So far it's been a long summer. I had another surgery relating to when I got hurt at work 10 years back that I'm still recouping from but it's not as bad as the last couple, and between that and all the rain that never seems to let up, things haven't been able to get done much around here.
On top of all that, with my estranged sister passing away in March, we finally had the burial a couple of weeks ago, but it seems to not have eased some of the tensions in the family and I don't think it ever will, so I've been doing things to keep my mind at ease.
So, about 6 weeks back I ran across a numbers matching K98 Karabiner Mauser at the local gun shop. A late war rifle, it's in very good condition except for the stock was duffel cut in order to get it home, no import markings at all. The bore is excellent, and from what research I've done in some of the books dedicated to these, in October 1944, the plants, especially the one that made this gun, stopped numbered all the little parts and also the stocks. So there's no numbers here or on most of the other little parts like barrel bands so that made it a little easier to find those to put this back. I had never repaired a duffel cut before, so this was going to be a first.
I was originally just going to replace it with another late war non-numbered stock, but then I noticed something unusual, that the gun was never drilled for a cleaning rod, which makes it a partial Kriegsmodell gun. Krieglsmodell rifles being Germany's last ditch K98's and are missing the disassembly disk in the stock for the bolt, have no cleaning rod, and have a different set of barrel bands screwed into the stock and no bayonet mount. This is a transitional or partial Kriegsmodell gun, because it has some of the features like the takedown disk and had the set up for the bayonet lug, but no cleaning rod, which in some cases, is even more rare.
So I decided to try and save it, located a donor piece and cut both down to match and drilled and fitted a pin with JB Weld and also a couple smaller pins to keep it from flexing side to side. The donor piece DID have the hole for the cleaning rod so that's where the pin will go to secure it. In the end I plan on cutting a wooden dowel to fill in the hole from the front and I saved shavings and dust to blend in with some wood putty to make the hole solid. I've taken pics of the stock to show it never had the hole for the cleaning rod and there's no retaining latch in the stock like there should be to prove what it once was.
Right now the pieces are cut and trimmed to their correct lengths and I'm waiting for some Acraglas and release agent to get here so I can get it all secured together. The rear barrel band should cover the joint. It won't ever be 100% correct, but at least it will look like a Mauser K98 again.
The donor piece that I got for the repair.
Where the cleaning rod hole would be. Nothing.
The original stock trimmed down with the pins in place to hold the donor piece along with the Acraglas.
Pretty much ready for the Acraglas.
Numbers Matching K98 Mauser repair project
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