Surplus military Mausers, many in mint condition, have also entered the civilian market, to be purchased by collectors and gun owners. A considerable number of surplus Karabiner 98ks were available after World War II, and some were used by Schultz & Larsen in Denmark as the basis for target rifles. Some of these are still in competitive use, although with the benefit of new barrels.
Mauser K98 Serial Number Locationsl
Between 1867 and 1869, the Mauser brothers and Samuel Norris developed a single-shot bolt-action rifle. The caliber and number produced are not known. Ludwig Olson wrote that an example had at one time been on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.[12] The rifle was patented in Austria by Samuel Norris on 24 December 1867. The bolt head did not rotate, a feature chosen by Paul Mauser to "protect the heads of paper cartridges from friction and possible damage while locking the bolt, and to provide a non-rotary seat for the extractor when metallic cartridges were used."[12]
In 1898, the German Army purchased a Mauser design, the Model 98, which incorporated improvements introduced in earlier models. The weapon was originally chambered for the Patrone 88 and officially entered German service as the Gew. 98 on April 5, 1898. This remains by far the most successful of the Mauser designs, helped by the onset of two world wars that demanded vast numbers of rifles.
A number of carbine versions known as Karabiner 98s were introduced and used in World War I, some even shorter than the later K.98k. These carbines were originally only distributed to cavalry troops, but later in the war to the special storm troop units as well.
In 1940, the Mauser Company was invited to take part in a competition to re-equip the German Army with a semi-automatic rifle, the Gewehr 41. A number of impractical requirements were specified, including that the design should not use holes drilled into the barrel to take off gas for the operating mechanism, thereby requiring mechanisms that proved unreliable. Two designs were submitted, and the Mauser version, the G 41(M), failed miserably in testing. It was canceled after a short production run. The resulting design did not see real success before it was switched to a simpler gas-operated system in the Gewehr 43. During World War II, the Mauser factory in Oberndorf was strategically bombed by the Allies, resulting in the deaths of 26 workers and the destruction of the company's power plant. French forces entered Oberndorf (which they subsequently occupied for some time) on 20 April 1945 when the town's mayor and planning committee surrendered without any resistance; no blood was shed there on that day.
After the war in Europe, the factory was briefly put back in order to produce weapons for the now under-equipped and exhausted French military. The plant was dismantled by the occupying forces for the purpose of war reparations, most factory buildings (approximately 60% in total) were demolished and the records destroyed on orders of the local French Army commander. For a number of years, Mauser Werke manufactured precision measurement instruments and tools, such as micrometers. Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch, and Alex Seidel, former Mauser engineers, saved what they could and founded Heckler & Koch, which has since become Germany's main small-arms manufacturer. Mauser continued to make hunting and sporting rifles. In 1994, it became a subsidiary of Rheinmetall, a manufacturer of autocannons such as the Mauser BK-27 and other munitions until 2004, when it was merged into Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH. In 1999 the civilian manufacture of hunting, defense, and sporting rifles were split off from Rheinmetall.
The Karabiner 98k rifle was designed to be used with an S84/98 III bayonet.[13] The S84/98 III had a blade length of 252 mm (9.9 in) and an overall length of 385 mm (15.2 in) and was accompanied by a bayonet frog.[14] The Seitengewehr 42 or SG 42 was a shorter multi tool combat knife that could also be mounted as a bayonet on the Karabiner 98k rifle. The SG 42 was issued in small numbers.
Starting in late 1944, Karabiner 98k production began transition to the Kriegsmodell ("war model") variant. This version was simplified to increase the rate of production, removing the bayonet lug, cleaning rod, stock disc (which functions as a bolt disassembly tool), and other features deemed unnecessary.[18] Non-critical parts like the stock were finished to lower standards and metal parts like the nose cap, barrel band, floor plate and trigger guard (lacking the small locking screw provision) were simplified stamped parts and less elaborately mounted to the rifle. The M98 bolt was also simplified by no longer milling the two oval-shaped emergency gas relief holes in the bottom of the bolt. Instead, two emergency gas relief holes were drilled and the bolt guide was omitted from the bolt body. It had fewer serial numbered parts, a phosphate metal surface finish, and a hole at the bottom end of the butt plate that replaced the stock disk. At least two transitional variants existed, which incorporated only some Kriegsmodell features, and some factories never switched to Kriegsmodell production at all.[19]
Though most Karabiner 98k rifles went to the German armed forces, the weapon was sold abroad in the years prior to World War II. In Portugal, a large quantity of Karabiner 98k rifles made by Mauser Werke were adopted as the Espingarda 7,92 mm m/937 Mauser infantry rifle.[27] They were later used during the Portuguese Colonial War.[28] Other pre-war exports of Karabiner 98ks were to China (an unknown number of rifles 1935 - 38),[29] and 20,000 in 1937 to Japan.[30] Exports of Karabiner 98ks decreased as war drew closer, as all available production capacity was needed to equip the German Armed Forces.
During World War II, the Soviet Union captured millions of Mauser Karabiner 98k rifles and re-furbished them in various arms factories in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These rifles, referred to by collectors as RC ("Russian Capture") Mausers, can be identified by an "X" stamp on the left side of the receiver. The Soviet arsenals made no effort to match the rifle's original parts by serial number when reassembling them, and some metal parts (the cleaning rod, sight hood, and locking screws) were omitted after rebuilding, and instead were melted down and recycled, presumably with the other parts that weren't suitable for re-use.
In the years after World War II, several European nations on both sides of the Iron Curtain that were invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany used the Mauser Karabiner 98k rifle as their standard-issue infantry rifle, due to the large number of German weapons that were left behind by the Germans at the end of World War II.
Norway's captured Karabiner 98k rifles were soon superseded as a standard issue weapon by the US M1 Garand, but remained in service as Norwegian Home Guard weapons until the 1990s, in which role they were rebarreled for the .30-06 Springfield round used by the M1, with a small cutout in the receiver so that the slightly longer US round could still be loaded with stripper clips. These Norwegian conversions had a section of the receiver flattened on the upper left side, where a new serial number (with a prefix denoting the branch of service) was stamped. Some of these rifles conversions were rechambered again to 7.6251mm NATO,[37] but this program was canceled with only a few thousand converted when Norway adopted the AG-3 (H&K G3) as a replacement for both the M1 and the K98k. Some actions from Mauser Karabiner 98k left by German armed forces in 1945 were used by Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (currently Kongsberg Small Arms) for building both military and civilian sniper/target rifles under the Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk Skarpskyttergevær M59 - Mauser M59 and Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk Skarpskyttergevær M67 - Mauser M67 designations. These rifles were used by the Norwegian armed forces up to the 2000s. Karabiner 98k rifles rechambered to .30-06 Springfield are still used by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault security guards mainly as a last resort against polar bear attack.[41]
During the Greek Civil War, the Greek pro-communist factions were equipped with large numbers of Kar 98k rifles, captured from the Germans or supplied by Yugoslavia.[43] Later, during the Cyprus Emergency, the Cypriot EOKA smuggled several dozens of these rifles from Greece.[44]
East German refurbished Karabiner 98ks featured Russian-style thicker blue finish, a 'sunburst' proof mark and sometimes had the factory designation '1001' applied, which was the factory where the refurbishment was carried out. Numbers were re-stamped to match the receiver and old numbers barred out. Numbers of East German and Czech refurbished Karabiner 98ks were exported to the West in the late 1980s and early 1990s and are now in the hands of collectors. Russian Capture Karabiner 98ks were exported to the West in large numbers in the early and mid-2000s.
As with post-Nazi occupation service post-war production of derivatives was a stop-gap solution until enough numbers of more modern automatic rifles could be developed and produced. The vast majority of the 98k pattern rifles were soon stored as reserve weapons or given for very low prices to various fledgling states or rebel movements throughout the developing world. For instance, between 1950 and 1952, a hybrid of Kar 98k and Vz 24 was produced by Zbrojovka Brno for Bolivia, as Fusil Modelo Boliviano Serie B-50.[50]
A number of non-European nations used the Mauser Karabiner 98k rifle as well as a few guerrilla organizations in conflicts to establish new nation-states. Israel issued Mauser Karabiner 98k rifles from the late 1940s until the 1970s, which are today sought after by collectors. Many were acquired under Operation Balak.[56]
As the Arab-Israeli conflict approached and the British Mandate set to expire, the Haganah and other Jewish forces in The British Mandate of Palestine tried to get hold of as many weapons as they could in the face of an arms embargo by British colonial authorities. One of the most important purchases was a secret January 14, 1948, $12,280,000 worth contract with Czechoslovak Government including 4,500 P-18 rifles, as well as 50,400,000 rounds of ammunition. Later, the newly established Israel Defense Forces ordered more Mauser Karabiner 98k rifles, produced this time by Fabrique Nationale.[49] These have Israeli and Belgian markings on the rifle as well as the emblem of the IDF on the top of the rifle's receiver. The FN-made Karabiner 98k rifles with the IDF markings and emblem on the rifle were produced and sold to Israel after it established itself as an independent nation in 1948. At some point, Israel converted all other Mauser 98-pattern rifles in their inventory (most commonly Czechoslovak vz. 24 rifles, but small numbers of contract Mausers from sources ranging from Ethiopia to Mexico were also known to have come into Israeli hands) to the now standardized Karabiner 98k configuration. The original receiver markings of these conversions were not altered, making it easy for collectors to identify their origin. The Israeli Karabiner 98k utilized the same bayonet design as in German service, with a barrel ring added.[citation needed] Swedish Gevär m/40 rifles were converted to the 7.9257mm Mauser round.[57] The Israeli bayonets were a mix of converted German production and domestically produced examples.
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