Erfurt armory kar98 1915

I happen to have a 1915 mauser from erfurt armory. a casual look one would thinkg okay another 98. but a closer inspection reveals just how intricate this thing is. just the front sight alone is intriguing. not a simple sight but many parts to make a front sight. some of these old mausers were just over designed, was that a trait common to all of them, i have many other 98's maybe 20 or so, and none of them have over designed anything just turn of the century designers making them more difficult to make???

The small ring to large ring was the biggest "over design" thing ever sold to the German military. While it may be marginally safer they still continued to make small ring designs. The Kar. 98a you have is one example, the Swed, G33/40, VZ-33 are others. Then there are all the commercial rifles based on the Mauser small ring. 1903 Springfield, the M-70 Win. and numerous others. And the Sweds and M-70's in particular have all been made in some pretty hefty calibers. I have a German sportered Kar. 98a that is in 9.0x63 caliber, before I had it a guy shot 9.3x62 in it. He said recoil was "awfull" and he sold it. But he fired half a box thru it before he gave it up! There were some other good safety feature's on the 1898 design but the large ring was minor!
Labor was the cheapest part of making anything back then, also!

i happen to have a small ring erfurt 1920 action, took long time to decide and now it is in final stages
6.5 X 55 swede, shilen barrel, gentry 3 position safety, timney triger, bedded action in fajen walnut stock, have a older weaver probably mid fifties in 6 power and steel weaver mounts put on the rifle. no recoil pad yet and it is all in the white
but my plan is to make a rifle for one of my grandsons, when they do something to deserve it, such as Eagle scout, National honor society. graduate from military boot camp with honors. just graduating from high school not enouugh. but should be butt kicking unusual rifle, when finished will post a photo,,,
did this once before with a WWII 98 and it shoots sub minute at 100 yards

I have an Erfurt Kar 98 with a trashed barrel, rusty plus over-cleaned from the muzzle. I found a barreled, stripped receiver at a gun show, with a minty barrel, and stupidly did not buy it for $125. Cool old guns.

Skilled labour was a cheap commodity back then. Plus the German penchant for over engineering practically everything. Later on in WW2 k98 production became a lot more streamlined and the Germans put much less time into finish and numbering almost every part of a service rifle.

Numbering of every part was a habit left over from the days before precision manufacture was finally achieved. The Czechs started late in rifle manufacture, after WW1 (did not even exist before the war). and early rifles they made had many parts numbered. By 1925 they had achieved precision and dropped all numbers but main components.

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Originally Posted by dave

The small ring to large ring was the biggest "over design" thing ever sold to the German military. While it may be marginally safer they still continued to make small ring designs. The Kar. 98a you have is one example, the Swed, G33/40, VZ-33 are others. Then there are all the commercial rifles based on the Mauser small ring. 1903 Springfield, the M-70 Win. and numerous others. And the Sweds and M-70's in particular have all been made in some pretty hefty calibers. I have a German sportered Kar. 98a that is in 9.0x63 caliber, before I had it a guy shot 9.3x62 in it. He said recoil was "awfull" and he sold it. But he fired half a box thru it before he gave it up! There were some other good safety feature's on the 1898 design but the large ring was minor!
Labor was the cheapest part of making anything back then, also!

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I have a Erfurt Kar98, it is a small ring receiver with a large shank barrel; that makes the receiver ring thinner. And there is another problem; the rifle can be fired by pulling the trigger and it can be fired by pushing the trigger. Thinking the small ring on the small ring Mauser was adequate remember the 03 Springfield had the same outside diameter as the small ring but the Springfield has a larger diameter shank on the barrel and that made the receiver thinner.

After all these years I now have a small ring Mauser that is chambered to 308 W. In all appearance it is a 1891 Argentine and should have been chambered to 7.65MM53 B.M. Long story; around here there is no shortage of barrels.

F. Guffey