This Karabiner 98k was built by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in 1941 and is chambered in 8mm Mauser, serial 8xxf, with the receiver ring carrying the bnz code the works used through the war. The rifle is non-matching, which is stated plainly up front. What it is instead is complete: no small parts are missing, and it comes with its sight hood, cleaning kit and sling. The sight hood in particular is worth naming, since it is the first thing to go astray on a K98k and is routinely absent on rifles offered today. The bore is mostly bright with sharp rifling. The stock is solid with no cracks. The rifle is mechanically excellent and is offered as it is shown.
The works at Steyr came to the Kar98k by way of the Anschluss. Steyr-Daimler-Puch had been building rifles in Austria since long before the war, and when Germany absorbed the country in 1938 the plant was absorbed with it, turned over to German service patterns and given a manufacturer code in place of its name. Steyr used only two such codes across the whole war, 660 and bnz, and the bnz mark on this receiver is the one collectors associate with the firm's wartime output. Its rifles went to the Heer, and also to the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, which is why Steyr guns turn up with service markings other makers' rifles do not carry. Steyr's own acceptance stamp was the eagle over 623, while the eagle over 77 was applied to work done at Radom under Steyr control, so the proofs on a given rifle can be read back to where its parts were actually made. Behind the code is the standard German service rifle of the Second World War: a controlled-round-feed Mauser action with twin forward locking lugs and a claw extractor, feeding five rounds of 8x57mm from a stripper clip.
Specifications
Manufacturer: Steyr-Daimler-Puch, code bnz
Model: Karabiner 98k
Caliber: 8mm Mauser, 8×57
Year: 1941
Serial: 8xxf
Capacity: 5 rounds, stripper clip loaded
Action: Bolt action, controlled round feed
Matching: Non-matching
Completeness: No small parts missing
Stock: Solid, no cracks
Bore: Mostly bright with sharp rifling
Mechanical condition: Excellent
Included: Sight hood, cleaning kit, sling
