8mm Mauser

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trso00873

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Hi I recently bought an 8mm Mauser and I'm trying to find out what model it is. I bought it from a friends grandfather and him and his father redid the stock and he got it reblued and it was completly redone. The only markings that are on it are "MK98K" on the top of the chamber. Any info would be of great help.
 
I'm trying to find out what model it is and the age of it I've tried looking stuff up on the internet but where everything has been redone it's hard to find stuff out.
 
nope the marking "MK98K" on top of the chamber is the only thing on the entire riflel. The action isn't even the original it's got a butterfly bolt on it now.
 
post a pic or two and some of us can help you. You can't go wrong with a mauser, but with the information you've posted, its a toss up as to what you really have.

GregM
 
correction. while I was in my tree stand yesterday and looking things over I noticed that it says H. Dorwal M.98x8 on top of the chamber and I also noticed that it says mark II on the back of the safety lever
 

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Given that the images look like they are at the bottom of a swimming pool, I would guess that you have a German sporterized military action.

The stock shape just looks german, along with the flattened bolt handle.

There were a lot of German gunsmiths cranking out rifles based on military actions between both wars. GI's brought them back.
 
Looks like a sporterized model 98.Its built off a military action since its has a thumb cut for charger loading.Other than that I cant tell you much else from the photos.
 
well I can barely make out the markings with my naked eye so how the hell am I supposed to take a picture. Way to be dicks about it and telling me what I already know.
 
Your camera will have a "macro" setting on it somewhere that allows real close-up pictures. It may be in the settings menu, or selectable for one of the controls, the icon for "macro" is usually a flower.
 
its definatly a military action because of the stripper clip guide, but thats not the original bolt handle, i doubt its the original safety too because it doesnt look like the normal mauser safetys and the finish is different
 
Looks like a sporterized model 98.Its built off a military action since its has a thumb cut for charger loading.
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Not necessarily, commercial actions produced between the two World Wars had the thumb cut and stripper guides, too. Strippers were the speed loaders of the days before replaceable mags.

The stock shape just looks german, along with the flattened bolt handle.
There were a lot of German gunsmiths cranking out rifles based on military actions between both wars. GI's brought them back.
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Exactly. Where there's a market, someone will meet the demand. German smiths cranked them out by the truckload for relatively unsophisticated buyers. But appearances can be misleading. It looks German (but may not necessarily be German), but is definitely a European sporter rifle in the classic Oberndorf style.

it's got a butterfly bolt on it now
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That's a butterknife bolt handle.

BTW, the safety lever is a Dayton-Traister Mark II safety lever, made in the USA, they cost about $20.
 
I know this is an older thread but I think it only vaguely pinpointed this rifles origin....after WWI, Germany was not allowed to manufacture any military weapons in any quantity and they had a large supply of unfinished rifles and rifle parts but they could manufacture sporting arms, because your receiver was never for its original purpose completed it was not marked like a military rifle would have been, and therefore it is unlikely that we will never know its original or its secondary origin, if you remove the action from the stock and look under the receiver you will likely find several proof marks some can probably be identified with not much effort [look in the back of a Blue Book for starters] these post WWI sporters were made w/ different sights and optics from sniper systems used on K98's, most of them had double set triggers, and for some reason they had a lot of extra machinegun barrels that they used but they all shared one thing [except the high end custom guns] that's the stock, that light, petite, thin, but very serviceable, blond stock with those raised panels on its sides, and that shallow checkering on its pistol grip, was made from leftover military stocks, and was common sight in the European hunting fields in the days after WWI, I know of several that are still used for hunting today
 
H.Dorwal

Hi i have a couple of these and they have Belgium proof marks all over them and from my research they are either made before WW1 or soon after and were mauser sporting rifels for export and were of good quaility and have the 3 leafe mid site and ramp site at the muzzel end .
One must be sure that it is a 318 or a 323 bore because it just says 8mm on the barrel ,
what i am trying to find out if the were made in Belgium or were they just Proof there and then were exported ??
More info on these would be of great interest !! Paul
 
There was a lot of hanky-panky going on with weapons in Europe after WWI, but I don't know of German guns shipped through Belgium, especially since the Belgians weren't feeling too friendly toward their eastern neighbors at the time. But the Belgians also had access to German ex-military rifles and may have used them.

Pull the bolt and check the inner collar on the receiver. If the extractor cut is on both sides (only needed on the right, of course), it is Belgian made.

Any German military rifle made after 1905 has the large (.323") groove diameter. (Not bore; both the .318" and .323" groove diameter barrels had a .311" bore diameter.)

Jim
 
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