nofiveo Posted December 10, 2007 Report Share Posted December 10, 2007 in a previous post i asked about a 98 that had gone through a fire. i've decided to make a wall hanger out of the poor thing and in the process of cleaning the rust and soot off of it on the wire wheel, i've come across some markings on the barrel and reciever. i've been searching the archives on this site and checking every link i can to try and decipher what these codes mean. on the reciever there are what appears to be 2 letters in some kind of script that i'm guessing is old german. these symbols are also present on the barrel though the serials are different. the nazi proof marks are present and have not been peened.on top of the reciever is the number "43" i'm guessing that was the year of manufacture. from what i've learned from this site, it appears to be a russian capture due to the "x" on the reciever. also almost none of the serial numbers match. i have no intentions of this being anything but a show piece but it would still be neat to know some of the history behind it. i know these clues are vague and i'm going to try to post some pics as soon as i figure it out. thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bilurey Posted February 20, 2008 Report Share Posted February 20, 2008 I believe you're correct about the receiver ring markings as being not only from a Russian "capture" rifle, but, also likely a rifle of German manufacture in 1943. The script letters can be deciphered (and later identified) with some concentration on our alplabet style, letter by letter, as you examine the reveiver characters, or more easily from the barrel ititials. Barrels and receivers were sometimes manufactured in differest factories, particularly after allied bombing raids began to reach into Germany itself, and, work was also out-sourced to increase production by using of smaller facilities to produce individual parts. If this rifle went thru a fire, it's wall hanger material only and should be indelably marked or stamped as I have seen customers bring obviously fire heated barreled actions into gun stores and simply lie when asked about exposure to fire. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimro Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 There were two k98 factories that had a two letter code, JP Sauer's code was "ce" and the Mauser, Borsigwalde code was "ar". Hope this helps. Jimro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzRednek Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 Just a shot in the dark if you really want to know. Years back a friend of mine checked a book out of the public library with pretty good drawings, pictures and charts of German markings and war codes. Sorry but it has been to many years to recall the book's title or author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bilurey Posted February 25, 2008 Report Share Posted February 25, 2008 Hitler came to power in 1933 and ordered full industrial military production. Mauser began by producing a 24in. barrel, 8mm rifle for the German Postal Service due to numerous train robberys. Mauser also refined their famous "Standard Modell" which they sold in large numbers thru 1938 to China, Spain, Ethopia, numerous small contracts all over the globe. Coding began in 1933 and the latest listing of these manufacturing codes is about 20 single spaced pages long, a second list shows all known assignments of Waffenamt codes. Mausers were manufactured in several countries including numerous firms in Germany. All of these plants had at least one code. Mauser had at least 4 codes assigned to Mauser 98 variations. You may find this list using Google, good luck! An interesting insight, Hitler surrounded himself with some extremely capable people. The charismatic leader of the Hitler Jugand (youth corp) and Himmler's SS both developed as serious threats to Hitler's leadership, posing a real threat of military takeover. Hitler has his Jugand leader shot, but, Himmler had gained such power as the head of what became an independent national police force with enormous info of every major Nazi official that he couldn't be removed. So Hitler arranged to have the official German Army purchase the entire Mauser production, outside export orders. This left Himmler with no way to arm the SS with modern arms, and later Hitler annexed the SS into the German Army. Lots of interesting in-fighting among the Nazi leadership. I have owned 98 Oberndorf Mausers with codes: 42. S42. S42H. S42G. and byf. Mauser owned off site plants, such as Borsigwald (Berlin), code AR. The codes are an interesting part of Mauser history. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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