krukster86
Well-known member
I am not sure if this counts as "Beutewaffen", but this seems to be the best spot for it.
A member of r/milsurp (Reddit) pointed me to an auction (Hessney Military / Sportsman Auction) in early March for something that he thought was in my area of interest. I originally was pointed to their Polish Wz.98/21/25 Mosin Nagant conversion, but for $2,500 plus premium and shipping/handling, it was a bit too rich for my liking, despite being “market price”. One other listing in this auction did catch my eye…
There was a Plain Jane looking wartime 1916 Spandau Gewehr 98, listed as “all matching” in decently nice condition. There were only a few blurry photos up for the listing (none of the receiver up top, or any macro photos of markings), but what I saw from the left-side receiver photo was that the original German serial number was cancelled (line through “strikeout”) and a new K-prefix serial was stamped above it. Another photo on the right side of the receiver showed that in addition to Imperial German proofs, there were small Polish eagle acceptance proofs on the receiver and barrel, and the barrel had Polish markings. The stock was missing the usual Imperial German proofs, and if I squinted, I did see that the stock had a hardwood dowel near the triggerguard area, which is indicative of a Polish Wz.98 beech wood stock.
All of this suggested that what I was looking at was a Polish rework of a Gew.98, either by FB Radom or another refurbishment facility. While this wasn’t a desirable early 1920’s manufactured Polish Wz.98 made at PFK Warszawa (only somewhere around 20,000+ were produced), I still decided to roll the dice, and ended up winning the auction.
The rifle arrived with the metal parts slathered in (possibly) cosmoline. The receiver was indeed a 1916 Spandau, with the FB Radom logo stamped above it (inverted triangle with the letters “FB”), suggesting that this rifle was reworked after FB Radom was established in 1927. Barrel and receiver matched, as well as the bolt, but everything else does not. The bolt appears to have been force matched to the rifle (original markings are “cancelled”), and while it isn’t stamped with the Polish eagle, it does have the Polish “lucky charms” stamped on the underside of the bolt stem base. The Polish Wz.98 beechwood stock is in quite good condition and still has the D over 2 proofmark stamps in an oval of the inspector, Major Tadeusz Dzierzynski, as well as the Polish eagle stamp on the semi-pistol grip of the stock. There are a fair mix of Polish proofed and Imperial German proofed parts, which is totally understandable.
I was not able to disassemble it further for the time being, as the bolt stop assembly is quite gunked up with cosmoline, preventing the bolt removal.
One additional note about the bolt. The original (cancelled) serial numbers on the bolt handle have a "Delta" suffix. I do recall reading on the Jan C Still Forums that there are rare variants of the FB Radom VIS 35 pistols that also have a Delta suffix in their serial number, as these were pistols that were rejected for quality issues, but then were issued/accepted once war was on the horizon and weapons were needed. I suspect that this bolt may have been originally intended to be issued to a Wz.29, but then rejected and repurposed by FB Radom to be used on this Gew.98 rework. Very interesting.
Considering there is a toothpaste tube’s worth of cosmoline in the bore, I can still see sharp rifling, and I hope that after a thorough cleaning, it will look a lot better too.
I am probably going to take this rifle apart in the near future and give it a nice thorough scrubdown to remove the cosmoline, as the macro photos make the metal condition look worse than it actually is.
All in all, I am quite happy with the rifle, especially with a barrel, receiver, and bolt, and I am happy it came with a correct Polish Wz.98 stock. I was a bit disappointed that it was identified as all-matching, but it seemed too good to be true, considering it is a Polish FB Radom rework and not a domestically produced Wz.98.
To be completely honest, if this rifle was a “run of the mill” wartime German Gewehr 98, I would have been disappointed for the price I paid, but for a Polish rework, I am more than pleased with it. It goes to show that it pays to do research, as stuff like this may fly under the radar, and I am sure it did during this auction.
A member of r/milsurp (Reddit) pointed me to an auction (Hessney Military / Sportsman Auction) in early March for something that he thought was in my area of interest. I originally was pointed to their Polish Wz.98/21/25 Mosin Nagant conversion, but for $2,500 plus premium and shipping/handling, it was a bit too rich for my liking, despite being “market price”. One other listing in this auction did catch my eye…
There was a Plain Jane looking wartime 1916 Spandau Gewehr 98, listed as “all matching” in decently nice condition. There were only a few blurry photos up for the listing (none of the receiver up top, or any macro photos of markings), but what I saw from the left-side receiver photo was that the original German serial number was cancelled (line through “strikeout”) and a new K-prefix serial was stamped above it. Another photo on the right side of the receiver showed that in addition to Imperial German proofs, there were small Polish eagle acceptance proofs on the receiver and barrel, and the barrel had Polish markings. The stock was missing the usual Imperial German proofs, and if I squinted, I did see that the stock had a hardwood dowel near the triggerguard area, which is indicative of a Polish Wz.98 beech wood stock.
All of this suggested that what I was looking at was a Polish rework of a Gew.98, either by FB Radom or another refurbishment facility. While this wasn’t a desirable early 1920’s manufactured Polish Wz.98 made at PFK Warszawa (only somewhere around 20,000+ were produced), I still decided to roll the dice, and ended up winning the auction.
The rifle arrived with the metal parts slathered in (possibly) cosmoline. The receiver was indeed a 1916 Spandau, with the FB Radom logo stamped above it (inverted triangle with the letters “FB”), suggesting that this rifle was reworked after FB Radom was established in 1927. Barrel and receiver matched, as well as the bolt, but everything else does not. The bolt appears to have been force matched to the rifle (original markings are “cancelled”), and while it isn’t stamped with the Polish eagle, it does have the Polish “lucky charms” stamped on the underside of the bolt stem base. The Polish Wz.98 beechwood stock is in quite good condition and still has the D over 2 proofmark stamps in an oval of the inspector, Major Tadeusz Dzierzynski, as well as the Polish eagle stamp on the semi-pistol grip of the stock. There are a fair mix of Polish proofed and Imperial German proofed parts, which is totally understandable.
I was not able to disassemble it further for the time being, as the bolt stop assembly is quite gunked up with cosmoline, preventing the bolt removal.
One additional note about the bolt. The original (cancelled) serial numbers on the bolt handle have a "Delta" suffix. I do recall reading on the Jan C Still Forums that there are rare variants of the FB Radom VIS 35 pistols that also have a Delta suffix in their serial number, as these were pistols that were rejected for quality issues, but then were issued/accepted once war was on the horizon and weapons were needed. I suspect that this bolt may have been originally intended to be issued to a Wz.29, but then rejected and repurposed by FB Radom to be used on this Gew.98 rework. Very interesting.
Considering there is a toothpaste tube’s worth of cosmoline in the bore, I can still see sharp rifling, and I hope that after a thorough cleaning, it will look a lot better too.
I am probably going to take this rifle apart in the near future and give it a nice thorough scrubdown to remove the cosmoline, as the macro photos make the metal condition look worse than it actually is.
All in all, I am quite happy with the rifle, especially with a barrel, receiver, and bolt, and I am happy it came with a correct Polish Wz.98 stock. I was a bit disappointed that it was identified as all-matching, but it seemed too good to be true, considering it is a Polish FB Radom rework and not a domestically produced Wz.98.
To be completely honest, if this rifle was a “run of the mill” wartime German Gewehr 98, I would have been disappointed for the price I paid, but for a Polish rework, I am more than pleased with it. It goes to show that it pays to do research, as stuff like this may fly under the radar, and I am sure it did during this auction.
