New guy looking for info!

Hello everyone! New guy here from IL (for now). I'm looking at buying an alleged SS contract rifle so I'm here to read up on your hard work and research and see if I can learn a thing or two and verify it's legit and worth what he's asking. Looking forward to interacting with you guys.

If you post some pictures of it the guys can tell you if it’s legit

Sure! Here's a couple. I'll post an abbreviation of his description as well. "This rifle has all matching numbers including Bolt , with stock being likely arsenal replacement at some point. on this one we have very rare FN E/140 inspected Barrel, produced by Fabrique Nationale and sent to Gussen , sight with WaA623 proof , and Mauser Oberndorf contracted trigger-guard along with E/77 Radom magazine plate Bolt made at Gussen. Reciever has small maker proof on right side, but I can not determine if that is E/135 or E/623 – or maybe different contractor that made this particular receiver. It has typical crude tooling Finish on that piece remains in very good shape , with some honest wear and some patina - overall very nice and all original WWII .Laminated stock in excellent overall condition – factory unnumbered , but stamped with odd likely arsenal number in front of magazone This is not common place to stamp serial number, so hard to tell if that is inventory number or firearm number As stated , this wood looks like arsenal replacement at some point – with two E/359 Erma proofs on lower part – no other stamps ( that is armorers stock )." Big long description but believe it or not I cut it down. Im still learning to navigate this forum so forgive my lack of research thus far.

The seller of that rifle is well known for selling overpriced questionable items so keep that in mind.

bolt body # pad looks fishy……

Thanks! I was thinking it was way overpriced but I'm by no means an expert or even vastly knowledgeable about these. But for a mismatch stock it seemed very expensive and I noticed it does not have a v7 marking like most rifles out of gussen camp.

Here's mine. https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/bnz-44-7802.64073/
Since that is a large font receiver it is a Gusen production receiver and usually they will have the circle V7 marking, what it exactly means has yet to be established.

As Muncher states above, bad bolt.

Thanks for the advice fellas. I'll keep doing research here and just wait it out until I find the right one. Ultimately I'm building a WW2 memorial for the man cave for each major power that fought. Each one will have a period flag, rifle, and other memorabilia.

For the price of that bad rifle you can certainly find a very good matching example that probably won’t loose value in your lifetime.

bmwr12 said:

For the price of that bad rifle you can certainly find a very good matching example that probably won’t loose value in your lifetime.

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Exactly. I was thinking even if that guys rifle was legit it still seemed about 1k over priced to me. I'd ideally like an SS rifle since I do already have SS memorabilia to go in the display.

Djohns556 said:

Thanks! I was thinking it was way overpriced but I'm by no means an expert or even vastly knowledgeable about these. But for a mismatch stock it seemed very expensive and I noticed it does not have a v7 marking like most rifles out of gussen camp.

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the ‘2’ on the barrel shoulder indicates that the original barrel was replaced, but only that. I’m no expert on the manner of ess ess contract markings, but there’s no sn on the edge of the bolt shroud in the usual location either.

I would mention the bad bolt!

Djohns556 said:

Thanks! I was thinking it was way overpriced but I'm by no means an expert or even vastly knowledgeable about these. But for a mismatch stock it seemed very expensive and I noticed it does not have a v7 marking like most rifles out of gussen camp.

Click to expand...

Well we can’t see the usual locations for the “Circled V7” in those pics, so from just those we can’t say there aren’t any! The only worrisome thing that jumps out at me is the serial on the bolt body. Are there more pictures?

Quick note, I checked out this rifle and the stock has two eagle 359 stamps on the keel of the stock and it also has the rifle serial number stamped vertically on the stock, forward of the trigger guard. I'm not aware of Walther ever making depot spare K98K stocks.