Auction find GEW 98 Mauser - Father's Day gift to myself

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  • rob63

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    Short backstory: in the past couple of years I sold off a fair amount of my mil-surp rifle collection to help pay for my dream trip to Europe. One of the rifles I ended up regretting selling was my German Gew 98 Mauser from the First World War.

    A couple of days ago I got an email from an auction house I had purchased from previously with a pdf of the flyer for their next auction. I glanced at it and the phrase "Waffenfabrik Mauser Oberndorf 1914" caught my eye. Even though the auction was nearly a 3 hour drive for me, I decided to take a chance since it was being held on a weekday in a small town so I figured there was a chance it could sell for a reasonable price. There was the added bonus that I would pass through South Bend and I have long wanted to go to the Studebaker museum anyway.

    It turned out that there was only one other guy bidding against me, so I won it! It won't ever be confused with an excellent condition example, but I only paid $240 out the door. The bright side is it should clean up* fairly nice, and nearly all of the numbers are matching. The magazine assembly is the only thing that doesn't match, and it appears that it has been with the rifle for a very long time. The bore will take a lot of work, there is rifling visible, but it as dark as can be.

    I love the rear sight on these rifles and the overall history of them. Although I own several Mausers, this is the first one I have ever had that was actually made at Oberndorf. The fact that it was made during the first year of the war is a plus to me.

    *Note: before I get a lot of grief for saying it will clean up nice. I have been a collector for a long time, just trust me when I say that I know what I am doing. Think in terms of what it means to clean your house, not renovate it. Even saying that, I know people that will leave everything as is, the paint splatters and dirt are evidence that it has been like that for a long time. I may do that.

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    indy1919a4

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    That really is a beauty. it has a lot of heart under the dirt so to speak... Heck I gots to know, is the firing pin matching number also...

    The rear sights are to die for... Love those Lange sights, it would be neat to find out how much those cost to make back in the day???....

    Really a nice rife
     

    srad

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    Good find Rob!! Was that the auction over in Mongo near Howe? If so, do you happen to know what the old Marlin 336 .30-30 went for? I was going to head over from South Bend after work but didn't get off till later than expected.
     

    rob63

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    Thanks to all for the kind words!

    That really is a beauty. it has a lot of heart under the dirt so to speak... Heck I gots to know, is the firing pin matching number also...

    The rear sights are to die for... Love those Lange sights, it would be neat to find out how much those cost to make back in the day???....

    Really a nice rife

    I haven't taken it apart yet, so don't know about the firing pin number. All of the external numbers on the bolt match. I'll post an update once I know.

    Sweet find, dude. Wonder if she's a shooter? (After cleaning that bore, of course, and not expecting any accuracy. ..)

    It's gonna take a while to find out, but given the bolt, receiver, and barrel are all matching I'm hopeful. The stock has some gouges, but I don't see any cracks that would make me think there is any danger of damaging it by shooting.

    Good find Rob!! Was that the auction over in Mongo near Howe? If so, do you happen to know what the old Marlin 336 .30-30 went for? I was going to head over from South Bend after work but didn't get off till later than expected.

    No, this was near Edwardsburg, MI.
     

    LarryC

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    This rifle may turn out to be pretty accurate! Three or four years ago I picked up a Turkish Mauser at a pawn shop in Lafayette in similar condition. As I recall I paid $100 for the firearm. I also collect firearms and have for many years. The bore on my rifle looked pretty bad, while the rifling was visible, it looked pretty black and somewhat pitted. I certainly didn't expect very good accuracy. After I cleaned and inspected the gun I took it to a friend house in the country, We only had about a 50 yard area to shoot in, but I put 3 shots in the bulls eye about a 1/2 ~3/4" spread. My son then took the gun and shot 3 rounds, as did my friend. NONE of the rounds were outside the 10 ring! These were all shot off a bench with no support, and anyone familiar with the old sights on these rifle should be astounded at this accuracy. I have fairly expensive Winchester's and Remington's with excellent iron sights that don't shoot this well! Like many other collectors, I do not "restore" my old rifles. I just clean and oil the metal and remove the dirt on the stock with a fresh coat of Linseed oil. The Turkish Mauser's are somewhat unique in that the rifle has the large ring, but is threaded for the small ring barrels. This was due to the fact they had a supply of small ring barrels when they obtained the large ring actions. After the supply of barrels were used they just continued to use the same design.
     

    indiucky

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    *Note: before I get a lot of grief for saying it will clean up nice. I have been a collector for a long time, just trust me when I say that I know what I am doing. Think in terms of what it means to clean your house, not renovate it. Even saying that, I know people that will leave everything as is, the paint splatters and dirt are evidence that it has been like that for a long time. I may do that.

    Never doubted rob...Never....And when I saw that rear sight I am not going to lie...This song popped in my head...You gotta love the roller coaster...:)

    [video=youtube;aBkVV9xxCHE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkVV9xxCHE[/video]
     

    rob63

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    This rifle may turn out to be pretty accurate! Three or four years ago I picked up a Turkish Mauser at a pawn shop in Lafayette in similar condition. As I recall I paid $100 for the firearm. I also collect firearms and have for many years. The bore on my rifle looked pretty bad, while the rifling was visible, it looked pretty black and somewhat pitted. I certainly didn't expect very good accuracy. After I cleaned and inspected the gun I took it to a friend house in the country, We only had about a 50 yard area to shoot in, but I put 3 shots in the bulls eye about a 1/2 ~3/4" spread. My son then took the gun and shot 3 rounds, as did my friend. NONE of the rounds were outside the 10 ring! These were all shot off a bench with no support, and anyone familiar with the old sights on these rifle should be astounded at this accuracy. I have fairly expensive Winchester's and Remington's with excellent iron sights that don't shoot this well! Like many other collectors, I do not "restore" my old rifles. I just clean and oil the metal and remove the dirt on the stock with a fresh coat of Linseed oil. The Turkish Mauser's are somewhat unique in that the rifle has the large ring, but is threaded for the small ring barrels. This was due to the fact they had a supply of small ring barrels when they obtained the large ring actions. After the supply of barrels were used they just continued to use the same design.

    That is great. I knew that they used small ring barrels, but never knew the story behind it.
     

    rob63

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    Never doubted rob...Never....And when I saw that rear sight I am not going to lie...This song popped in my head...You gotta love the roller coaster...:)

    [video=youtube;aBkVV9xxCHE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkVV9xxCHE[/video]

    Thanks! I really need to stop by your shop sometime. I know others have described it as a cross between a gun shop and a museum, but I also imagine music blaring and an operating disco ball.
     

    rob63

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    Update; I have gotten it all apart and have been very pleased with what I am finding.

    First, the firing pin number matches.

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    If anyone out there is unfamiliar with these rifles and is wondering why it shows no sign of bluing, these rifles had the barrels and small parts blued, but the receiver and bolt were left in the "white."

    I was worried about what I would find once it was apart, sometimes old rifles can be a rust pit under the wood line. This one is very nice, with the original bluing mostly intact under the wood line and just one small area of light pitting. Also, there doesn't seem to be much rust anywhere. Almost all of what looked like rust is dried grease. The metal is going to be mostly brown where it wasn't protected by wood though, but I wasn't expecting any different.

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    Finally, I ran a bore brush down the barrel a few times. It kicked up a lot of crud and there is still a long way to go, but it is also now reflecting some light. I did a "muzzle test" with a cartridge and it leaves the cartridge neck sticking out nearly a 1/4", so that is excellent news.
     
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    For being a 103 year old war horse it is in pretty good shape. I had a Czech 98/22 that had the roller coaster sights as well. The bore on it was worse than how the seller had described it, I will not being buying from them on gunbroker anymore. It was a fun gun to shoot regardless, I plan on replacing it one day with a Gew 98 made by Spandau. Look at a cleaner called Sweet 7.62, it should help clean up your barrel as well as krill oil
     

    indy1919a4

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    Update; I have gotten it all apart and have been very pleased with what I am finding.


    I was worried about what I would find once it was apart, sometimes old rifles can be a rust pit under the wood line. This one is very nice, with the original bluing mostly intact under the wood line and just one small area of light pitting. Also, there doesn't seem to be much rust anywhere. Almost all of what looked like rust is dried grease. The metal is going to be mostly brown where it wasn't protected by wood though, but I wasn't expecting any different.

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    TEIbNhY.jpg


    Finally, I ran a bore brush down the barrel a few times. It kicked up a lot of crud and there is still a long way to go, but it is also now reflecting some light. I did a "muzzle test" with a cartridge and it leaves the cartridge neck sticking out nearly a 1/4", so that is excellent news.


    You know that is fantastic about the pitting or lack there of... when you see the rifle you can see previous owners did not care for it that much and they could been pitted as hell..

    OK you know have talked about it enough, you are driving me nuts, any way of getting a bore shot of this thing...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETN9eNOA6vw
     

    rob63

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    You know that is fantastic about the pitting or lack there of... when you see the rifle you can see previous owners did not care for it that much and they could been pitted as hell..

    OK you know have talked about it enough, you are driving me nuts, any way of getting a bore shot of this thing...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETN9eNOA6vw

    LOL, I will do my best to give a full report and include photos once I am done cleaning it. The best part of INGO is finding people that are just as exited by these things as I am.

    FWIW, here is a shot of the bore I took before I started. (I'm also going to try again to add the firing pin photo. I don't know what is going on there, it shows up when I try to edit the original post, but disappears once it is posted.)

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    indy1919a4

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    Oh heck, that barrel is not that bad, you can still see rifling. You want to see scary, you should see some of the bores Doggydaddy gets.. He showed me one, I thought it was a 22, turned out to be an 8mm... Its enough to turn your hair white.....
     

    DoggyDaddy

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    Oh heck, that barrel is not that bad, you can still see rifling. You want to see scary, you should see some of the bores Doggydaddy gets.. He showed me one, I thought it was a 22, turned out to be an 8mm... Its enough to turn your hair white.....

    Pfft... the only rifle I have with a "sewer pipe" bore is the old Arisaka type 38 that I got from a buddy of mine. Fortunately I got another one from halfmileharry's friend that has an excellent bore.
     

    rob63

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    I thought I would add an update on how the cleaning is going. I'm not quite done, so it isn't back together again yet. I ended up deciding to remove the paint stains, so that has been fairly time consuming. The stock is close to being done.

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    rob63

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    I am finished cleaning the metal except for the bore. This was pretty easy. There were just a few spots of light rust here and there, but otherwise it was just dirt and dried grease. The brown that remains is just staining/patina.

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