K98 PU Field Armorer Sniper

[sethebersm1]

Hey Guys,

I found this a couple years ago after buying a MG42 kit off a local guy in Oklahoma City. He told me he had a “depot sniper” and upon asking him to send pictures found that he had a pretty unique rifle. After reaching out to a few forum members for info and advice I was thankfully able to buy it off of him. I sent this 1939 BSW Russian capture off to Vaughn for the resniper work and as usual he knocked it out of the park. Using k98 action screws for the base and a dug up German mess tin for the base shim at his suggestion we tried to get it as close as possible to how it would‘ve been built by the armorer when it was first converted. The base and mount are Izhevsk with the base measuring 55mm. My photography skills aren’t as advanced as some of you guys but I gave it a try.

 

[sethebersm1]

Final product below. Special thanks to Dave, Raupleminze, and especially Vaughn for letting me pick their brain and Vaughn‘s awesome work. I tried to put together a little tribute for the guy in the one well known photo of the PU K98



98.

 

[Dave Roberts]

Your Original K98 PU Sniper came out really nice Seth , glad to see You got it back , as mentioned Vaughn/Eric does great work . Maybe some day an original Vet Bring Back will surface or even a K98 PEM Sniper .

 

[agentcq]

Nice job on a 'restoration'!!!!
I restored an RC zf41 that still had the original base, but this is even better!

 

[Absolut]

Maybe some day an original Vet Bring Back will surface or even a K98 PEM Sniper .

We have one member aboard with such a rifle, if I'm not mistaken it is @learjet to let us know.

@sethebersm1 could you do a detail picture and/or elaborate on how the different radius as well as the step in the receiver ring was worked around? The different radius ignored or hand fitted/filed and the step filled with an aluminum shim in the rear, or was front end altered? Thanks for sharing!

 

[sethebersm1]

We have one member aboard with such a rifle, if I'm not mistaken it is @learjet to let us know.

@sethebersm1 could you do a detail picture and/or elaborate on how the different radius as well as the step in the receiver ring was worked around? The different radius ignored or hand fitted/filed and the step filled with an aluminum shim in the rear, or was front end altered? Thanks for sharing!

Of course!

So as you can see there is a space at the top of the PU base between it and the receiver where the original screw holes weren’t exactly parallel with the receiver but using the shim Eric made it work and it’s very solid. I think he said he had to fold the aluminum from the mess kit 3 times to get it correctly shimmed and the elevation screw is maxed out on the base. Hopefully these pics help Georg

 

[Dave Roberts]

Its interesting that Your Base has been shimmed , I looked at this option when I started my restoration . I actually went a different route . I did not have to use any shims because I had the area of the Receiver repaired thus restore the receiver to its original profile were it had been ground down by Russians after the hole was plugged in the Receiver . I then had to do some minor machining work to the PU Base and I matched the Base to fit the Receiver Side profile . I still have some work to do to get the rifle completed and back to original condition . I can post pics of receiver fix and base fitment work I did on mine if others want to see it .

 

[sethebersm1]

Its interesting that Your Base has been shimmed , I looked at this option when I started my restoration . I actually went a different route . I did not have to use any shims because I had the area of the Receiver repaired thus restore the receiver to its original profile were it had been ground down by Russians after the hole was plugged in the Receiver . I then had to do some minor machining work to the PU Base and I matched the Base to fit the Receiver Side profile . I still have some work to do to get the rifle completed and back to original condition . I can post pics of receiver fix and base fitment work I did on mine if others want to see it .

Please do!

 

[Absolut]

Thank you for the additional pictures. Pretty weird to see the PU scope base in the first picture looking to be not parallel to the receiver whereas in another picture looking to be perfectly parallel to the side wall of the receiver.

Interesting to see they had copied the shimming method which became obvious with my ground dug Soviet scoped K98k rifle I had posted in here some years back. I'm more with Dave, a clearly better fitting would had been to mill the front and have everything closer to the receiver, especially since from your pictures it appears as if the shimming is with the rear foot only partially on the side wall, so having very little overall touching surface. But again, we were not there when they did it back then, as well as there could had been different methods, and I consider this method to be a possibly legit one.

 

[learjet]

i dont own one of these fascinating rifles, but i have a friend with one who doesnt post much. ill point him at this thread.

 

[Jeffjmr]

I’m the guilty party with a PU K98. Numerous conversations with Dave Roberts, Absolut, Learjet, and Raupleminze have not resulted in a consensus that it is legit. It has some characteristics that support authenticity and a few that do not.

The more intriguing aspect is it is an Oberndorf built rifle on a BCD action. The date and SN fall within the range discussed in the K98 book, with Wa135 waffenampts all over. All matching except for the cocking piece/safety. Dave, learjet and Absolut seem to agree on the authenticity of the Oberndorf/BCD build.

I will post the pics soon under a new thread so as not to further hijack this one.

Edit: Here: https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/oberndorf-bcd43-field-mod-pu.56179/

Jeff

 

[Dave Roberts]

I’m the guilty party with a PU K98. Numerous conversations with Dave Roberts, Absolut, Learjet, and Raupleminze have not resulted in a consensus that it is legit. It has some characteristics that support authenticity and a few that do not.

The more intriguing aspect is it is an Oberndorf built rifle on a BCD action. The date and SN fall within the range discussed in the K98 book, with Wa135 waffenampts all over. All matching except for the cocking piece/safety. Dave, learjet and Absolut seem to agree on the authenticity of the Oberndorf/BCD build.

I will post the pics soon under a new thread so as not to further hijack this one.

Jeff

IMO whomever built these PU Sniper which we know both Russians and Germans put the PU Scope & Mount to use as a K98 Sniper Rifle .
There was not one specific manufacturer type that was used for these builds the as there have been multiple codes and years reported . I will get some pics of I restored and repaired my PU K98 Receiver and Base .

 

[mike radford]

Your Original K98 PU Sniper came out really nice Seth , glad to see You got it back , as mentioned Vaughn/Eric does great work . Maybe some day an original Vet Bring Back will surface or even a K98 PEM Sniper .

I am near sure that someone posted a PEM side mt. and scope on a K98 here or gunboards. It was a dug example and found near Berlin IIRC.

 

[Dave Roberts]

I am near sure that someone posted a PEM side mt. and scope on a K98 here or gunboards. It was a dug example and found near Berlin IIRC.

Mike , You maybe thinking of the one Absolut/Georg posted that was a Ground Dug K98 with PEM Side Mount example . If I am not mistaken it was found in Belgium somewhere .

There was another K98 with PEM which is actually the K98 PU Rifle that I now own . The person I got mine from had it Resniped as a PEM which turned out to be incorrectly done , as it was originally a PU K98 . I realized this when I saw that the original mounting holes did not line up with a PEM Base but rather a PU Izzy Base . The gunsmith that did the work had to drill a new hole for the front Base screw and it was drilled into only half of the original mounting hole . Here are pics of the Rifle as it was incorrectly restored

 

[mike radford]

Wanted PM, woops.

 

[Dave Roberts]

Here are the Promised Photos . As I mentioned in earlier post , I had to restore the Forward part of the Receiver as You will see in the photos . I then matched the Base to fit the Receiver contour and it was leveled and aligned to the receiver . You will notice there was no welding done to the rear end were Mod 98 this was not needed . The Feet of the Base actually span this ground down area and the Rear Feet of the Base make contact with the receiver above and below the the rear mounting hole were the receiver was untouched by any grinding