loose "round 3" dies (used freely on other parts) to stamp the receiver and barrel serial numbers, wouldn't be too surprising. Perhaps just another anomalous feature to add to the anomalous "o" on this particular example.

If it hadn't been for the discussion around the '42 ce a couple of weeks ago, I normally would have ignored this rifle. The receiver serial number on that Sauer is a true oddball:
www.k98kforum.com

CE 42

All, I have a CE 42 I purchased from Legacy Collectibles a few weeks ago. I was told there are several noticeable issues on gunboards about the serial, buttplate, and barrel bands. Gun appears all matching, not 100% sure if its faked. Its been drilled unfortunately but im curious, if anyone...
www.k98kforum.com www.k98kforum.com
 
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