What Mauser 98 is this? ID/help

[Immortal]

I have this Mauser 98 that was at one point converted to K98k specs. The Spandau 1916 obviously means it was made for the Great War in Imperial Germany. However the lack of a "Mod 98" or "Kar 98" on the left side of the receiver makes me wonder what this rifle originally started its life as.

Next clue is the barrel, its coded "39 Ru" which is production year 1939 made by Ruhrstahl.

The only Waffenamt stamp is under the rear sight, none on the receiver. Stock is marked "1. TRZ" which as far as I know is a Serbian arsenal mark. The stock serial number matches the bolt handle, other than those no numbers match.

Based on all the marks my current guess is that this once was a Gewehr 98, kept in an arsenal for the Reichswehr and was eventually converted into a K98k in 1941/42 (some emergency conversions were made during that time). At some point it has made its way to the Balkans, likely in the hands of someone tasked with fighting partisans. Either during or at the conclusion of WW2 it ended up in the hands of partisans and was eventually taken into Yugoslavian inventory where it was refurbished before it made its way across the Atlantic at some undetermined point in time.

Its still chambered in 8mm Mauser.

My questions regarding this:
1. What does the star on the barrel mean?
2. Why is there no mark on the side of the receiver? All other 98s that I have seen have a model designation there
3. Did I miss any clue or did I get any wrong?

Thanks in advance!


Pictures of the rifle can be found here since they are too large to upload in the forum.

 

[heavy_mech]

So it's definitely a German wartime barrel based on the barrel serial and fire proof. It looks like the 7,9 on the barrel shank is exactly at 12 o'clock. Either wartime done or Bubba got super lucky. Rear sight ramp is Elite Diamant. How it came to be in this configuration, I can't say. More of the barrel code might tell us more. Any other parts have German marks? Bolt seems to be a mixmaster

 

[Cyrano4747]

IIRC the "1.TRZ" stamp on the stock is a post-war Serbian arsenal mark, and the rest of the stock in general (SN, general condition) look good for Yugo as well.

Might have been put together by them, but the SN doesn't match the one on the barrel. Some of the stamps on the barrel look a bit soft to me, like they went through a refinish, although I don't want to go too far out on a limb on that.

There is a chance it might have been put together by the Yugoslavs but right now it just kind of feels more like someone's gunshow parts bin build from the 80s or 90s.

 

[Muncher 1953]

IIRC the "1.TRZ" stamp on the stock is a post-war Serbian arsenal mark, and the rest of the stock in general (SN, general condition) look good for Yugo as well.

Might have been put together by them, but the SN doesn't match the one on the barrel. Some of the stamps on the barrel look a bit soft to me, like they went through a refinish, although I don't want to go too far out on a limb on that.

There is a chance it might have been put together by the Yugoslavs but right now it just kind of feels more like someone's gunshow parts bin build from the 80s or 90s.

SARCO Inc in PA has been selling ‘1. TRZ’& ‘2.TRZ’ marked stocks for several years, some out of stock now

M98 Mauser Stock Set for Flat Buttplate

www.sarcoinc.com

 

[Immortal]

So it's definitely a German wartime barrel based on the barrel serial and fire proof. It looks like the 7,9 on the barrel shank is exactly at 12 o'clock. Either wartime done or Bubba got super lucky. Rear sight ramp is Elite Diamant. How it came to be in this configuration, I can't say. More of the barrel code might tell us more. Any other parts have German marks? Bolt seems to be a mixmaster

Unfortunately no useful other marks. The only ones not shown in the pictures are a non-matching number at the front sight and another non-matching on the magazine cover plate.

7,9 is exactly at 12 o'clock. That plus the 1916 receiver and the 39 Ru lead me to believe that (most of) this rifle was an emergency conversion in late 41-early 42. Apparently the need for guns on the Eastern front was so dire that they put in the effort to convert some old G98s that were still in inventory to K98s. Nobody knows for sure but it does seem like the most probable explanation.


As to the bolt (and a spare one that came with it) its assorted parts. Possibly done at the Serbian arsenal. The Balkan capture would certainly explain the lack of electro pencil marks from RCs

 

[Cyrano4747]

7,9 is exactly at 12 o'clock. That plus the 1916 receiver and the 39 Ru lead me to believe that (most of) this rifle was an emergency conversion in late 41-early 42. Apparently the need for guns on the Eastern front was so dire that they put in the effort to convert some old G98s that were still in inventory to K98s. Nobody knows for sure but it does seem like the most probable explanation.

I disagree that this being a wartime conversion of a Gew98 is the most probable explanation. I'm far from an expert on those, but all the ones I've seen have the receiver blued, for one. The in the white receiver was an Imperial thing, and goes away even late in that era. Both the Weimar-era Gew98 conversions and the later SS/depot/etc conversions in WW2 had blued receivers.

Here's a quick one from the photo index:

Interesting SS Gew. conversion

So one rifle that has been missing from my collection of stuff is a good SS Gew. conversion. Frankly, most I seem to find are mismatched or restorations, and other good ones I just plain missed out on. It's a tough gun to find a good example of, with the popularity the fakes seem to outnumber...

www.k98kforum.com

Here's another recent one, a hand-stamped single rune BNZ 4 that used a salvaged Spandau receiver:

Thoughts on possible SS BNZ 4 hand stamped 98k

Saw this posted on some social media and figured I'd share it to see if people thought it was legit. The rifle is in a heavily sportered stock, and these were the only photos provided. I feel like I've seen another G98 receiver before with the BNZ 4 and single rune stamped on it. Curious what...

www.k98kforum.com

There are other things that bug me about it. The more I look at the barrel, the less I like the finish. That said, judging finishes from pics is always fraught so I'm not going to plant my flag on that. I've also never seen a Gew98 conversion with a scrubbed side-rail (although you do find some oddball ones where they X out the "B" on Gew98B -> Gew98M conversions). They also tend to SN the barrel to the receiver, sometimes retaining the original SN and sometimes scrubbing the receiver SN and stamping it to match the barrel.

Maybe someone who really specializes in these rebuilds will come along and correct me, but from what I've seen this just doesn't follow any of the established patterns that you see with them.

My take is still that this is a parts gun.

 

[moconfed]

7,9 is exactly at 12 o'clock. That plus the 1916 receiver and the 39 Ru lead me to believe that (most of) this rifle was an emergency conversion in late 41-early 42. Apparently the need for guns on the Eastern front was so dire that they put in the effort to convert some old G98s that were still in inventory to K98s. Nobody knows for sure but it does seem like the most probable explanation.

Nope.

 

[Immortal]

The bolt does match the 1. TRZ though. Maybe someone here knows more about Serbian procedures than I do but marking the stock to the bolt seems to be more of an arsenal thing to do rather than bubba in his garage.

 

[Stan]

The bolt does match the 1. TRZ though. Maybe someone here knows more about Serbian procedures than I do but marking the stock to the bolt seems to be more of an arsenal thing to do rather than bubba in his garage.

I can't see the photos, but it is possible that some previous owner combined a Yugoslav refurbished rifle (stock and bolt) with a more interesting action.

 

[heavy_mech]

I can't see the photos, but it is possible that some previous owner combined a Yugoslav refurbished rifle (stock and bolt) with a more interesting action.

I thought about this question too Stan. In the photos, the bolt body serial number 5578 matches the large number stamped on the side of the buttstock just below the 1.TRZ. The rest of the bolt part numbers are all different.

 

[Stan]

The bolt does match the 1. TRZ though. Maybe someone here knows more about Serbian procedures than I do but marking the stock to the bolt seems to be more of an arsenal thing to do rather than bubba in his garage.

The Yugoslavians USUALLY scrubbed the crest/code off the rifle being refurbished and added their national crest and a new s/n on the right side of the receiver. The s/n on your stock and bolt should match that number on the receiver. If not, I would suspect that those parts were added by somebody other than the Yugoslavs. Some rifles didn't get scrubbed, but a new s/n was still added to the right side of the receiver. Those rifles always seem to have a "W" prefix s/n. I can't see the photos that others have commented on for some reason, so this is all speculation.

 

[Stan]

I thought about this question too Stan. In the photos, the bolt body serial number 5578 matches the large number stamped on the side of the buttstock just below the 1.TRZ. The rest of the bolt part numbers are all different.

I think I agree with Cyrano that it is likely a parts gun put together with some post war Yugoslav refurb parts.