So I've got this old gun... (Mauser Mod98k BYF41 all matching)

[dave]

Gentleman.

I pointed SempreFortis here, so he could get *excellent* information. But I did find something out, Doing a Mauser Markins info search I found a info page that pointed out that German armorers were issued lots of repair parts and a marking kit, to punch in the sn of *REPLACEMENT* parts of guns they worked on. (sorry lost the url). So. *matcing numbers* on a german ww2 weapon, doesn't mean much more than the parts were either oem or German Military Armorer replaced.

RHB

The Armorers number stamps would seldom match the original on the rifle, numbers sometimes varied from maker to maker. Plus replacement parts were hand stamped and usually slightly out of line. And weather they were stamped at all depended on the level of maintenece, at depot level yes, unit level no. In fact unit level repair usually involed parts taken fron unrepairable rifles, so are m/m. Re stamped parts are almost always obvious if you are fimilar with the rifles and various makers and have seen many of them. Plus there are other ways to tell if a part is original, are they correct style for year and maker? Is the WaA number the same as rest of rifle? is it correct number? does it even have a WaA number if it is supposed to? German K98k's are a very complicated rifles as far as collectors are concerned. Impossible to fool a knowledgeable collector with a 'put-together', as can be done with US WW11 arms!

[swede49]

This rifle sat on my wall for almost a decade until this weekend, when it caught my eye while I was home on special liberty. I know almost nothing about Mausers, so I was hoping someone could get me a little more info on it aside from date an location of manufacture. Any takers?

Nice piece! Anybody know what the "P" on the butt stock aft of the pistol grip means? My duv 41 has the same mark.

[Richard H Brown Jr]

Well since it's a 1941, the "P" obviously isn't for POLAND.

RHB

[swede49]

Thanks for the help...

[dave]

I looked in B of the W and the P mark on stocks is not mentioned, I have seen that also but have no idea. Very early K98k's had a K stamped on bottom ahead of the TG. That stood for kutz or short, as the small k in the model number. The Kar.98b had a 29" barrel, remember.

[da gimp]

k for kurtz (short)

[Johnny P]

Make that kurz as in 9mm Kurz.

As Dave explained, it is not hard to tell original from renumbered parts, and on the early rifles virtually every part had the WaA stamp. On this early rifle even the locking screw for the trigger guard screw is marked with the acceptance mark.

Also, here is a picture of the stock with the P, the serial number, and the acceptance marks.