An Amateur Polish Mauser Bolt Study

[krukster86]

@runner reached out to me via PM and suggested that it would be a good idea to put together an informative / research post on Polish Mauser bolts regarding what sort of markings or configurations are “correct”, what markings would show up on various Polish Mauser models/variations, what are some telltales for reworks, etc. so that someone that is looking at a "Polish Mauser" can tell a correct bolt from an incorrect one.

To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed by this request, as from my relatively brief collecting experience and research, the examples tend to vary widely, but there are at least some general trends that I can summarize. Now to reiterate, I am by no means an expert, I just tend to shoot my mouth off online and post my thoughts actively on Polish Mausers on various forums and I have been proven wrong in the past (and I cringe at some older posts I have made). I invite other collectors of Polish Mausers to chime in and supplement with additional examples and correct me if I misspoke on a topic. I welcome corrections and will modify this thread, as new findings or examples come to light.

One of the major hurdles for this study is access to a large range of suitable examples in order to come up with definitive conclusions or at least trend data. Considering the (relative) scarcity of crested Polish Mausers, and the prices that they command these days, it is tough to amass such a large collection for a formal "study" as a newer collector with a limited budget. To complicate this further, a great majority of Polish crested Mauser examples I tend to see have been reworked in some fashion and/or have a bolt mismatch (to be honest, it is hard enough to find a Polish Mauser with a Polish bolt these days, even if it is mismatched). Therefore, to provide any sort of relevant conclusions, any examples need to be filtered to just include matching examples, which greatly reduces the sample size. Therefore, for this post, what I have done is scoured some old Polish Mauser posts from this forum, GunBoards, and the WarRelics.eu forum, so some of you may see some familiar rifles on this thread. Again, if someone here has a matching example (bolt matches the receiver) in one of these categories being discussed (further below), please feel free to chime in and aid in the discussion.

Secondly, it would be nice to have a definitive reference for Polish Mauser markings, especially in the English language, but there really hasn’t been anything in print of that nature. Robert Ball’s book is quite outdated and a lot of his photo captions are laughably incorrect for the Polish Mauser section, and should NOT be taken as gospel. There is a paperback book on Polish Mausers in the Polish language (Karabiny i karabinki Mauser 98 w Wojsku Polskim w latach 1918-1939), but the authors explicitly state that they don’t go into the details of markings, proofs, and symbols, which is quite unfortunate, since that is the stuff that collectors like us would love to understand.



Topic 1: Typical markings on an Imperial German Mauser Bolt

As a precautionary note, I am going to grossly oversimplify this topic, so I apologize to my fellow collectors on the Imperial German Mauser Rifle subforum.
Why bring this up? From what I have seen, a majority of Polish Mausers are fitted with WWII German K98k Bolts, WWI German Gew.98 straight bolts, or WWI German Kar.98 bolts. This is probably out of expedience due to the difficulty of sourcing a correct Polish bolt. I cannot say for certain if this was done in Europe as a German capture rework or SCW export refurbishment, or if it was done stateside by a collector. To an inexperienced collector, they may see an eagle on the underside of the bolt handle stem base and think “hey, that is a Polish eagle”, when in fact it is the Prussian eagle, which is a different shape than the Polish eagle stamp. These areas of the bolt with also have the crown over a Fraktur letter, indicative of an Imperial German proofmark. Essentially, if you see markings similar to this one below, it signifies that you have an Imperial German Mauser 98 pattern bolt.

Examples of Imperial German bolt markings on the underside of the bolt stem base:





Topic 2: Polish Wz.98 (1922 – 1924) Bolt Examples

I will admit, this area of research will need some assistance. These rifles are extremely scarce, and I haven’t seen any with matching bolts (I have only seen two of them online, and both examples have Gew.98 bolts). If someone has photos of one with a matching bolt, please post it up in the thread. Please post a photo of the receiver, siderail of the receiver, and a photo of the top and bottom of the bolt.

Example 1:

I am adding the photos from Runner's example.

 

[krukster86]

Topic 3: Polish K98 (1925-1931) Bolt Examples

The Polish K98 bolts will be nearly identical to those of the Imperial German Kar.98a bolts, with the exception of markings. Instead of a Prussian eagle with crown over Fraktur proofs on the underside of the bolt, you will find Polish bolts with “lucky charms” on the underside of the bolt, and a Polish eagle stamped either on the underside of the bolt handle stem base OR on the top of the bolt handle stem base. I cannot say why this was done one way vs another, if it was based on a certain production year range, or fabrication at FB Radom vs PFK Warszawa.

Serial numbers would be stamped on the top of the bolt handle stem base in the German style.

Now I must add the precautionary note that in addition to Kar.98a style bolt designs, Polish K98s can also be found with matching straight bolts as well. From discussions with other collectors, we have found some period photos of Polish troops with K98s that have straight bolts, which may add to some confusion.


Example 1:




Example 2:
NOTE: The 3 photos below are of Tokarev38's rare and interesting small ring W.98 long rifle that was produced by PFK Warszawa in 1924, before it was rearsenaled and shorted to a short rifle/carbine like the K98. I have only seen 1 other rifle like it on Simpson Ltd (but it was sporterized) and I haven't seen any that remained in long rifle form.



Example 3:



Example 4:



Example 5:
NOTE: The following bolt has a suffix mismatch (S vs F) that I have all but 100% confirmed is a factory/stamping error.

 

[krukster86]

Topic 4: Polish K29 (1930-1933) Bolt Examples

Early (1930-1933) Wz.29 short rifles were designated as K29s, and the bolts are marked in the German fashion, where there is a serial number stamped on the top of the bolt handle stem base, with lucky charms and a Polish eagle stamp on the underside. There is no Polish eagle stamp on the bolt handle knob. Typically, you will see all bolt parts serialized with the last two digits of the serial number, and in some examples, you will see small proofmarks next to the number as well (some examples even have small Polish eagles).

Example 1:



Example 2:



Example 3:

 

[krukster86]

Example 4:




Example 5:




Example 6:




Example 7:


Misc Photos of K29 Bolts:

 

[krukster86]

Topic 5: Polish Wz.29 (1934-1939) Bolt Examples

After 1933, the rifles are designated as the Wz.29 and the bolt stamping design has changed. They now have the serial number stamped lengthwise along the bolt handle, with a Polish eagle on the bolt handle knob. The underside of the bolt handle stem base will still have “lucky charm” proofs, but will not have a Polish eagle.

For this range of bolts, I have seen some variation on the markings of smaller bolt parts. Some of these will not have serial numbers on the smaller bolt parts, just “lucky charms”, while others have the last two digits of the serial number on the cocking piece, shroud, safety flag, and firing pin. It could be argued that this may be indicative of a Nazi capture rework, but the font on the small parts doesn’t look German, and the bolt parts were not blued, so I would hazard a guess that they are Polish.

Example 1:



Example 2:



Example 3:

 

[krukster86]

Topic 6: Polish Export Bolt Examples

I have seen Polish Mauser export rifles fall into two categories. The first is old military issued K98s, K29s, or Wz.29s that had their crests removed (sometimes only partially), maintaining their receiver siderail model designation, and “cancelling” of their original serial numbers. Sometimes you will see the mini polish eagle proofs on the side of the receiver and barrel scratched off or “punched” out with a starburst.

The second category of these rifles are Wz.29s that were manufactured specifically for export. It is my opinion that these never had a crest to begin with, and do not have any model number inscribed on the receiver siderail. Instead of any small Polish eagle proofs on the receiver, barrel, and bolt, they have a Z inside of a circle, which is the marking of SEPEWE, a Polish arms syndicate, which exported a large amount of rifles internationally, predominantly to Spain.

On these rifles, you would see that the bolts have “lucky charms” on the underside of the bolt handle stem base, serial numbers inscribed on the bolt handle (lengthwise), and predominantly a Z inside of a circle on the bolt handle knob, or sometimes a cross-like symbol. I have also seen export reworked bolts that had the original Polish serial number cancelled and restamped with a new serial number to match the rifle.

Example 1:
Example of a SCW scrubbed Polish K98 carbine:





Example 2:
Example of an export Wz.29 (had no crest to begin with).

 

[krukster86]

Topic 8: Polish Gew.98 Rework Bolt Examples

I may need to inquire about additional examples from other collectors here, but the couple of photos I have seen from “matching” examples appear to use Wz.29 later style bolts (possibly rejected bolts) that had the original serial number cancelled, and force matched in the German style on the bolt handle stem base. The example that I have has a cross type symbol on the bolt handle knob. On the underside of the bolt handle stem base, there will be “lucky charms” present.

Example 1:
Two examples below from Tokarev38, one of which has the weird "cross" symbol on the bolt knob in place of the Polish eagle.



Example 2:

This shows an example of a "force matched" bolt, utilizing what may be a Wz.29 bolt that was reworked or rejected by FB Radom, given the delta marking on the cancelled serial number. This one has the weird "cross" symbol on the bolt knob in place of the Polish eagle.


Example 3:

A gorgeous example that came up for auction in Europe:

 

[krukster86]

Topic 9: Nazi Capture Polish Bolt Rework Tell-Tales

Here is another topic that I may need to get some assistance from other collectors. Typically, for Nazi capture reworked bolts, I tend to see some general tell-tale indications:

• The bolt is blued (the Poles left the bolt “in the white”
• Bolt serial numbers are scrubbed and re-stamped in a different font on the bolt handle stem base.
• Small bolt parts serialized to match (in different font).

Some examples I am somewhat confident are Nazi reworks:

Example 1:




Example 2:




Example 3:



Example 4:



That is it for now. I welcome any additional insights / examples / corrections.

 

[chrisftk]

Great thread Mark! I won't step on the Beutewaffen mods toes, but this should be a sticky maybe. At the very least I'll add it to the article/informative post index I did in the imperial section.

To an inexperienced collector, they may see an eagle on the underside of the bolt handle stem base and think “hey, that is a Polish eagle”, when in fact it is the Prussian eagle, which is a different shape than the Polish eagle stamp

It doesn't help that a lot of the Imperial bolts that Poland ended up with were from the Danzig arsenal, the wings on their eagle proof flare out a little bit more, furthering the confusion. There were a couple variants on the Danzig eagle, one looks especially Polish to the untrained eye.

 

[runner]

@runner reached out to me via PM and suggested that it would be a good idea to put together an informative / research post on Polish Mauser bolts regarding what sort of markings or configurations are “correct”, what markings would show up on various Polish Mauser models/variations, what are some telltales for reworks, etc. so that someone that is looking at a "Polish Mauser" can tell a correct bolt from an incorrect one.

To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed by this request, as from my relatively brief collecting experience and research, the examples tend to vary widely, but there are at least some general trends that I can summarize. Now to reiterate, I am by no means an expert, I just tend to shoot my mouth off online and post my thoughts actively on Polish Mausers on various forums and I have been proven wrong in the past (and I cringe at some older posts I have made). I invite other collectors of Polish Mausers to chime in and supplement with additional examples and correct me if I misspoke on a topic. I welcome corrections and will modify this thread, as new findings or examples come to light.

One of the major hurdles for this study is access to a large range of suitable examples in order to come up with definitive conclusions or at least trend data. Considering the (relative) scarcity of crested Polish Mausers, and the prices that they command these days, it is tough to amass such a large collection for a formal "study" as a newer collector with a limited budget. To complicate this further, a great majority of Polish crested Mauser examples I tend to see have been reworked in some fashion and/or have a bolt mismatch (to be honest, it is hard enough to find a Polish Mauser with a Polish bolt these days, even if it is mismatched). Therefore, to provide any sort of relevant conclusions, any examples need to be filtered to just include matching examples, which greatly reduces the sample size. Therefore, for this post, what I have done is scoured some old Polish Mauser posts from this forum, GunBoards, and the WarRelics.eu forum, so some of you may see some familiar rifles on this thread. Again, if someone here has a matching example (bolt matches the receiver) in one of these categories being discussed (further below), please feel free to chime in and aid in the discussion.

Secondly, it would be nice to have a definitive reference for Polish Mauser markings, especially in the English language, but there really hasn’t been anything in print of that nature. Robert Ball’s book is quite outdated and a lot of his photo captions are laughably incorrect for the Polish Mauser section, and should NOT be taken as gospel. There is a paperback book on Polish Mausers in the Polish language (Karabiny i karabinki Mauser 98 w Wojsku Polskim w latach 1918-1939), but the authors explicitly state that they don’t go into the details of markings, proofs, and symbols, which is quite unfortunate, since that is the stuff that collectors like us would love to understand.

View attachment 351698

Topic 1: Typical markings on an Imperial German Mauser Bolt

As a precautionary note, I am going to grossly oversimplify this topic, so I apologize to my fellow collectors on the Imperial German Mauser Rifle subforum.
Why bring this up? From what I have seen, a majority of Polish Mausers are fitted with WWII German K98k Bolts, WWI German Gew.98 straight bolts, or WWI German Kar.98 bolts. This is probably out of expedience due to the difficulty of sourcing a correct Polish bolt. I cannot say for certain if this was done in Europe as a German capture rework or SCW export refurbishment, or if it was done stateside by a collector. To an inexperienced collector, they may see an eagle on the underside of the bolt handle stem base and think “hey, that is a Polish eagle”, when in fact it is the Prussian eagle, which is a different shape than the Polish eagle stamp. These areas of the bolt with also have the crown over a Fraktur letter, indicative of an Imperial German proofmark. Essentially, if you see markings similar to this one below, it signifies that you have an Imperial German Mauser 98 pattern bolt.

Examples:
View attachment 351699View attachment 351700View attachment 351701

Topic 2: Polish Wz.98 (1922 – 1924) Bolt Examples

I will admit, this area of research will need some assistance. These rifles are extremely scarce, and I haven’t seen any with matching bolts (I have only seen two of them online, and both examples have Gew.98 bolts). If someone has photos of one with a matching bolt, please post it up in the thread. Please post a photo of the receiver, siderail of the receiver, and a photo of the top and bottom of the bolt.

Mark thanks for taking on this project. I am attaching photos of my matching WZ 98. (The sidewall on mine and the only two others I have seen are marked W.98.)

These are quick indoor photos, I will replace these with better ones later. Note that the bolt ball is devoid of any markings.

Not shown, but the cocking piece is also numbered 81.

 

[Fulton bulldog]

Here's my 1926 polish k98 thats matching.its a little rusty on the bottom of the bolt

 

[krukster86]

I have acquired a Polish marked K98 bolt that I can contribute to the study. Sadly the safety was replaced by one of those Timney low profile versions used for scoped rifles.

 

[krukster86]

I just realized I am missing another category, one dedicated to the Wz.98a long rifles, produced by FB Radom from 1936-1939. These are virtually identical to the marking criteria of the Wz.29’s with the exception of the serial number letter suffix. Here are some example photos:

 

[TAZMACK23]

I have a 1930 k29 that is missing the bolt carrier. You wouldn't by and chance have a bolt carrier to fit that you would be willing to sale? Or point me in the right direction to purchase one. The rifle is in fantastic condition and I plan to shoot it. Thanks for any insight.

 

[krukster86]

I have a 1930 k29 that is missing the bolt carrier. You wouldn't by and chance have a bolt carrier to fit that you would be willing to sale? Or point me in the right direction to purchase one. The rifle is in fantastic condition and I plan to shoot it. Thanks for any insight.

I will keep an eye out. I don’t have any spares personally, but I will PM you if I find one for sale or at auction. Expect stiff competition…they won’t be cheap.

 

[mchome25]

Wanted to add this to thread as I think it's a great idea to research....this is from my 1928 RFK Warsawa K98 Serial # 117198. I believe it's a german rework due to the blued bolt and numbering style of all parts (let me know if I've wrong!)...

 

[krukster86]

Wanted to add this to thread as I think it's a great idea to research....this is from my 1928 RFK Warsawa K98 Serial # 117198. I believe it's a german rework due to the blued bolt and numbering style of all parts (let me know if I've wrong!)...

View attachment 386568View attachment 386572View attachment 386569View attachment 386570View attachment 386571View attachment 386573

Interesting. It is possible that this bolt may be from an early K29 short rifle that was force matched during the rework , given that your bolt seems to match the characteristics of a K29 bolt. I could be mistaken.

 

[krukster86]

I just realized I am missing another category, one dedicated to the Wz.98a long rifles, produced by FB Radom from 1936-1939. These are virtually identical to the marking criteria of the Wz.29’s with the exception of the serial number letter suffix. Here are some example photos:

Additional example photos of Wz.98a bolts.

1. From a recently acquired bolt matching 1936 Wz.98a:



2. I found this one on GunBroker listed as a Persian Mauser bolt for $100. Sadly it looks like one of the previous owners hit it with a buffing wheel.

 

[krukster86]

I’ve been neglecting this thread…

Here are some other examples to share.

A 1932 K29 matching bolt:


A Polish K98 carbine bolt:

 

[krukster86]

Here is another K98 carbine bolt I picked up from member Berthier in exchange for a Kar98a bolt. Seems to be scrubbed of serial numbers but the lucky charms are a dead giveaway.