WW2 K98k Restoration

[Nehalem Man]

Another WW2 project gun that I drug home a few weeks ago.

This one was a sporterized 1943 K98k byf 43. When original, this rifle would have most likely had the laminated wood stocks that the Germans had begun using in the late 1930s, cupped steel butt plate, and been numbers matching on the stocks and large majority of the small parts. The stocks were of course long gone along with the barrel bands, sight hood, and cleaning rod. The stocks would have been numbers matched to the serial number of the rifle and had the Mauser, Oberndorf Eagle/Wa135 waffenamt on the buttstock.



Another issue that I discovered was that when it was repurposed as a sporting rifle, the gunsmith had re-milled the barrel profile to eliminate the steps in the barrel and give it a sporter type contour. Also, the lip on the forward part of the rear sight base that secures the upper handguard had been removed as well. The missing barrel steps were not a deal breaker. They would be concealed under the stocks, but the missing lip on the sight base had to be addressed.

 

[Nehalem Man]

The handguard retainer was initially an imposing repair. The retainer lip was a milled part of the rear sight base. The sight base itself is a circular and slides onto the barrel where it is then soldered in place. To remove the rear base from the barrel, necessitates also removing the front sight...also soldered in place. My worry was not in the removal of the modified sight base, but with getting the replacement base (and front sight) re-soldered back into the correct position.

Fortunately, I found that those crafty Germans had already solved that problem. Both the front and rear bases had set screws that secured them to the proper alignment on the barrel until they could be soldered in place. The entire operation took less than 20 minutes. At first the replacement base would not slide into position on the barrel. However, while a solution for that was being discussed, the residual heat in the barrel from removing the first base expanded the new base enough that it simply dropped into place. I had to slightly turn the base to align with the set screw hole, reinstalled the set screw, and applied a small amount of solder to secure it. Done.

Original rear base with missing lip.




New base with hand guard lip.



Ingenious set screw.



Everything installed with two German dirty birds showing.

 

[Nehalem Man]

Early on in this project I decided that this was going to be no more than a shooter grade rifle. The original stocks were long gone, the barrel modified, the rear sight base no longer original, and the barrel bands and other stock parts missing. Original Mauser Oberndorf stocks could be found, but they were very expensive when they popped up. Even if I were to get one, it still wouldn't be the original and I had no interest in building a fake.

Instead, I went the route of using mostly unmarked parts that were correct for a WW2 byf 43, but not numbered to any particular rifle. I have read articles from serious K98 collectors that refer to these as "armorer or arsenal parts". Apparently, replacement parts were unnumbered and were often found on repaired rifles. Also, late in the war, the Germans had become less enthusiastic about numbering every last small part so having an unnumbered barrel band or spring was not unusual.

 

[Nehalem Man]

The stocks turned out to be the single most expensive part of the project.....even more than what I had paid for the rifle.

The Germans made wide use of the laminate wood stocks and to my knowledge, were the only country to manufacture them for the K98k. So, if you see one, you know that it's a WW2 German stock, even if it is sitting on a Russian or Yugo captured rifle.

The stocks I found with a surplus supplier in Massachusetts (surprising). They had a four-digit number stamped horizontally on the butt stock which identified them as having come off a Yugoslavian captured rifle, but they were the red glue laminate wood and still had the original German numbers stamped inside the barrel channel. The cupped butt plate, which is correct for a byf 43, was disappointingly a reproduction, but everything else was original, in great condition, and well matched in color.

 

[Nehalem Man]

Once I had the stocks in hand, the only part remaining were the sight hood and cleaning rod. Here again, WW2 originals are extremely expensive. Expect to shell out $100 each for clean marked examples. A collector on another forum had mercy on me and sold me a sight hood with some moderate finish wear for $50 but no such luck on the cleaning rod. Instead, I bought a reproduction rod out of Poland.

After that, all that remained was assembly. I did steam and scrub out the Communist Yugo numbers stamped on the butt stock. They just didn't belong there.

 

[AGG]

Excellent work.

Tony