Third Party Press

Kar98K Identification

rebel1861

Member
I bought a rifle from a friend a while back for 300 bucks. I think it was a steal but I'm not sure seeing as I haven't gotten much information on the rifle. I am hoping someone on here can send me in a direction. From what I can tell the rifle was made by Gustloff Werke and imported by the Tennessee gun company in Knoxville (specs below).

Ordinance Code: bcd
year: 1944
Serial Number: 7772 stock and receiver match but the bolt and the butt plate as well as a few other parts don't

It has a non-Hooded front sight which from what I have read is not common in this run, but info has been very limited
The stock is not in the best condition seeming unevenly laminated (forgive me if I'm using the wrong term, I am new to this.) This makes it hard to check for any markings such as the C that should be on the bottom of the spine.
There are several Eagles with the swastika on the left side next to the serial number, on top above the ordinance code, and one on the right side next to a 1 or I, I can't make out the difference. The metal is blued (I think) from what pictures I've seen.

Any help is greatly appreciated thank you in advance.

Edit: here are pictures
 

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Looks like a pretty bog standard Russian Captured (RC) K98k.

The Soviets had some pretty significant stockpiles of captured guns after the war, and sometime between then and now they tore them down into their constituent parts, threw out the worn out or broken bits, and re-built working guns out of what remained. Usually zero matching parts. Many (but not all) RC guns have a X mark stamped on the receiver that denotes being a captured weapon. Fewer (again not all) will have the swastikas defaced. The vast majority (again, but not all - my personal hypothesis is that this was a multi-step process and this happened years later) will have the gun refinished with that black finish you see in your pictures, and the stock covered in a thin shellac. Many times (but not always) the bolt was renumbered to match the receiver. Sometimes with an electro pencil, sometimes by having the old number ground off and re-stamped. Looks like yours had the original SN ground off but nothing stamped over. Most of the time (but not always - seeing a pattern?) the stock was numbered to match the gun, as you see on the left side of your stock.

Why go to all this work? The Soviets kept them around as third line weapons. Think the kind of thing you'd hand out on street corners in case of a Barbarossa 2.0: NATO Boogaloo in the 1950s. They were stuck in grease and put into long term storage, which is how they were received by importers in the 90s and 00s. They also gave a bunch of them out as foreign aid. A fair few were captured in Vietnam, for example.

They're not considered as collectable as an original, wartime condition K98k but they are honest rifles with very real history. Personally, I like them. I think they're great starter guns because they avoid a lot of the pitfalls and outright fraud that you can find in more collectable guns. They also tend to make pretty decent shooters, likely because having a shot out barrel was enough to get the receiver tossed during the refurb processes. My favorite shooter is an RC 98k that I use for load development and general screwing around at the range.

edit: oh and the Russians tossed things like the rear sight pin and the front sight. You barrel originally had a front sight, that's what the grooves cut on the side of the FSB are for.
 
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Yup, typical RC as detailed above. These were once considered bottom of the barrel in the k98k world. I remember buying them from wooden crates at gunshows for $250-$300 and I was late to the party. People used to mix and match them to try and make them more “correct”. Some would attempt to remove the hot dip Russian bluing with various outcomes. Try to “steam out” the Soviet left side numbering on the stock. All pretty pointless as they will NEVER be original German matching.

RC’s today have dried up and they have become fairly collectible in its Soviet reworked state. At the moment the gun market is kind of slow, but just months ago they would sell for $700-$1000 depending on general condition, bore, code rarity, stock, etc.

So for $300 you definitely did well. You can probably double your money with ease in today’s market. Are the firing proofs (Eagle over swastika) on the left side of the barrel and receiver peened (hit with a punch)? How’s the bore on it?
 

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