WW2 German Mauser 98k bnz 41 Russian Capture 8mm
At the end of WW2 the Soviet Union had millions of WW2 German weapons under their control. Many were later used and issued to various Soviet troops and communist nations. In later years these weapons were rebuilt under the Soviet Arsenal system, and stored away for future use. When the Soviet Union fell apart, many of these German Mauser k98 rifles were sold as surplus to the US market. This is one of those rifles. Built originally in the famed Styer plant inAustria in 1941 (German secret code marking bnz 41) this rifle was rebuilt by the Russians. During these rebuilds, the rifles were disassembled, sorted, inspected, and the best parts reassembled into a functioning rifle. The Russians did not bother to keep the original German parts and matching part numbers together. At the end of the rebuild process, the newly assembled rifles were often electro-penciled with matching numbers. This example does not have any electro-penciled numbers. This rifle is from an early batch of imports from the 1990's and has the discreet tiny import marking on the bottom of the muzzle end of the barrel. It has not been shot since importation, and is still in all of it's Soviet Era trim. including the dark shellac sealant on the wood. Speaking of wood this is a flat butt plate solid wood stock. A really nice example of the classic WW2 German rifle, with an interesting addition of post war history! The last picture shows what the post war weapon storage facilities looked like. Many times these were outdoors, and this rifle looks to be one that saw storage outside. The surface of the receiver shows some old pitting and frosting under the Russian arsenal rework bluing. But don't let that scare you this rifle is fully functional, and has a bright shiny bore and is tight at the muzzle. It should be a great shooter!