Help identifying Israli Kar98

sovint

Inactive
Hey everyone.
I am hoping to get help identifying the history of my Israeli Mauser.
Its chambered in 8mm mauser
Its located in Australia.
There was sand underneath rear stock plate

Its got lots of distinct marks on it:

Serations/grooves/notches carved into bolt handle
http://s22.postimg.org/ikxucm7n5/serations.jpg

A large perhaps Hebrew letter carved in stock
http://s22.postimg.org/hwozto8xd/stock_carve.jpg


A white painted patch painted on the bolt recess in the stock
http://s22.postimg.org/bk9uju5v5/white_patch.jpg

There are a couple of jewish stars stamped on parts of it.
I have managed to identify the Barrel as 1944 manufacture made by manufacturer "BO" in 1944.
I am unsure of the receiver, it has been scrubbed, though the year remains (1942) and a faint b is visible.

I am assuming the stock is not german, as it does not have a stock disk in it. (please correct me if i am wrong)

The bolt has about 3 different serial numbers on it, and am not sure of its origin.

See pictures for more details.

Please let me know any details you know.

Thanks!
 
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Pictures don't work. The K98 forum demands viewers be logged in there.
Anyway, it's not unusual to find a war time vintage K98 with Israeli markings. They used anything they could get in 1948.
 
Manufacturing codes staring with "B" for 1942.

byf 42 Mauser Werke A.G. Oberndorf-am-Neckar

bcd 42 Gustloff Werke Weimar

bnz 42 Steyr-Daimler-Puch A.G.

bnz s 42 Steyr / Concentration Camp Mauthausen

bcd/ar 42 Gustloff Werke/Mauser Werke A.G. Berlin-Borsigwalde


BO ordnance code: Ing. Nikolaus Eltz, Wien

I can't see the photos, but it is likely a wartime K98 that was rebarreled in 1944.

Hope this helps.

Jimro
 
Probably, the Israelis had to scrounge whatever weapons they could. It could have been used in the First Arab–Israeli War, and possibly in fighting with Palestinians and maybe even the British before that.

Some background here.
http://www.cruffler.com/review-January-01.html

Most of them were converted to 7.62 NATO in the 1950s when the IDF transitioned to the FN-FAL
 
I believe Mausers were in the Israeli system for quite a while. I bought a surplus in the white 7x57 large ring mauser barrel about 10 years ago that had Israeli markings on it. Apparently they tooled up and repaired the Mausers they had.
 
I was not aware that Israel ever used the 7x57; that rifle must have been rebarrelled by someone else later.

Israel obtained hundreds of thousands of ex-Wehrmacht rifles, mostly from Czechoslovakia, after WWII. With a little help, they set up to manufacture 7.9 ammo. For some strange reason the stuff looked, except for caliber and the Hebrew headstamp, just like the .30 ammo made by Frankford Arsenal.

As time went on, the Israelis upgraded their service rifle to the FN-FAL and rebuilt the K.98's to 7.62 NATO before relegating them to reserve and emergency status. When the 1967 Six-Day War broke out, Israeli troops found that their brand new FAL's jammed up in the blowing sand of the desert. So the IDF quietly withdrew the FAL's from front line service and issued the old K.98's which didn't care about sand, dirt, snow or much of anything else. The FAL's were issued to reserve troops in Israel, and the press was told, with typical "Chutzpah", that Israel now had so many of the new rifles that they could issue them to the reserves.

Jim
 
It was a BARREL in the white(Not blued)with Israeli markings and completed with the 98 steps on the OD, large ring threads, and chambered in 7x57. Packed in cosmoline.
 
Israeli Mauser

As I recall there was an article be Finn Aaguard on this very rifle in American Rifleman back in the early 1990's.He had one but it had been re barreled for 308 win./7.62 x 51.I know I still have the magazine some place.But as was mentioned by others they got what they could and these were both plentiful and a very good rifle for the time.Double check the caliber of the barrel because I seem to remember that the IDF re barreled many even before NATO approved the 308win/7.62 x 51 round for its use or so the article says.When I find the mag I will post a follow up.
 
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