Mitchell’s Mauser K98 - What is this thing, please

Scottie_251

Scottie_251

Member
Hello All

Newb here with questions. I have this old rifle and was curious what it was, please.
Belonged to an older gent who put a Leupold, long eye relief (?) scope on it. He was no longer able to shoot it as his eyesight had deteriorated.
I bought it planning to shoot and reload it, but it has set in the safe for a few years now, and as always, there are other things I am interest in, so thinking of selling it.

Any information please and what it may be worth to sale or trade, please.

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Its a distastefully "refurbished" German K98 that has zero collector value despite being marketed as such. Im not sure what the rifle alone would sell for, but if it were me and I wanted to maximize returns on it, I would remove the scope and sell it separately. Someone here can help you find parts to put the rear site back to original spec. I would search recent sold auctions on Gun Broker for "Mitchells Mauser" to get pricing info.
 
you don’t show the marks on top of the receiver, (underneath the rear bell of the scope) but it looks like a byf (main Mauser factory in Oberndorf am Neckar) and based on the e/# 655, likely 1940-41. As far as value goes, it’s a pretty good rifle for a shooter, despite polishing & bluing over obvious pits. Mitchell’s was known for selecting rifles with good bores to “restore”. As luftpirate said above, it’s collector value has been ruined, but still a good shooter, flashy at the range, good as a deer or pig rifle. What might it sell for? A matter of opinion, but perhaps $500 to as much as $1000 to someone who wants a ‘pretty’ K98k. The scope mount is a ‘reversible’ installation, so that’s good, the Leupold scope is a good quality US made optic, you could look online to see what they sell for.
Hope that helps.
 
Sorry, but no way a Mitchell's gets $1000 unless they took the polishing wheel to a swjXE or something. I mean, never say never, there's always the possibility of finding a blackout drunk idiot that ran over your dog so you feel no shame in taking advantage of them.

$1000 is already pretty high on the high end of RC K98ks - pretty much only special/rare/oddball guns are going to pull that, and even then it's a stretch. $500-800 is about where those rest these days. For a gun that has been "improved" below the point of an RC, I'd say that $300-500 is about the range you're looking at, with a heavy bias towards the low end of that, depending on maker.

Let me put it this way: this is the rare gun that I'd take to a pawn shop or a small LGS first to see what I could get out of it. This is where the typical pawn shop owner not really knowing surplus might play to your advantage, and if they decided to "rip me off" to the tune of giving me $300 for it? Pocket the cash, don't deal with the headache, sell the scope for a few bucks on whatever trader board you like.

edit: I will never, ever get over those bolt handles. It always makes me think they're Yugos at first blush. I wonder if MM didn't go for those because of the high grade M48s on the market at about that time (that they were selling as Nazi guns for a hot minute lol) made their target demographic think that bolts just have a high polish.
 
It is a Faked mutt; take an RC K98k and renumber the parts to match, polish, strip the stock and redo like a replica K98. It's a shooter. Some like them, most hate them. For value, i'd say the scope is of more interest. In Wi. at a gun show maybe $500-650 with the scope to a hunter or shooter. Most would rather have a gunsmith work of art in a sporter K98- those go around $250-500. Most have no value as a k98, but you do get a blue Mitchell certificate of authenticity. I'd rather have an intact filty Russian RC K98K . Here is an ancient post that I had on SRF that reviews cheep K98k rifles that us poor boys collect. A true bring back is a treasure beyond the cost of most.
The overview was redone for TB.
review: https://www.treasurebunker.com/foru...iew-commonly-found-on-the-us-market/#comments
 
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Mitchell's has a loyal following of old gunshop experts.. the kind of people who know so much they have no need to read a book or even go online to do research. These people routinely spend $700-1100+ for a MM k98k rifle and will spit on you if you tell them they've gotten anything less than the best example of a German mauser.

So there's certainly value there. I'd imagine if put up someplace like GunBroker it would bring $800-900.

Collectors(as you may tell from my post and others in your thread) look down on these as they are Russian capture(so mismatched and refurbished by the Russians) that MM pimp shined and sometimes "made" matching after the fact.

Would make for a fine shooter though and even if it's been pimp shined by MM, it's still a piece of WW2 history.

If it were me I would sell the scope and keep the rifle as a shooter. Hopefully the proceeds from the scope would recoup most of what you paid.
 
I agree with all comments about a MM not being worth that much, I wouldn’t buy 1 for collecting, but if the price was $300-$500 I’d think about it for shooting corrosive ammo, heck the scout scope new is $300! (not including the mount).
I was thinking that it might draw as much as $1k on GB, not to an educated collector.
 
Hello and thank you all for your input!

Muncher 1953, seems the top of the rifle has markings 41 Si38 and another byf (or l or even I maybe?) & 41

Issue with looking at gun broker is everyone has different descriptions and delusions of grander what they think their rifle is worth in the asking price. The sold rifles, some Mitchell's some whatever, values seem to bounce to me on Gun Broker from hundreds to a thousand plus. If they were drunk during their bidding, I could not say, nor condemn as I have bought a thing or two after a few drinks here and there (damn Palmetto State Armory email sales adds...).

I am not a collector. I do not even have a refined palate to get hints of coco and berries off the South fields of wherever, when I drink my coffee, whiskey or smoke cigars. I do not care if the rifle was part of this organization or that. I do not care if it faked, or the real thing, which I am sure if it were I could not afford, nor want to pay for. People want look down on it, fine. To each their own, and you love what you love. And, I can really get how involved people get following what they love. More power to you and I hope you find what makes you happy. I'm kool with that. It shoots strait, seems to have a good bore and and feels solid to me.

I watched Nutnfancy's review on Mitches's and thought it was informative in explaining how some view different rifles.
Internet Hate on Mitchell's Mausers: Fiction to Fact?

To me, this was an inexpensive shooter. Something I could reload for, that may or may not had someplace in history, and kinda heavy, but neat and big BOOM! I bought it through my old FFL who was selling it for an old guy, and if I paid a few bucks more than I should have, well he probably needed the money more than I did, so no worries. I have spent a lot of money on whiskey, women, cigars and guns, and like a fool I wasted the rest anyway...

But as it has sat in the safe for years, I figured I'd sell it. BUT, I do not want to misrepresent anything, just get what's fair for it, I'm not greedy. And if that is between $200 to a $XXXXs, is fine. It is what it is, and I really hope the next person enjoys it, just as I wish the same to the poor devils that married my ex. I don't have any use for the scope so it will likely just stay on the rifle.

If I hunted worth a damn, I'd keep it for a pig rifle. But I'm better off going to Costco/Sam's and getting pork butt there.
If I do keep it, maybe I will get one of those Pickelhaube German Kaiser helmets and wear it to the range when I take it shooting.
I really thought I would have a lot more time for play things being retired. I need to make range, reloading and fishing times more of a priority...

Again, thank you all for your input! I really do appreciate it....
 
If you sell it, just post the pics shown here. They're self-explanatory. You wouldn't be misrepresenting anything.

The rifle will appeal to some people but not to others, and that's OK. Mitchel's had no trouble selling their offerings.
 
The problem with Mitchel's, and the reason they get so much hate around places like this above and beyond the fact that a lot of people don't like refinishing even RCs, is that they were misrepresented when they were sold and the packaging that you've got in those pictures still fundamentally misrepresents the gun. Their entire business model was to prey on under-informed consumers who figured that something coming from a company with a nice website that included a "certificate of authenticity" would be what it claimed right on the box to be - a "collector grade Mauser rifle."

They sucked and they were frauds. I did a fair bit of posting when they were actively hustling their garbage on message boards that skewed younger and with less money and for a few years there was this steady drumbeat of really sad threads where someone wanted to show off their new gun, all excited, and then we had to try to break it to them as gently as possible that they got scammed and what they had was a pretty shooter at best. Keep in mind this is when RC K98ks could be had for ~$200 from any one of the major online retailers, and chances are your local gun shop had a few on the racks for $250.

You seem like an OK, honest guy, so I have to disagree with the post above that if you just sell with the pictures we have here you won't be misrepresenting anything. That box, and the "certificate of authenticity" (there aren't enough sarcastic scare quotes in the world for a Mitchel's CofA), are still misrepresenting the rifle and an uneducated buyer is still liable to fall right in that trap.

A lot of people bought into their BS because they didn't know better, and a lot of those people were very careful to keep the packaging intact because that's what you do with nice collectables. And a lot of those people are - knowingly or not - conning the next generation of aspiring gun collectors by passing on that garbage along with the rifle. It still pisses me off, and over a decade after they were flogging that garbage it's still something you have to give people trying to get into the hobby a heads up about.

Christ, at lest your run of the mill dremel tool owning mouth breather garage gunsmith who renumbers a bolt with a harbor freight punch set doesn't have the stones to print off a "certificate of authenticity."

edit: to be clear, this vitriol isn't directed against you, Scottie. You've said you're trying to do the right thing and I don't doubt that. But the gun is - through no fault of your own - inherently dishonest as presented. It sucks a lot and the only people to blame are the crooks at Mitchel's.
 
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I'll never forget all their advertising in the glossy gun rags years back. Think they were charging around $300 for one of those polished gems to begin with. Am sure they sold a bundle to the unwary. Wonder how many have been resold lately at an inflated price?
 
Remfan said:
I'll never forget all their advertising in the glossy gun rags years back. Think they were charging around $300 for one of those polished gems to begin with. Am sure they sold a bundle to the unwary. Wonder how many have been resold lately at an inflated price?
Click to expand...
They were in VFW and Legion monthly pubs too.

Seen some 'sales' over $1K and a few completely nuts 'asks'.
 
tsmgguy said:
Mitchel's is now out of business, as I understand it. They didn't just refinish original 98Ks. They also imported new rifles from Serbia based on the M48. Quality was excellent. One is linked below.

Click to expand...

Before they started messing with RC's they also imported a bunch of M48s and sold them with extremely sketchy ad copy that basically implied they were Nazi K98ks. Eventually they caught enough shite that they changed those ads to read something like "similar to the K98k" or some similar weasel word BS.

edit: oh they also sold "Mitchell's Premium K98k Ammo" that was just re-boxed commercial at double the price. Prvi I think, but I could be wrong on that. Either way it was stupidly priced.
 
Overall, ol' Don was very sketchy. In the late '70s, another 1 of his gigs was importing Uberti 1873 SAA clones, marked: "Mitchell Arms Santa Ana, Calif". They were cheap, decent shooters. A pal still has 1.
I actually bumped-into Don one day around 2005 or so at the FV, CA PO (see label in pic #4, above) where his box was.
He has since passed-away, w/in the last decade, iirc. I had some bookmarks somewhere reflecting this, his ATF violations/case#/sentencing, & even the shop's street address en San'Tana.
 
Leaf-blowing gooback said:
Overall, ol' Don was very sketchy. In the late '70s, another 1 of his gigs was importing Uberti 1873 SAA clones, marked: "Mitchell Arms Santa Ana, Calif". They were cheap, decent shooters. A pal still has 1.
I actually bumped-into Don one day around 2005 or so at the FV, CA PO (see label in pic #4, above) where his box was.
He has since passed-away, w/in the last decade, iirc. I had some bookmarks somewhere reflecting this, his ATF violations/case#/sentencing, & even the shop's street address en San'Tana.
Click to expand...

I didn't hear he got in trouble with the ATF. Import violation stuff?
 
Don't recall exactly - it's just been TDL.
Anyway, his sentence was <1 year (so a misdemeanor anyways), but the judge suspended any incarceration: bear in mind that Mitchell was well into his 70s by then.
 
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