will refinishing the stock on my RC k98 lower the value?

Yes, since chances of getting more RC K98 imported into Canada are slim, the ones still in original Russian condition will start to grow in value.
 
Original Russian shellac? I think Ivan was the Bubba. Russian defacing of millions of German Mausers and mixing up parts then force matching and electro-pencilling them was not necessarily a historically signifigant act. Refinish your RC to bring it closer to original issue if you want to, it's already been buggered up. Just my opinion.
 
This is a very interesting debate that will never end. There will be those who value the RC's like an East German refurb or a Yugo refurb - essentially a shooter grade K98 for re-enactors, etc. Those guys will value the gun more if it looks WW2. Then there will be the purists who want the gun as a collectable example of a cold war K98k. To them the value will be diminished.

As i understand it, there are still LOTS of K98k's in the former Soviet bloc countries, but those not yet sold are being offered at stupid prices for a refurbed K98k so it will be some time until market value rises enough for dealers to want to bring them in.
 
Mike Webb said:
Original Russian shellac? I think Ivan was the Bubba. Russian defacing of millions of German Mausers and mixing up parts then force matching and electro-pencilling them was not necessarily a historically signifigant act. Refinish your RC to bring it closer to original issue if you want to, it's already been buggered up. Just my opinion.
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A military arsenal of any country cannot by definition be a 'bubba'
 
Do people actually buy a rifle just as an "investment"? In the United States they keep boxes, literature locks and other things that came with the purchase and this seems to add "value" to the firearm or at least desirability.
I don't collect firearms per se but I buy what I want to use.
I am not criticizing negatively just curious.
 
I use Kingsford Briquettes and Sunoco 115 Racing Fuel for Shellac Removal!

For the Discriminating Collector who wants the rifle to look like it's "Been at a Bunker and a Tank Battle at Kursk",
I use Westinghouse J-7 Jet Fuel.

K98BBQCleaning.jpg
 
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skirsons said:
A military arsenal of any country cannot by definition be a 'bubba'
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Just meant that all those Mausers were captured intact, mostly all matching numbers, and torn apart as a public works project. Then reassembled in a haphazard manner, Russian black applied instead of blue and stocks shellacked. Oh yeah and most of the German acceptance proofs and firing proofs were peened or ground off. If the guy down the road did this everyone would be pissed.
 
Mike Webb said:
Just meant that all those Mausers were captured intact, mostly all matching numbers, and torn apart as a public works project. Then reassembled in a haphazard manner, Russian black applied instead of blue and stocks shellacked. Oh yeah and most of the German acceptance proofs and firing proofs were peened or ground off. If the guy down the road did this everyone would be pissed.
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Yes but as I understand it they probably weren't servicable. They had been sitting outside in the elements for a few years and were in bad need of repair.
 
skirsons said:
Yes but as I understand it they probably weren't servicable. They had been sitting outside in the elements for a few years and were in bad need of repair.
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I've heard a few stories and don't really know what to believe. But any firearm that was left outside for any more than a few weeks would be a total loss, I think. I haven't seen a lot of RC'S but the ones I've seen haven't been deeply pitted under the finish which is what you would expect in a gun left exposed to the elements. Too bad that all the people involved are dead and gone, we may never know the full story.
 
Americans sorting out captured and piled arms in 1945...

HU034493.jpg


note the common theme - this is all happening outdoors in a field somewhere.
 
Many armies were notorious for smashing captured weapons to bits (Americans and Germans mostly) and if not storing them outside uncovered.
 
Funny the rear echelon men army/navy/airforce usually ended up with the cream of the crop war booty. Front line combat arms types usually could only carry just 1 or 2 small war trophies. Trophies that they won/plundered.
An old co worker was OSS after the war in West Germany and he told me never in America had so many men became millionaires so quickly than at the end of May 1945. Hundreds of Senior Supply officers and NCO quartermasters buying and living in the most expensive villias in Italy.
No doubt 9 million RC's they're are some simular stories.
 
Yes Mike...true enough, but that IS part of the rifles history, no matter what you do to it afterwards.

Refinish the stock or not... it's just another chapter in that particular rifles history.

I don't think a refinish destroys it's originality, and yes, too bad the Russkies ground off all the Kraut markings, but after all, they DID loose 20 million citizens fighting them. Can't blame them for being just a LITTLE pissed, and not wanting to grind of the Waffenampts. A shame, though.

Like the old saying goes...imagine if the rifle could talk... and if they did I'd much rather the latest chapter was " Got my stock cleaned up and made real purdy" than "Got confiscated by some ####bagger and fed into the shredder...bye now...been a slice."

Anyways... just my 2 cents!
 
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