K98k Mauser from Mitchell's Mausers, made in Oberndorf, Germany in 1940
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- Опубликовано: 3 ноя 2023
- I bought this from Mitchell's Mauser in 2007. It was made in Oberndorf, Germany (Mauser Werke AG, Oberndorf) in 1940 and does have Nazi markings. Caliber is 8mm Mauser. It appears to be "arsenal new", with the bolt still "in the white". All serial numbers match.
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the best bolt action design ever designed. A beauty! thanks for sharing.
I really like the stock, even if it's been refinished as someone suggested below. Too much plastic on guns today. The wood grain here looks sharp.
Feels nice to the hands too!
As someone who's spent a fair bit of time in the military bolt action collecting world, I can tell you that Mitchell's Mausers are not as they appear.
Your rifle, as is the case with his other German rifles, is a Russian captured K98k. After WWII, these K98k's were disassembled and mixed up for parts to make complete rifles. Rifles with mixed major parts (bolt, receiver, barrel, stock) were electropenciled with a new serial number.
Since they weren't matching at that point, the collector's value isn't super high, but they can still be nice rifles to collect and shoot. The problem comes from Mitchell's dishonesty and the steps to fake this rifle as an amazing original condition (or factory re-arsenaled) German one:
1. Polishing the bolt, removing the factory bluing and any Russian electropencil numbers. In his ads, he lied about "chrome" "factory white" or "parade" bolts for them.
2. Stamping the X that the Soviets put on the receiver with a horizontal line to make a "star" symbol. The rifle clearly being marked as a mismatched Russian capture would destroy the illusion that he sold. In his ads, he lied by saying that they didn't have the true Russian capture X.
3. Grinding down non-matching numbers on the barrel/receiver/bolt and stamping a matching serial number. While some Russian captures have a few major components matching (with the usual mismatched small parts), if Mitchell found they didn't, he made sure they did and refinished them.
4. Completely sanding and refinishing the stock. This sometimes removed original inspectors' cartouches and of course removed the Russian serial number.
He used to regularly fake special Waffen SS rifles and other configurations that didn't even exist. Anyway, they're good condition, clean, very shootable Mausers, but they aren't really collectable. You can find a lot of discussion on reputable military surplus collecting forums.
OK. But that seems like a LOT of work to fake an original rifle, just to sell for $399 in 2007? Also, if that is the case, they have done a great job as I cannot tell even a trace of the supposedly original blue remaining on the bolt. This is similar to a "fake" Japanese samurai sword that I bought on eBay about 25 years ago before samurai sword become big on eBay for a puny $125. Many self-proclaimed "samurai sword experts" online have since laughed it off as "fake" or "cheap Chinese knock-off" but it sure looks old to me and looks to be one-of-a-kind. If it is indeed fake, then show me another one exactly like it! Also, all that work for $125?! Indeed, who cares if I just like it and and didn't paid $$$$$ for the thing? Here is the link to the my sword video: ruclips.net/video/7ubYVyZuAn4/видео.html
@@rmwtsou You're right, it is an enjoyable rifle and not for very much money regardless of the story. Very fair.
All the same, the Mitchell's Mausers are very well known and were discussed to death on many collecting fora. As for the price, well, it was a different time for surplus, after all. Mosins were 100 bucks or less and Russian capture K98k's were cheap. Mitchell imported them and sold the rifles at a premium (for Russian capture K98k's at the time). The bolt and stock are absolutely refinished on that rifle and it has the Russian capture X with a line added through it by Mitchell to disguise it. There was no star marking like that on K98k's. The above information I know for sure. I'll assume that one wasn't sold by Mitchel as fully matching, since the front barrel band and magazine floorplate definitely have different numbers than the receiver/bolt/barrel (normal for a capture rifle, the Soviets did not bother to keep matching small parts together). This one may or may not have received as thorough a renumbering job as his other K98k's, but it's definitely one of his.
Regardless, not a bad gun and not a gun that's worthless by any means. It's still a real K98k from WW2 that was disassembled, inspected, reassembled, and stored away for WW3 by the Soviets until it was surplused to a US importer, in this case Mitchell.
@rmwtsou oh and regarding removing bluing, it's very, very easy. There are chemicals sold for this purpose but a vat of vinegar will strip it just fine. Minimal polishing is needed after to make the white metal shine.
@@45calibermedic Cool! That adds another layer of interesting history to the rifle!
Great thing to know. Thanks!