K98K Identification

RememberTheSomme

RememberTheSomme

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Hi, would like some info or directed to a good website concerning a Yugo refurb K98K. It doesn't have the /48 on the receiver.

Been off work for a while due to illness, and being bored I stripped down and cosmo cleaned a K98K Yugo refurb today. With everything cleaned up I took notice of any original German marks I could see.

The receiver is scrubbed of course but some waffenamt's were left on various places. The bolt matches the receiver, but I'm not sure if it was a German serial number on the bolt and they stamped the receiver accordingly.or a new scrubbed Yugo.

The stock has barely recognizable WaA135 I'm thinking.??

The bolt body and much of it's parts have WaA 77. The trigger has WaA77. The trigger base has WaA 623. The rear sight has double stamps of WaA 77. Could this be a Steyr rifle originally? When the Yugos refurbed these, did they maintain as much as possible of the original rifle adding only required parts? The bore is as new so maybe it's a new Yugo or a scrubbed German?

Any ideas or any websites you can direct me to,.. so I might determine what this rifle manufacture was originally would be appreciated.

Cheers RTS
 
There is a website.

K98kforums.

But you likely won't get much help on a yugo. They are mostly purists. Like myself haha.

Post some photos here and I'm sure I can help you.

E/77 is Radom in Poland after capture. And e/623 is Steyr. It's possible you had a Steyr rifle or just coincidence. As far as I know they didn't care about keeping things together during refurb.

If the barrel is unmarked and nice, it's most likely installed at refurb. All German barrels were marked with barrel codes and a waffenamt.
 
Thanks Canadian, Just curious if there was some way to reveal what was once on that receiver to code and date, oh well. A real nice matching K98K is well out of my budget at the moment, so I'll just have to be satisfied with this one. It gives me the feel of the K98 in the hand to compare to US, British and Russian counterparts.
 
I don't believe there as any effort to keep matching parts together when they refurbed them and the serials will be Yugo added and not the originals. As far as I know they all received Yugo made barrels as part of the refurb process.

The serial on the receiver is on the right side and the bolt serial runs down the handle? Pics would be best of course.
 
Thanks JB, so the serial number on the bolt handle top and the matching right side receiver are both Yugo done? Can you tell if the original German bolt body serial has been substituted wih a Yugo? If this is the case, my noob theory that maybe they matched a scrubbed receiver to a German WaA77 bolt body serial and thus giving me a possible clue to the rifles origin. Again it doesn't matter any to me, just trying to se if detective skills could unearth the scrubbed rifle. They are nice refurb's and appear to be going to be a good shooter. Sorry for pics, I'll need my son' smart phone for that. RTS
 
Photos are required to identify the rifle positively. That being said it is probably Yugo refurbed owing to the scrubbed receiver if they added a Yugo crest in place of the German manufacturers markings. In my experience the Yugo refurbed German K98's are scrubbed, stocks sometimes swapped out or repaired and sometimes rebarreled with Yugoslavian production barrels(very good quality). Some are renumbered in Yugo fashion with serial numbers on left side butt stock at right angles to the bore(Russian captures are parallel with the bore). Some are marked with Yugo depot numbers TRZ5 or TRZ6 as well.
 
RememberTheSomme said:
Thanks JB, so the serial number on the bolt handle top and the matching right side receiver are both Yugo done? Can you tell if the original German bolt body serial has been substituted wih a Yugo? If this is the case, my noob theory that maybe they matched a scrubbed receiver to a German WaA77 bolt body serial and thus giving me a possible clue to the rifles origin. Again it doesn't matter any to me, just trying to se if detective skills could unearth the scrubbed rifle. They are nice refurb's and appear to be going to be a good shooter. Sorry for pics, I'll need my son' smart phone for that. RTS
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If the receiver serial is on the right side then it is Yugo done. If the receiver is scrubbed then it will be very hard to identify it but pics of the markings on the bottom flat might give a clue.
 
jbmauser said:
If the receiver serial is on the right side then it is Yugo done. If the receiver is scrubbed then it will be very hard to identify it but pics of the markings on the bottom flat might give a clue.
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Roger that, will disassemble again tonight to see if any clues are underside, and after doing some research which I should have done I see they've scrubbed the german bolt serial on the flat and stamped the bolt handle as per the right receiver number. Cheers RTS

The K98K forum is an interesting very informative group of contributors as well as milsurp.com. My milsurps are great shooters and represent their types more in form and function way more than originality. The purist form of collection is very demanding both information resource wise and money and I appreciate very much when someone devotes so much of their time and money and then freely shares to help others and keeping many examples "tamper free" to represent their kind well into the future.

It's very disheartening to see so much being counterfeited today from pure greed alone. I had no idea how many bogus WaA stamps were being circulated to pull hard earned money out of unsuspecting enthusiast's pockets and to even demerit solid rifles with a history in their own right to collectors from their arsenal repairs and rebuilds.
 
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RememberTheSomme said:
Roger that, will disassemble again tonight to see if any clues are underside, and after doing some research which I should have done I see they've scrubbed the german bolt serial on the flat and stamped the bolt handle as per the right receiver number. Cheers RTS

The K98K forum is an interesting very informative group of contributors as well as milsurp.com. My milsurps are great shooters and represent their types more in form and function way more than originality. The purist form of collection is very demanding both information resource wise and money and I appreciate very much when someone devotes so much of their time and money and then freely shares to help others and keeping many examples "tamper free" to represent their kind well into the future.

It's very disheartening to see so much being counterfeited today from pure greed alone. I had no idea how many bogus WaA stamps were being circulated to pull hard earned money out of unsuspecting enthusiast's pockets and to even demerit solid rifles with a history in their own right to collectors from their arsenal repairs and rebuilds.
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Another issue which is now common and is actually hurting history is people taking firearms and trying to make them 'correct' (i.e. stuff like replacing parts on Garands so it is like how it left the factory, or replacing parts so they are all Longbranch etc.). This is a serious issue because I know the people are well intentioned but those rifles were only 'factory' correct once in there life, to go about replacing things so it seems more factory correct isn't preserving history but destroying the history the rifle currently has. I am not talking about restoring sporters but taking actual full stock functionally correct examples and modifying them.
 
Eaglelord17 said:
Another issue which is now common and is actually hurting history is people taking firearms and trying to make them 'correct' (i.e. stuff like replacing parts on Garands so it is like how it left the factory, or replacing parts so they are all Longbranch etc.). This is a serious issue because I know the people are well intentioned but those rifles were only 'factory' correct once in there life, to go about replacing things so it seems more factory correct isn't preserving history but destroying the history the rifle currently has. I am not talking about restoring sporters but taking actual full stock functionally correct examples and modifying them.
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I agree Eagle this is a good point. If it had been sporterized and lost it's original nose cap and bands for instance, why not put LB back if available. It' will always be a desporter and probably a great shooter. But if it was FTR'ed by an arsenal, packed carefully away for a future war and it is now correct and matching as the armourer who restamped the serial numbers and have proved them functioning properly say's so.

If you have a No1 Enfield that was FTR'ed in the late 40's, rebarreled probably for at least it's third time( it's been fired in anger), and now matching again and still in the grease, should that be 75%value of one that's survived since 1917 with it's original barrel and part's? My Lsa Co1916 has stamps down it's left wrist every 4 years between the two World Wars. I find it very interesting indeed that this rifle was considered a Crown asset worthy of proper care and refit.
 
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