1912 Danzig Kar98a 1452- Bavarian Transfer

Hi All,

I picked this one up recently after a bit of peer pressure from Sam. The seller gradually reduced his price until it hit a reasonable level.

The rifle was absolutely caked in dried grease and a little bit of rust in places. From the pictures it seemed to be one that could clean up really nice. The stock has a goofy repaired duffel cut under the rear sight, which is actually not too bad after seeing it close up. There is also an old repaired crack at the wrist. I took some brass wool and oil and worked for about 90 minutes on it. Almost all of what I thought was dark rust was actually dried grease caked on the bolt and receiver. It was clearly used, but looks great now. The rear sight button is missing, but I have a spare I am going to pop in. The lock screws were also missing.

In any case, this one has a lot of cool stuff going on--

Originally a Danzig 1912, it apparently passed to the Bavarians prewar (referenced about 2,500 of these were sent as part of an agreement between Prussia and Bavaria in Storz) and went through a depot or two. It has a Bavarian 2nd Schweres Reiter Regiment marking on the butt plate.

All parts match as reworked. The bolt, stock, barrel, floorplate and several other parts have been replaced. The rebarrel is crude salvaged one, similar to my Spandau 98a-- vice marks and exposed solder from the rear sight being added in a different position than previously. The bolt appears to be Erfurt, with a scrubbed and re-numbered body and other parts over-stamped. The stock wrist acceptance looks to have been re-stamped. The keel is illegible. The stock barrel channel has both a pencil and stamped serial # matching the rifle. The font on the parts has the curvy "2" similar to what you seen on Amberg, though Danzig did use this font at times as well, from what I recall.

Paul-- any one else? thoughts? This is an odd duck.

More pics

What is the barrel fireproof, the barrel acceptance is reminiscent of Bavaria also... though I have no access to trends and Amberg 98a run was short lived. I will see if there are similarities in trends, probably not though, but Amberg (Ingolstadt and Amberg) seem to have been quite active on reworking and salvaging receivers, though the numbers are probably inflated because these are so easy to differentiate, while Prussia it is more subjective because the variables are not very clear cut or attributable to specific depots.

Danzig made the most 98a pre-war, but they are still quite elusive (and interesting) in Imperial trim, plus reading about the Eastern Front of WWI, they (cavalry) were quite active and in some cases effective forces. I have been reading Prit Buttar series of books on the Great War (he has done good-objective work on WWII Eastern Front also, though not as good as his WWI material, - but still better than most modern German and American "authors" who rarely possess the objectivity of a historian)

Another interesting example Chris. Were these wartime rebuilt? Crude indeed to resort to the vise! I think I have a couple 98a’s that haven’t seen the light in 15 years. I’ll get some pictures going tomorrow. See what you guys can tell me about them. I think one has a tiny waffenampt on the keel

Loewe said:

What is the barrel fireproof, the barrel acceptance is reminiscent of Bavaria also... though I have no access to trends and Amberg 98a run was short lived. I will see if there are similarities in trends, probably not though, but Amberg (Ingolstadt and Amberg) seem to have been quite active on reworking and salvaging receivers, though the numbers are probably inflated because these are so easy to differentiate, while Prussia it is more subjective because the variables are not very clear cut or attributable to specific depots.

Danzig made the most 98a pre-war, but they are still quite elusive (and interesting) in Imperial trim, plus reading about the Eastern Front of WWI, they (cavalry) were quite active and in some cases effective forces. I have been reading Prit Buttar series of books on the Great War (he has done good-objective work on WWII Eastern Front also, though not as good as his WWI material, - but still better than most modern German and American "authors" who rarely possess the objectivity of a historian)

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Thanks Paul--- that's the thing-- no fire proof that I can see. Aside from the BC, Acceptance and SN, the only other character is an orphan "1"-- I'm wondering if the proof was on the other wise of the barrel under the sight and was covered when they mounted the rear sight base on top of it when reworked (you can see the solder from where the sight used to be when the barrel was on a different rifle)


Thanks for the book recommendation-- I will check the series out.

biggymu said:

Another interesting example Chris. Were these wartime rebuilt? Crude indeed to resort to the vise! I think I have a couple 98a’s that haven’t seen the light in 15 years. I’ll get some pictures going tomorrow. See what you guys can tell me about them. I think one has a tiny waffenampt on the keel

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Thanks Rick-- that sounds great. Would love to see your examples. The 98a reworks are fascinating- lots of stories to tell on them. The tend to not get as much love as the pure imperial ones, but i enjoy decyphering the depot work. The quality ranges from laughably bad from some police depots, to some very nice workmanship (by Weimar standards) from others.

My opinion on this rifle's rework is absolutely wartime, but it would have been sent to Bavaria as part of a pre-war arrangement.

Those marks are more akin to a pipe wrench. I have handled some pretty rotten mausers that were clearly not worked on by the best. US Armorers are universally the worst. If you consider the stress and pressures on the German Armament supply chain in WWI, they were short on skilled labor, resources, parts, and material in general.

I have a mauser oberndorf that the front recoil lug has marks on it like it was beaten with a hammer.

What would be fun, someday, is to get a better understanding of these rifles, and catalog the quality of the reworks based on where the work was done.

I am next to certain this is a Bavarian re-barrel, I was out today so didn't check the trends yet, but attached is a example of what I am speaking about (1899 Danzig G98 re-barrel)

C/R in this style is 1915'ish by what I have seen

Fal Grunt said:

Those marks are more akin to a pipe wrench. I have handled some pretty rotten mausers that were clearly not worked on by the best. US Armorers are universally the worst. If you consider the stress and pressures on the German Armament supply chain in WWI, they were short on skilled labor, resources, parts, and material in general.

I have a mauser oberndorf that the front recoil lug has marks on it like it was beaten with a hammer.

What would be fun, someday, is to get a better understanding of these rifles, and catalog the quality of the reworks based on where the work was done.

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Yeah, the wrench marks remind me of the ones you see on the USMC 1903 rebuilds.

We had started a research thread trying to catalogue the quality of rebuilds based on location completed. We need more examples though. Right now I'd consider Ingolstadt and Unknown Depot #16 as two of the nicer quality facilities, while Koln and "H"(Hannover?) seemed to be pretty rough (though probably a product of being higher volume depots. Koln is pretty ubiquitous, so likely one of the workhorse depots)

Loewe said:

I am next to certain this is a Bavarian re-barrel, I was out today so didn't check the trends yet, but attached is a example of what I am speaking about (1899 Danzig G98 re-barrel)

C/R in this style is 1915'ish by what I have seen

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Thanks Paul, it sure looks it to me based on that. I've got a similar barrel on two of my rebuilt Gews98s.

Nice pre war Chris…. I missed this one in the past

joryfreeburg said:

Nice pre war Chris…. I missed this one in the past

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Thanks Jory. It's not the prettiest of my prewars, but definitely an interesting story behind it. Having a Bavarian cavalry marking is pretty cool too.

Here is a regimental stein I have to the 2nd Schweres Reiter Regt- neat crystal top, but sadly some damage to the lithopane inside.