FN K98 advice please

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RedKiite

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So i am looking at picking up an FN made mauser k98 made for the colombian army i beleive, its post ww2 ofc, has no thimble (stock disc for bolt dissasembly). Originally was .30 but converted to .308, anyone have any experience with these rifles? Are they just as good as the german made stuff?
 
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FN sold a couple different Mauser pattern rifles to Columbia. A couple pre WW2, models 24 and 30 in 7X57, and the postwar Model 50 in .30-06. All were were similar to a VZ24, with a full handguard and straight bolt.

It was certainly an excellent rifle when Columbia got it. However.....

I don't think Columbia ever converted them to .308, so how good it is depends on who did the conversion.

A lot of the South American contract rifles led hard lives in the humid/jungle environments, inspect carefully, especially at (or preferably below) the wood line.
 
Hi emcon5, thanks for the info! I know the fn model 24, 30 and 50 all have the extra peice of wood handguard behind the rear sight, the fn k98 im looking at is identical in every way (i think) to the ww2 german made k98k. I cant find a name for this model. I was guessing that fn may have produced these k98's during the war and still had the machinery left over so instead of making new rifles they would just carry on making the k98k. Perhaps the conversion to .308 was done by israel?
 
FN did make rifles for Israel in the early 50s, and they were .7.62 NATO from the start (actually a neat trick, since they predate the NATO adoption of the cartridge***). The IDF FN K98s have the IDF crest on the receiver ring.

I have never heard of an IDF converted south American Mauser, but anything is possible, Israel used any rifle they could get their hands on.

IDF 7.62 conversions are usually easy to identify, with a large 7.62 stamped on the receiver ring, a IDF proof mark (6 pointed star with a Hebrew letter inside)and 7.62 burned into the heel of the stock. The barrel usually has the date of manufacture, as well as a Hebrew markings.

There is a lot of info on the IDF Mausers here: https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/german-98k-rifle-in-israeli-service/

I have an IDF converted WW1 Gew98 that is an excellent rifle.

The Israeli Mausers came here in two batches, the first batch were imported by Armscorp, and came direct from Israel, and are generally in much better condition. Later imports by Century came from Guatemala, and spending time in the jungle clearly did them no favors.


***On edit: This may not be the case. Ball's book does not mention the caliber of the IDF FN contract rifles, but if they were originally made in 7.62 they should have Belgian proof marks on the barrel, so far this has not been the case, they all seem to have IDF markings, so they were most likely rebarreled by Israel in the late 50s,
 
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FN Mausers were never K98s, that title is limited to the German army's Mauser 98 short rifles. FN sold commercially to other countries' armies. From the turn of the 20th Century up to the 1950s, a Mauser 98 was "the rifle" to have. If you study military rifles, you will see that a lot of countries were armed with Mausers of various vintages, made by DWM, FN, CZ, Zastava, etc.

As for your FN rifle, if it is marked "30" on the receiver, it is most likely an FN 24/30 converted to 30-06 in the 1950s, then rebarreled to 308 at a later time. Columbia bought many different rifles from many different suppliers, but FN only supplied the Columbian army with model 24/30 short rifles in the 1930s.
 
After all that's been said, I'll suggest you have the rifle checked over or at least do a chamber cast and an initial "remote firing" for safety.

I once bought a "sporterized" 1909 Argentine Mauser in (supposedly) 30/06. I found the action under the woodline severely pitted(had to fill the pits with JB Weld and file smooth) and the "30/06 conversion" consisted of running an 06 reamer into the original 7.65x53 chamber(w/o a proper sized pilot no less) leaving a misaligned chamber in an oversized bore(.311). Needless to say, it didn't shoot well. Not unsafe, just poorly done. I was able to save the action and stock.
 
Agreed mobuck, i checked out the model 24/30 and 50 and they all look different. This rifle has the colombian crest on it but also has fabrique nationale written on the side of the receiver. Heres some pics that might help to identify this. Sorry these pics arnt great and perhaps dont show alot.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24l4E0DJ5g7YldUMnliVW1kOFU/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24l4E0DJ5g7X0JkS3dyejY4MUE/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24l4E0DJ5g7T09BVkM4Z21feUU/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B24l4E0DJ5g7RlRISWpzbU9FSmM/view?usp=drivesdk
 
The action has the right markings and crest for the FN 1950 Short rifle, and it has the relief notch in the receiver ring for .30-06 (little longer than 7mm & 8mm mauser the action was originally designed around) but (according to Ball's book) that would have had a straight bolt and a full handguard stock.

There are no rifles that look like that in the Columbia section of Ball's book

The stock is the same type seen on IDF K98s, with the Kriegsmodell type cupped buttplate with takedown hole, and the short rear band spring. Those also came from FN, so who knows.

Be interesting to see if there are any markings on the barrel.

Do the numbers match on the bolt and action? Are the other metal pats numbered, and if so, do they match?
 
You may be looking at the Mauser equivalent of the Cadillac in Johnny Cash's song. What kind of information does the current owner offer?
 
Forgot to mention that i have already shot it a few times and its damn accurate, so atleast i dont think it was just sloppily thrown together. Would love to know what it is though :)
 
Well if it's a good shooter and you don't care that it's not a museum piece, then it just comes down to the price.
 
I don't believe there's any such thing as a bad Mauser 98. Any modified gun might be suspect on the quality of the modifications but if you have handled and shot the rifle and like it then I see no need for worry.

I have a Colombian Mauser stamped .30 so I guess it's a pre-war model rebuilt after the war. I got it with a destroyed stock (no idea where this thing was stored but it must have been underwater as the wood was rotten to nothing ad there was rust on the metal).

The wood went in the trash and was replaced with a laminated stock I got for $35 and inletted myself. The metal cleaned up nicely and was refinsihed. I added a few touches like express folding leaf sights and made a fun shooter out of it. Probably couldn't get $200 for it if I tried to sell it but that's OK. I made it for me anyway.

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Not trying to jack this thread, but I recently bought a Chinese Mauser that was rebarreled with an 03, 2 groove barrel.. Imagine what I was thinkin when the bore started to clean up and I saw only two rifling, hahahahaah, I thought I took one in the shorts.
Turns out it has an old Redfield Peep sight system, and a nice Remington like front sight ramp and bead on it.
I shot this rifle from 100 yds and hit the 4" bullseye 3 for 4 times off a bench.......pretty cool for an old Chinese....
 
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