Isreali mausers

I own two minty ones and they are the most accurate 98k's I have ever shot.
Earlier this year I sandbagged them both for an accuracy test and both of them shoot into 1"@100m with Lake city M118 ammo.
Go for it you wont regret it. Barrels on these rifles are usually dated late 50's and in great shape.
This former G24(t) was restored for me by VGS and I fitted a new old stock set.
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A lot of these rifles were leftovers from nazi germany. I have even see one that was once a GEW98.

And its Israeli not Isreali;)
 
I really like mine. They have interesting collector points as the (former) nazi markings were stamped over/ground out ruthlessly by the israelis (for obviously good reason). I always make the point to my non gun friends that one of the many ironies of history is that of a rifle (used by the nazis to oppress people), is the same one used to liberate them/establish thier own state! Which just goes to show that guns aren't evil or good, they do merely what their owners direct them to do. So why wouldn't you want good people to own them?

Problem with the Israeli 98's in my experience, is that they're well used and worn. I'd love a K-98 replica in .308, to spare further wear on these interesting rifles.
 
Strange, mine works flawelessly and Ive never heard of anyone else having jamming issues.

I like it so much I've been looking to buy a pristine one...like J996's rifle there. Most of the israeli's come with late war kriegsmodel parts etc etc. Mine for example has no lock screws, no bolt guide, late war front band and winter trigger guard.

Its hard finding one with "proper" parts in good condition.
 
Ryan500 said:
That is one nice stock! Is that origional or refinished? The one above is also amazing.

Next purchase... i'm thinkin yeah.
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Thanks Ryan, it hasn't been refinished, unless it was done at the factory at some point. It has the usual amount of bumps and nicks in the wood for an old milsurp (which you can't make out in the picture), but the stock does have a nice grain and finish to it. However, it has hardly any wear on the metal at all so I doubt it saw much use. The bolt retains pretty much all of it's original finish for example. Mine also feeds flawlessly, so I don't think Hi-Standard's rifle is the norm.

Some collectors don't like them because they usually are a mix bag of parts, mine is no exception. I beleive when Brno (also FN and Israeli) starting putting these together postwar they used whatever parts they had from other refurbished and salvaged rifles, so finding one with matching serial numbers is a pipe dream. I've never heard of an Israeli K98 with all matching parts. Anyway, this example is nice because at least the bolt and receiver match which is about as good as you can expect. It's actually rare to even find that. As far as a shooter, I think they are second to none - easily my most accurate milsurp.
 
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Vimy Ridge,

My FN has matching serial numbers. There are three # on the entire rifle: On the receiver, the bolt and on the original walnut stock (inside the barrel channel). the rest of the parts all originally belonged to that rifle except of course the barrel, which the Israelis swapped out to a 7.62 1958 dated barrel.

FN made these new for Israel in 8mm postwar with the IDF crest engraved on the receiver. These rifles had walnut stocks, a narrow lower band with a swivel and a slightly different rear sight. I have never been able to find any info on exactly when these contract rifles were made by FN and their production total.

The rifle now sits in a new old beach stock with an Israeli wide lower band.
Of course I still keep its original matching stock set and narrow band with the rifle. If i had the original matching 8mm barrel that was taken off, this would really be something.
 
J996 said:
Vimy Ridge,

My FN has matching serial numbers. There are three # on the entire rifle: On the receiver, the bolt and on the original walnut stock (inside the barrel channel). the rest of the parts all originally belonged to that rifle except of course the barrel, which the Israelis swapped out to a 7.62 1958 dated barrel.

FN made these new for Israel in 8mm postwar with the IDF crest engraved on the receiver. These rifles had walnut stocks, a narrow lower band with a swivel and a slightly different rear sight. I have never been able to find any info on exactly when these contract rifles were made by FN and their production total.

The rifle now sits in a new old beach stock with an Israeli wide lower band. Of course I still keep its original matching stock set and narrow band with the rifle. If i had the original matching 8mm barrel that was taken off, this would really be something.
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Cool, so they are out there. I'm guessing the FN ones are the most likely to be matching then, but I could be wrong about that. Are the FN's the only ones that have the IDF crest? Did FN or Brno make any 7.62 barrels for these later on, or were they all sent to Israeli in 8mm and rebarrelled there? And where is the date stamp on the barrel? I'd like to check mine.
 
Israel acquired arms from anyone willing to deal with them after the war. They were able to get large amounts of 98k's from the Czechs both ex-nazi and Czech made with the Czech lion crest. All of these were of course 8mm.

As far as is known FN was the only manufacturer to accept an order from the IDF for a run of 98k's, again in 8mm. These are the only ones with the IDF crest. Year and amount made unknown.

The whole 7.62 thing came about when Israel adopted the FAL in 55 to replace the mausers and so they produced their own barrels chambered in 7.62 Nato, rebarreled all the mausers and kept these around for reserve units. Israel had also acquired complete tooling to produce their own 98k's just before the adoption of the FAL after which this project was scrapped. They did however make the barrels, stock sets (those nice orange beech ones I have) and some small spare parts like lower bands into the early 60's.
Some rifles have dated yellow stickers on them indicating arsenal rebuild up to and including 1975.

I have heard rumors that there are examples of Israeli mausers still in their original chambering out there (IDF markings, star of david stamped in 8mm) but have never seen one, not even pictures.

The date stamp is sometimes visible above the wood but most of the time it is on the underside of the barrel.
My barrels are dated 57 and 58.
Does anyone have a 55,56,59 or 60 dated barrel?
Id like to find out the exact time frame of when these were made. The presence of a 55 would mean they started rebarreling immediately after adopting the FAL.
 
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Thanks J996! That explains why I never noticed a date stamp on this barrel. :D Edit - okay, originally you only mentioned the sticker and I thought that's where you meant the barrel date would have been. I'm going to go double check mine now.
 
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