- Location
- Steel Town
On my Norwegian K98, there are interesting symbols/marks on the barrel and bolt stem:
Claven2 confirmed these interesting symbols as German proof marks, post war. Therefore, the rifle likely passed through a German proof house when being surplused. He also indicated that a lot of these guns were bought by German dealers and exported all over. Apparently, many SVT's and other surplus rifles are also marked this way.
So, I started doing a bit of my own research, and found this site:
http://www.shotguns.se/html/west_germany.html
The site indicates that the Mellrichstadt proof house used a similar shield/crest from 1968 onward. To the left of that crest is an eagle (as shown in the photos above). The letter under the eagle is an "N" (nitro proof), which would indicate final nitro proofing between 1951 and 1971 (again, as per the site link above). The "4AG" is code for April 2006 when the rifle was either imported/sold through Germany. (A=0, B=1, etc.)
So my questions are:
Did the Norwegians employ a German proof house to nitro proof their war reserves, store them, and later sell them to various dealers? Or, did the Norwegians simply declare these rifles as war reserve surplus between 1968 and 1971, sell them off to various German dealers who, in my case, had them nitro proofed, and long afterwards (April 2006) a batch of rifles, including mine, were exported to North America? I suspect the later.
Claven2 confirmed these interesting symbols as German proof marks, post war. Therefore, the rifle likely passed through a German proof house when being surplused. He also indicated that a lot of these guns were bought by German dealers and exported all over. Apparently, many SVT's and other surplus rifles are also marked this way.
So, I started doing a bit of my own research, and found this site:
http://www.shotguns.se/html/west_germany.html
The site indicates that the Mellrichstadt proof house used a similar shield/crest from 1968 onward. To the left of that crest is an eagle (as shown in the photos above). The letter under the eagle is an "N" (nitro proof), which would indicate final nitro proofing between 1951 and 1971 (again, as per the site link above). The "4AG" is code for April 2006 when the rifle was either imported/sold through Germany. (A=0, B=1, etc.)
So my questions are:
Did the Norwegians employ a German proof house to nitro proof their war reserves, store them, and later sell them to various dealers? Or, did the Norwegians simply declare these rifles as war reserve surplus between 1968 and 1971, sell them off to various German dealers who, in my case, had them nitro proofed, and long afterwards (April 2006) a batch of rifles, including mine, were exported to North America? I suspect the later.
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