Yesterday's Weapons Forums

This rifle belongs to the husband of a woman I work with. when he heard I collect military rifles, he asked me if I was interested in it.


Check out that fancy stock!


The barrel is very short - 16 1/2", but the numbers match.


It has this peep sight instead of a military-style ladder sight. There's a dovetailed notch at the front of the receiver where a different sight might
have been.


The logo on the butt plate looks original.


It's stamped as a Gewr 98


It has the German eagle and "9460" with what looks like "4" underneath. The numbers on the receiver, barrel and magazine floor plate all match.


The top of the receiver says "SPANDAU 1915". You can also see the slot for what may have been a different rear sight.


On the right side of the receiver are 3 Chinese or Japanese characters.

The full-size photos are located

Overall, the rifle is very short - about the size of my 10/22. The receiver looks very good, but the barrel is pretty smooth.

Any help out there?

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Rome fell because it had a Senate-what will become of us with both a Senate and a House-Will Rogers

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Rome fell because it had a Senate-what will become of us with both a Senate and a House-Will Rogers

Kar98, thanks for the tip on the Fraktur script. As I compare them now, it looks like the two characters on the right are a G with a crown or something above it. Can't decipher the character on the left, however. If you click on the link to Flickr, you can get to the original-sized pics I posted there and zoom in for much better detail.

So, if it's a cut-down Gew 98, how do you explain the barrel? Notice the two steps in the barrel profile, plus the original-looking front sight? Also, the numbers all match.

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Rome fell because it had a Senate-what will become of us with both a Senate and a House-Will Rogers

Any professional 'sporter' would have had the receiver scrubbed I'm sure. This was done by an owner or by a gunsmith at the behest of the owner. Although the chequering job leaves something to be desired. I do like the peep but seeing that Gew 98 all cut up makes me want to cry.

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It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete