Mauser Gurus to the white courtesy phone please

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wapitiwhacker

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Hi folks pretty new here, looking and finding new stuff every time I visit. I have a piece that has been languishing in my safe for a few years. I have never found out that much about it. I thought you might be interested, and able to shed some light. I've done a few searches here and found some stuff, but truth be known the search engine on this site and I do not seem to get along to well.

Anywho, here we go, I appreciate anything you can come up with. It is a K98 with a 4 digit serial number starting with 95. As far as I know my father aquired it from the vet who brought it back from Europe. Story goes the fore end was cut for the trip back to Canada to facilitate easier packing. All the numbers match,... except the bolt. It seems all the numbers on the bolt are matching but differ from the receiver. I have a piece of full length wood that fits but is not original. A bayonet as well. There is some damage to the fore end that has been repaired at one time or another. The one feature that it has that differentiates it from your run of the mill K98 is the scope mount. I toyed with the idea of finding a scope for it, but found out what they were worth. I'm no collector, so I gave that up in a hurry.

Here is the rest of the story. Thanks for looking.

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131 ar (over -4-) 43cyw
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original wood, fore end damage
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full length but non original wood
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It looks like an honest Zf41 sniper to me, the mount's patina seems to match the rifle. Guys are leary of Zf41 sniper nowdays as they are one of the most easiest German sniper systems to fake. Mauser Borgiswalde was one of only a few producers of the Zf41 equipped rifles.

Original Zf41 scope/mounts are pricey as you mentioned but they do make repros of them now if you wanted to get something to mess around with. Here is one but you'll have to deal with export/import from the States:

h tt p://www.e-gunparts.com/DisplayAd.asp?chrProductSKU=1085710&chrSuperSKU=&MC=

To be honest, Zf41's are tough to zero and besides target shooting, almost useless with their 1.5x power so you are probably better off keeping it with the irons. Nice rifle, thanks for sharing!
 
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Winchester-1897 said:
Mauser AG Borsigwalde made the rifle. They apparently made 120652 of them in 1943. Are you saying it has been drilled and tapped for a scope?
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No, the rail built into the side of the rear sight is a scope mounting rail

303carbine said:
Sorry,I couldn't resist. Welcome, glad you brought your thick skin to gunnutz.:)
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When I made the name up I looked at it and thought, ya, it's inevitable, but boy you were fast!:jerkit: lol it's all good.

steve1973 said:
It looks like an honest Zf41 sniper to me, the mount's patina seems to match the rifle. Guys are leary of Zf41 sniper nowdays as they are one of the most easiest German sniper systems to fake. Mauser Borgiswalde was one of only a few producers of the Zf41 equipped rifles.

Original Zf41 scope/mounts are pricey as you mentioned but they do make repros of them now if you wanted to get something to mess around with. Here is one but you'll have to deal with export/import from the States:

h tt p://www.e-gunparts.com/DisplayAd.asp?chrProductSKU=1085710&chrSuperSKU=&MC=

To be honest, Zf41's are tough to zero and besides target shooting, almost useless with their 1.5x power so you are probably better off keeping it with the irons. Nice rifle, thanks for sharing!
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Thanks Steve, I'm 99 % sure it is not a fake. It has been with either my father or I for over 50 years, and I'm pretty sure there wasn't a lot of interest in forging them 50 years ago. Looking at the way the mount/sight and barrel mate I find it hard to believe they are easy to fake. I would think it would be really difficult to add that mount in without messing up the finish. I had heard that the Zf41 was not well liked by those that used them, and the scope was not very useful. Part of the reason I wasn't willing to part with the cash for a scope. But all put together it would make a pretty neat and somewhat unique unit.
 
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granite said:
The stock looks to be the correct type even if not original as it is notched for the scope to slide on/off the rail. The rifle looks fairly original finish wise, do the #s match on the barrel bands, trigger guard, trigger etc and all look to be the same style of script? (not neccesarily size). That is a few bucks you are sitting on there. If you look on eshmay, you can search for the ZF scope and mount, they are pricey but out there.
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Any numbers I have found have all been matching from the trigger all the way to the forward sling attachment, with the exception of the bolt. I may have missed some, dunno.
 
the ZF41 is the most commonly encountered of the German rifle glass sights (not that any of them are common).
In modern terms this would be better considered as a 'Designated Marksman's Rifle' rather than a sniper system. It's a bit better than metallic sights, but not much. Might be able to find one for not too much dough.
 
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