Preduzece 44 k98 information.

W

WWIII

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Hello everybody i have just a couple quick questions to ask. I am just wondering if anybody could give some information on my yugo k98. I have some questions about the serial number on it. It looks pretty beat up and even has trench art on the stock close to the serial number.

HERE ARE SOME PICTURES:

http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/Jacobrenshaw97/media/Mobile Uploads/image_zpsqvl4d8rl.jpg.html

http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/Jacobrenshaw97/media/Mobile Uploads/image_zpsp96d8aaw.jpg.html

http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/Jacobrenshaw97/media/Mobile Uploads/image_zps1ndqvwt4.jpg.html

http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/Jacobrenshaw97/media/Mobile Uploads/image_zpsxoisjiq7.jpg.html

The stock number is cross ways on the stock, the number is "8242" and the reciever is "T8242".

Here are the numbers on the gun.
Stock: 8242
Reciever: T8242
Bolt knob: 992
Bolt handle: T8304
Buttplate: 3182/2432 (it has 2432 over the first set)
Barrel band: 9857

There are 5 waffen stamps i have found so far on it that are out in the open. Thank you.
 
It appears to be a German K.98k, rebuilt at Factory 44 (Zastava) using parts from more than one rifle.

The original receiver ring marking has probably been removed but "Mod 98" should still be on the left side of the receiver.

Jim
 
Thank you for the info, it does have Mod 98 on the side. The receiver ring is completly smoothed over so there us bo way to see the original date.
 
If any were needed, the "Mod 98" clearly indicates the gun started out as a German K.98k. The Waffen Amt inspector's numbers on the receiver (if still there) could show the maker, but it is not very important now, since the rifle no longer has any real collector value.

Jim
 
The yugo m48 graffiti guns I remember seeing had clearly marked names, dates, 90210 stickers etc. I know it doesn't answer your question but it also doesn't jump out at me like the guns I remember seeing. I have a yugo messkit with 90210 stickers on it in fact.
 
That is not an M48, it is a K.98k. They are not the same; the M48 has an intermediate length receiver.

Jim
 
The multiple numbers on various parts are only "assembly numbers". These numbers were applied to various parts of a rifle, as they were fitted (remember, Mausers, including your K98k, required lots of hand fitting of parts)...before finishing and final assembly. After initial assembly and fitting, the rifles were disassembled so that the parts could receive their finishes, in individual batches (a batch of receivers, a batch of barrels, etc. etc.). The assembly numbers allowed the correct individual parts for each rifle to be tracked and gathered, for final assembly.

Your rifle, with multiple differing assembly numbers, is obviously a "parts gun"....put together from multiple workable parts, scrounged from many rifles. As a Yugo-capture K98k, it never would have been front-line issue, but only "war reserve", for issue to second line troops as necessary (if the supply of Yugo-built rifles was insufficient for their needs).

The inscription "Preduzece 44" simply refers to the facility "Enterprise 44" (factory 44, as previously stated)...which happened to be what is now the Zastava works, in Kragujevac, Serbia.

The actual serial number of the rifle in question will be found on the right side of the receiver. Most of the Yugo-captured rifles were scrubbed of German markings and re-stamped...but, the serial numbers were not always changed. So, the number may be original or a new, re-stamped number.

The serial number system used by the Yugoslavs was chaotic at best, so it is nearly impossible to glean any specific information as to when a particular rifle was manufactured, re-furbished, etc. Also, most of the old factory records of the Zastava works (formerly, Preduzece 44) were destroyed in a fire caused by NATO bombing of strategic Serbian targets, during the Kosovo crisis. Kragujevac was hit, including the building at the works that happened to house the archives.
 
I purchased a rifle that was advertised as a M48 and packed in a box with the same label. The left side of the receiver was stamped 'Mod. 98'. I purchased the box with all the parts for the cleaning kit complete with string, bayonet and leather ammo pack.

Russia was not the first country that had to clean up after the Germans, they left a lot of stuff when leaving. I was told I should suspect my rifle was left and rebuilt/restamped. I had no complaint, I did not have an abandoned 98.

F. Guffey
 
"The multiple numbers on various parts are only "assembly numbers". The actual serial number of the rifle in question will be found on the right side of the receiver."

That is not quite true. When the K.98k was made, those numbers did serve as assembly numbers, but they were either the serial number or part of the serial number (last two digits, in many cases). In any case, they did match the serial number. The full serial number, with suffix letter (if any) was on the LEFT side of the receiver ring.

When the Yugoslavs rebuilt those rifles, they cannibalized parts from other rifles, without regard to numbers, so mixed numbers are common.

Small point. The requirement for numbering and inspection markings was a carry-over from the days when parts really did have to be fitted. By WWII, German machinery was the best in the world and that practice was totally unnecessary. But in Germany at that time, a military regulation was set in stone and so thousands of workers, who might have been better used, spent WWII stamping and numbering parts.

Jim
 
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