K 98 rifle

[JohnBC]

IA friend of mine has a ww2 98 k rifle. Manufacture code is dot 1943. The rifle is chrome plated and it looks like it was done at the factory in 1943. It is in beuatiful condition and the markings are not wore down from prepping to plate. Does anyone know if there was an Honor guard unit or other that had chrome plated rifles during the war. I have searched everywhere I can think of to find any info on this but can't find anything

 

[James K]

I think I can state pretty definitely that that rifle was NOT plated with chrome or anything else at the factory and was NOT used by some elite Hitler bodyguard. The "dot" code was the Brunn (Brno) factory in Czechoslovakia.

(FWIW, pictures of Hitler's SS guard show them with standard K.98k rifles, unplated.)

The bluing on those guns was quite thin, and it would be quite possible for a good workman to remove it and plate a rifle without rounding corners or blurring the markings. Plating can be removed electrically, without buffing, if you decide the rifle is a candidate for restoral.

It was common for returning vets to have souvenir guns plated to "enhance" them, not realizing that the plating would completely destroy any serious collector value in the future. Lugers (selling for $10) were often a victim of that treatment; P.38's (at $5) were so cheap that no one bothered, which is why more plated Lugers turn up than P.38's.

Jim