Hi all. Is anyone here any good with identifying waffen stamps? This is the rifle that I am going to be buying next year but I am having a struggle with some of the marks. Mauser Karabiner 98 Kurz Nr 7852, matching stock and barrel numbers. [SIZE=12pt]There are the letters BNF surmounted by a crown along with the serial number 7852 and Mod 98 on the left side of the receiver block. The top of the receiver block appears to have been filed down slightly. Someone suggested to me that this might have been the result of the rifle having been captured by the Red Army. On top of the block is a 'c' and what could be an 'e' with the number 43 below. In front of the block is the number 62692. There are also numbers on the safety.[/SIZE] Any help gratefully received. [SIZE=12pt] [/SIZE]
Difficult to tell - it's a nice gun, but it's 'been around the track a few times' by the look of it. The crown marking is in fact 'BNP' which is a post-1954 British Nitro Proof mark - so it's been sold as a surplus shooter in the UK. It looks as though the rifle has been 'de-Nazified' with Waffenamts erased and also the manufacturer's markings. It may have been reassembled from various parts. However, the Gothic script 'Mod. 98' is distinctive and denotes a receiver made by either J.P. Sauer & Sohn or ERMA ( the only makers to use this style ). Sauer codes are '147' and 'ce', ERMA are 'S/27', '27' and 'aux' some of which should be visiible elsewhere on the gun.
As Martin said, BNP is the British Nitro Proof which means it went through the UK at some point. The code on the top of the reciever is "ce" which stands for JP Sauer und Sohn. I'd say that this is a definite Russian-captured rifle. The serial number being stamped in the stock, plum-colored bolt rail and the parts being electro-penciled to match are all clean signs of this. However, this is cleaner than the average "RC" rifle -- the stocks are usually quite thickly covered with shellac and the "rebluing" usually looks like crap. This is a nice one. I have a 1939 JP Sauer Russian-captured K98k myself and its a blast to shoot. If you're comfortable stripping it down it is interesting to see how many different factories made the components. During the refurb process the Russians typically mixed-and-matched everything -- allegedly completely taking the rifles down, tossing the parts into bins (all buttplates in one, all upper handguards in another, etc), "refurbed" them and then re-assembled the guns using whatever was at the top of the pile using an electro-pencil to "force match" everything. In your case, this has resulted in an early-war stock (without a cupped buttplate) on a mid-war rifle. As a result, most parts are not matching or even "correct". There's nothing wrong with this -- its part of the rifle's history now. I think my rifle has parts from 4 different factories on it. Here's a decent read on the Sauer K98ks: http://www.ycgg.org/pdfpages/ww2/Sauer.pdf
This one is a really nice rifle. The history makes it that much more interesting to me. She fires well and the bolt action is sweet as a nut.
Your rifle is a J.P.Sauer made in 1943. yes the receiver markings have been partly "sanded" off. Sarge
Hello there, I am planning to buy a 98K, probably "made" in Czechoslovakia in 1950 and sold / given to the East German Republic (tgf 1950). As I have read on internet. My qestion is: what is the signification of all the stamps on the barrel / receiver? See picture. Thanks and best regards.