Found this in Cabellas

W

Wklink

Well-known member
First off, thanks for allowing me to grace your forums. I am sure I will be asking a lot of questions.

I am fairly familiar with the M1903 series, owing a couple of rifles including an 03a3 that I bought a couple of years ago. I was in Cabellas with the wife looking for Christmas presents and decided to go buy some 30-06. Went upstairs to the gun room.

There were a bunch of Moisin Nagant's there, obviously another load came in. With them was something that looked out of place.

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I looked at it and it appeared, to my untalented eye, to be a reasonably correct K98 RC. I am not an expert on markings or anything but it looked ok to my naked eye. The gun was filthy and looked like it sat in someone's closet for 40 years although it probably has been in a crate for a while. I still need to clean it up, that will be this weekends project. Sorry for the quality of the pics but they were taken with an Iphone right after I got it. I am working the next couple of nights but later I can get some more pics of the stampings to see what is correct for 1944 and what has been replaced. Here are a few quick shots.

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I'll do a search on proper cleaning of this rifle, especially if there are any tricks I need to know. As I said I am familiar with tearing down the Springfields and these are similar rifles so I suspect teardown and cleaning is pretty much the same.
 
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Maybe it was stuck in some Russian warehouse for forty years. Don't go blowing a bunch of money on it.
 
I'm not. It's mostly to go out shooting with. The bore and receiver looked very good so unless I find something in the teardown I think it will be ok to shoot. I wish they hadn't put that damned laquer on the rest of the rifle but I guess the Russians did that with all of them. As I said, I don't know much about K98s but I have always wondered how they shoot compared to the Springfields. For 275 bucks I can't complain.
 
For the price you did well. I would strip the stock and bring it back to it's "correct" finish. But first I would ask the more knowledgeable guys here.
 
Fascinating.

I have yet to see/find a K98 at the Cabela's in Hamburg, RC or otherwise. There are often one or two Yugo M48s, but they sit for weeks.

Just out of curiosity, how much are they asking for this RC? The M48s they try to sell between $500-$600.
 
djbuck1 said:
Fascinating.

I have yet to see/find a K98 at the Cabela's in Hamburg, RC or otherwise. There are often one or two Yugo M48s, but they sit for weeks.

Just out of curiosity, how much are they asking for this RC? The M48s they try to sell between $500-$600.
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Never mind. I saw the $275. Not a bad price for an RC.
 
Kcode98 said:
For the price you did well. I would strip the stock and bring it back to it's "correct" finish. But first I would ask the more knowledgeable guys here.
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That's on the to do list. I figure a search of the boards should find a thread on stripping and refinishing the stock. That will probably have to wait until the temp gets about 30 degrees but I have time to play with it.
 
djbuck1 said:
Never mind. I saw the $275. Not a bad price for an RC.
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It was actually $310 but with a discount and 20% of it came out to about 275ish. Not complaining. I can't find a good shooter of any kind for that price. My a3 cost almost four times that.
 
$275 for a shootable rifle: I'd say you did great. They seem to be going for $300-$350 at gunshops and shows in Michigan. I'd have bought it in a heartbeat for that price.
 
djbuck1 said:
Fascinating.

I have yet to see/find a K98 at the Cabela's in Hamburg, RC or otherwise. There are often one or two Yugo M48s, but they sit for weeks.

QUOTE]

Keep looking,you may strike gold someday.

Just last week I bought a LSR bolt MM ,miunus optics pkg,everything else matching ,with sported stock, from a gentleman who had got it from a Cabelas recently. You just never know when lightening/luck will strike.

SBC
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Wklink;70949 As I said said:
If you have trouble puting together a good group ,and it has what appears to be a nice bore, the fix coud be as simple as tweaking your stock to action clearances., or changing your ammo

There are some tutorials available for restoring a proper fit...one of the members on the forum had posted one on Gunboards ..I may still have the link saved.

Congrats..hope you enjoy it.
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Wklink said:
I'm not. It's mostly to go out shooting with. The bore and receiver looked very good so unless I find something in the teardown I think it will be ok to shoot. I wish they hadn't put that damned laquer on the rest of the rifle but I guess the Russians did that with all of them. As I said, I don't know much about K98s but I have always wondered how they shoot compared to the Springfields. For 275 bucks I can't complain.
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It's not lacquer, it's shellac. You will find many opinions about stripping an RC stock, I feel it runs about 50-50. If you do strip the stock use a plastic putty knife first to peel off what you can since shellac gets very brittle with age. Denatured alcohol wiped on with a coarse cloth like an old towel or burlap will get the rest. Do not use an abrasive if at all possible or you will get the Mitchell's look. :censored:

Some feel that since it was captured by the Russians it's a Russian rifle and shellac is correct. Some want it to look as German as possible, it's your call. I can see both points but the shellac on my RC was flaking like mad so I stripped it then sold it on ebay for basically what I paid for the rifle. I did this because I had found another flaking RC stock on ebay with a very minor armorers repair job on it for $140. It turned out to be a beautiful K stamped walnut J.P. Sauer stock and the repair is pretty much hidden by the sling and rear band. My RC is a 1937 J.P. Sauer. Four coats of BLO rubbed on and buffed off is how I finished it. Just remember what ever you do it's still an RC K98k. THe electro pencil bolt, floorplate and triggerguard still sits on mine, I will admit to putting a correct front band on it. It is now my shooter and is almost identical to a 37 Sauer bringback I have.
 
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Thanks for the advice on stripping. I definately don't want the Mitchell look. There is something that just doesn't look right about the stocks on those rifles. To me it is something akin to all of the rail added stuff that people do to their AR15s. I remember carrying an M16a1 and a2 for years (and years, and years) and I like the clean look. There is nothing wrong with the shellac but it isn't how it came from the manufacturer.

If it came to that I would look for a different stock. I don't mind the Russian look per se but to me it is still a German rifle. If I wanted a Russian rifle I would have bought an Moisen Nagant, which I probably will do eventually.
 
sheepdog said:
It's not lacquer, it's shellac. You will find many opinions about stripping an RC stock, I feel it runs about 50-50. If you do strip the stock use a plastic putty knife first to peel off what you can since shellac gets very brittle with age. Denatured alcohol wiped on with a coarse cloth like an old towel or burlap will get the rest. Do not use an abrasive if at all possible or you will get the Mitchell's look. :censored:

Some feel that since it was captured by the Russians it's a Russian rifle and shellac is correct. Some want it to look as German as possible, it's your call. I can see both points but the shellac on my RC was flaking like mad so I stripped it then sold it on ebay for basically what I paid for the rifle. I did this because I had found another flaking RC stock on ebay with a very minor armorers repair job on it for $140. It turned out to be a beautiful K stamped walnut J.P. Sauer stock and the repair is pretty much hidden by the sling and rear band. My RC is a 1937 J.P. Sauer. Four coats of BLO rubbed on and buffed off is how I finished it. Just remember what ever you do it's still an RC K98k. THe electro pencil bolt, floorplate and triggerguard still sits on mine, I will admit to putting a correct front band on it. It is now my shooter and is almost identical to a 37 Sauer bringback I have.
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Would love to see a pic or two
 
sheepdog said:
It's not lacquer, it's shellac. You will find many opinions about stripping an RC stock, I feel it runs about 50-50. If you do strip the stock use a plastic putty knife first to peel off what you can since shellac gets very brittle with age. Denatured alcohol wiped on with a coarse cloth like an old towel or burlap will get the rest. Do not use an abrasive if at all possible or you will get the Mitchell's look. :censored:

Some feel that since it was captured by the Russians it's a Russian rifle and shellac is correct. Some want it to look as German as possible, it's your call. I can see both points but the shellac on my RC was flaking like mad so I stripped it then sold it on ebay for basically what I paid for the rifle. I did this because I had found another flaking RC stock on ebay with a very minor armorers repair job on it for $140. It turned out to be a beautiful K stamped walnut J.P. Sauer stock and the repair is pretty much hidden by the sling and rear band. My RC is a 1937 J.P. Sauer. Four coats of BLO rubbed on and buffed off is how I finished it. Just remember what ever you do it's still an RC K98k. THe electro pencil bolt, floorplate and triggerguard still sits on mine, I will admit to putting a correct front band on it. It is now my shooter and is almost identical to a 37 Sauer bringback I have.
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I used Citrustrip on mine. It's available at Lowes and Home Depot. I use the spray-on. All it took off was the "shellac" (though I still think that in the particular case of my RC it was more akin to creosote). I agree that you should not use anything caustic. That can have unfortunate consequences. I was able to use just one coat of BLO, and the stock compares favorably with my "bring back" 1938 BYF.
 
agalland said:
djbuck1 said:
Fascinating.

I have yet to see/find a K98 at the Cabela's in Hamburg, RC or otherwise. There are often one or two Yugo M48s, but they sit for weeks.

QUOTE]

Keep looking,you may strike gold someday.

Just last week I bought a LSR bolt MM ,miunus optics pkg,everything else matching ,with sported stock, from a gentleman who had got it from a Cabelas recently. You just never know when lightening/luck will strike.

SBC
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I make regular visits, mainly looking for Mosins.
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