Gewehr 98 butt disc

[gew98]

It is actually not uncommon to find german rifles , pistols , carbines , bayonets still being unit property marked after the 1915 orders forbidding such. It was ignored on a large scale like the regs on how regimental marks were expected to be done on such items.

The germans started using solid beech in late 1915 and by late 1916 it was the primary wood used as cured walnut was in severe shortage. The transition of gew98 stocks from unit disc to takedown disc with or without the fingergrooves was typically german in that manufacturers were allowed to conitinue in the old patterns until economically feasible to do the tooling up for the changes. So all through mid to late 1916 you will find alot of differences in stock w/disc and w/fingergrooves , and stocks w/takedown discs and no fingergrooves. By 1917 this was mostly cleared up. But when you come across depot salvaged and or depot built from new old stock parts on hand you will find all manner of mix and match features.

The turks were fairly rough with their equipment as the peasant soldier core of their troops looked and treated a rifle like a tool and their training on such things as care & maintenance was no doubt short or nonexistant

In collectors circles gew98's , gew88's and kar98a's with turkish provenance are usually annotated as "turked with". Usually it's descriptive of the condition the turks left them in. Often the turkes refinished them with no care to keep them matching , and they generally look rode hard and put up wet. About 15 years ago I befriended an old gunsmith going into retirement . He had bought crates of turked with gew98's over years previous and made some delightlful hunting rifles out of them. He sold me three five gallon buckets of gew98 bolts. They were a treasure trove of armorers parts and bolts. The turks had a high attrition of their german supplied rifles and the germans were contractually bound to supply repair/replacement parts. And being battles like Gallipoli where the brits & turks worked out truces to return each others rifles sans bolts the germans supplied a large number of bolts to turkey as spares. I had bought previous over the years various turked gew98's that sported some very scarce armorer's parts - like proofed barrels and stocks with nary a serial nor turk marking applied.

Anyhow I digress. I have some across turked with german rifles in amazing to absolute boat anchor conditions.As ell the turks did modify gew98's to their pattern rifles to use their bayonets , handguards and stocks as well.

The turk used gew98's and the like are on th elow end of value simply due to th evast majority being hopelessly mismatched and often in poor condition.

[shippingsteel]

Excellent post Gew98. An interesting read so thanks for adding.

So it would appear that the rifle in question is a mix-mash of parts probably assembled during a Turkish post-war refurbishment programme.?

We know how the stamped Oberndorf receiver got to be there as they were being shipped over to Turkey during the war, but what about the stock.?

I guess the other possibility is that the 146 IR took their existing weapons (either issued prewar or earlier wartime) with them when they left for Turkey.

This probably explains how an earlier style buttstock together with a German marked butt disc, ended up being attached to an obviously 'turked' Gew98.

Cheers, S>S

[gew98]

Excellent post Gew98. An interesting read so thanks for adding.

So it would appear that the rifle in question is a mix-mash of parts probably assembled during a Turkish post-war refurbishment programme.?

We know how the stamped Oberndorf receiver got to be there as they were being shipped over to Turkey during the war, but what about the stock.?

I guess the other possibility is that the 146 IR took their existing weapons (either issued prewar or earlier wartime) with them when they left for Turkey.

This probably explains how an earlier style buttstock together with a German marked butt disc, ended up being attached to an obviously 'turked' Gew98.

Cheers, S>S

There is simply no telling how that wood got on that rifle. It could easily have gotten it post WW1 or post Turk use by any individual wanting to pretty it up. I have seen guys that have doen re-encating fo the great war do such things with turked with former german rifles.