Got My K98 At Last !

Drove down to Kent today to select 'my' K98. OK, it's a deact and it's a Yugo re-work, but...

I've wanted a nice K98 to 'finish' my collection for nearly a year now. Prices of matching-number guns are moving up fast and there's a lot of poor-condition stuff around. I especially wanted a good, war-production type as would have been seen on the 1944 battlefield ie cupped buttplate, stamped upper-band, front sight-hood, cleaning rod and laminated stock - but without paying 'silly money'.

Looked at a number of dealers at the Beltring fair last month and found one - who I'd bought from before - with a fresh stock of Yugo reworked guns.

Checked out the US K98 and German Rifle forums, who agree that the Yugo guns are good news. The dealer would let me choose from his stock so off I went....

And it is gorgeous ! Superb blueing, perfect stock with no 'digs', and all parts present and correct plus several visible waffenamts and the original maker's code for Steyr-Daimler-Puch. It almost looks new and is one 'deact' that I would love to fire

Hours of fun will now be had removing the cosmolene and polishing the stock....My other K98 is the relic dredged from a Berlin lake which I bought from a German dealer last year which makes a great 'End of the Reich' item. The two together look striking indeed.

I am really pleased !

 

Congrats Martin. And I do wish that they over there would allow you to own one that fires.

 

I have to clean these WWII pieces after we shoot them. There is a P-38, 2 Lugars, and a K98

 

Geesh Eric -

And I thought you were a pacifistic bookworm only interested in landscaping the garden!

Bill

P.S. Martin -

I am glad that you are pleased with your purchase.

 

Thanks for posting the pic, Erik ! Those look like real 'shooters' - as the old saying goes, they're well-worn and worn well....

Many years ago when I was still at school a friend of my Dad's took me target shooting. I still remember the thrill of firing a WWII Luger. Totally illegal here, now, of course...

 

Sounds great Martin, nice collection Erik. My K98 is 1944 dated, cupped but plate, no site hood or cleaning rod but there is no hole for the cleaning rod in the woodwork, hense it is not made to hold one. The stock is beautifully laminated and really the only downside is some rust on the bolt, I need to clean it off but have not got around to it. Actually sometime soon I intend to take off all the woodwork and give it a good going over.

 

Toward the end of the war, and certainly on the 'Kriegsmodell', the cleaning rod was omitted together with the bayonet mounting. You should be able to tell if your rifle originally had a sight hood as there will be slots at the base of the sight. If so, the hoods turn up form time to time on German e-bay pretty cheaply.

( You can see I'm turning into an instant K98 expert ( ) )

[ 17. August 2003, 09:50 AM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ]

 

Mine has the bayonet fitting but as i say there is a hole in the metalwork for the cleaning rod but not in the woodwork. The site never had a hood, i tried to fit one once but it wouldent fit.

 

Thanks Everone,
The K98 belongs to Greg and it has a 42 mark on it. That gun was my Dads favorite he would rather have the bolt action K38 than his semi auto 30.06 for deer hunting. Greg liked my Dads Lugar. The chromed one fires the best, the other one has seen better days. it jams up sometimes unless we can find WWII German ammo like they got for the K98. The pistols are LOUD and I jumped when it was shot. Even the cows left the pasture from far away.

 

If your Luger is jamming then you need a full cleaning and tune-up. Check for a warping of the barrel which is common the 38's and Lugers alike.
personally I wouldn't be going out on the range or wherver you folks take part for target practice with a firearm in this condition. Since you have a visible recoil mechanism on the P-08 this could actually come apart and backfire in your face, not a very pretty sight. And secondly be very careful of WW 2 ammo as I have quite a bit of 9mm parabellum as it may have old powder and rust within, another cause for concern in mis-fires.
In fact I am looking at a small narrow cardboard box of 16 rounds marked Pisotlenpatronen 08 L.E. 1944 dou. 59
looks very clean but it stays in the box and will not be fired for the reasons described......if you guyz want to take the chance go ahead as now you have been warned ! keep the original box and rounds as part of your collection.....

~E

 

Absolutely ; original WWII German ammo - especially if still boxed - is a highly prized collector's item over here ! Particularly if they're steel-cased and lacquered which is awful to shoot anyhow.

( Erich - your 9mm was made by Waffenfabrik Brunn in Czechoslovakia : keep it ! )

 

thanks Martin for the addition. Yes I have 6 boxes similiarily marked from the smae manufacturer. All rounds that I am awre of are polished-laquer. Ther was an old gent at a local gun-show that I purchased these through for the sake of my collection only about 10 years ago. 6 boxes for 15.00 US was a fair trade I thought....
what I have been used is the collected brass from a German manufacturer since I do my own re-loading, via Geco 9mm Luger Parabellum, 8.0g Vollmantel-Geschoß, hard to find brass these days, and with the low ebb on primers two years ago it was a total pain to order all over the states and hobby shooting became a rarity in order a couple years ago. The primers situation seems to have been remided now. My feelings is save what you have from the Ww 2 end and not overburden your prize pieces, though I must confess I have a blast shooting off 50-60 rounds at a time with my WW 1 aviators pistol:

Becker & Holländer. Waffenbau Suhl / Selbstlade-Pistole' Beholla' Cal 7.65 D.R.P., with origianl holster. This unit was in some old circualtion with Luftwaffe aircrews until more modern 7.65's took it';s place. The pistol is a dram to shoot and my kids have enjoyed peppering the targets at 25 yds with this littl firearm. In fact I think it is more accurate than the WW 2 9mm's.
The small unit takes the standard 32. autto round just fine, but it does jamm after about 25 or so rounds from time to time. Thourghly cleaned and tuned the thing is showing it's time and it's time to retire the piece before any internal damge occurs....

~E

 

A Beholla ! Never seen one, except for a photo in one of Ian V Hogg's books.

Those lacquered 9mm rounds in their original boxes sell over here on ebay for about £30.00 each box....
I really envy you being able to just amble along to the nearest range and blast away. Perchance to dream ,over here, I'm afraid...

 

Martin I only paid 120.00 US for the pistol as another older gent wanted quick cash. I couldn;t pass it up and it was clean to begin with !

man that is abit much for ammo but being WW 2 vintage I could see it. Martin if you ever swing out to the west coast holler at me and you'll be able to take in some very interesting weapons including many black powder arms and pistols, rifles and maybe a semi-auto or fully auto as well. I've taken my Panzerschrek out to my local shooting range which is quite nice and scared most of the locals when we put on a WW 2 German arms seminar. It was a kick, and maybe too if you plan well you can take on the local cannon/cannon ball competition in the spring. We have quite a huge firing range and have collectors bringing their "heavy" pieces from all over the world to compete in long range firing.

~E

 

Erich...the temptation, the temptation....!

 

Ok friend ! next September 14th at 7pm you and the Mrs. can come over and your lovely wife and Kätie can go shopping while we hit the boards and fire off several hundred rounds of mixed munitions. Then a cold froth and home for some serious chat about RAF vs Luftwaffe Nachtjagd arm.....

bring you books !

~E

 

That sounds very indeed but it'll have to be another date - this 14th September I'm at a wedding, next September 14th I'll be at Arnhem....

 

Great stuuf Martin and Erik!!

How much do these type of K98's sell for now?

Cheers
Phil

 

Erich, bang on about the weapons, it is NEVER a good idea to fire ANY weapon that is not in top condition. The same goes for ammunition, it degrades over time and try to remember that if you have a missfire that round suddenly becomes VERY dangerous, there is a reason for the complicated missfire drills the army has.

I also agree with what the others are saying about the ammunition, you are literally burning money, well, burning a large amount as a propellant to throw more money across a field...

 

Phil I am not sure exactly what Martin paid for his fine rifle in US currentcy. I have a 98 karabiner and a Fallschirmtruppe short rifle. My shorty is well over 1200.00 US for the condition it is in. Everything original. My 98K is in need of some refurbishing as the stock is a bit tweaked so I have to do some straightening of it and snding to get it back in proper order. It is forunate that the old bands and reference marks are still in good condition. It's worth now as is would probably be in the range of 500.00 US and an excellent 98K can go from this upwards of 1000.00 plus ! depending on the model and year of manufacture.

Stefan yes I have witnessed a logged in jam and backfire in a side firemarm and it is very scary. Also had a jam in an AR 15 in the auto fire load, and fortuneatly I dropped the weapon to the right to clear it out as it would of kicked back into my forehead or my eyes.
for those of you not in the know the AR 15 was the predecessor of the still used AR 16 (M-16)except the 16 has the automatic firing sequence as standard. As I was firing a test piece on a secretive site there were very few folks, all of three there would of been able to haul off the site and rush me to a hospital. Very eeeerrrrrrrie indeed.
Jams are no fun and not worth any risk but they do happen. For side arms please watch your fingers or POP ! one lost little one !.......uk

~E