actionexpress

I've been shooting a friends' K98 on and off over the last couple of years and am starting to want one myself. Not sure what I'd ever use it for, although he bought a cheap kit to add a scope, and he uses it during deer season.

I've heard of Mitchell's Mausers.. I've seen two examples from them at a local shop for $600 but I have no clue if they are "souvenir" or collector grade guns.

The stocks looked replaced, so maybe they were..no clue. Very few dings, and had Nazi eagles on the receiver. If I got one, I'd probably go for the souvenir model as I like to shoot, and not stare at a gun in my safe...lol

I am wondering if the "souvenir" $400 K98 is actually a Nazi used model or a Yugo copy of some sort. Any help on that is appreciated. I love my $100 Mosin and am thinking owning both would be cool.

Thanks in advance!

Lead Slanger

I have been researching Mausers here lately, but not enough to answer your question. I would like to have one myself, but I'm not set on a K98. Personally, I want a VZ24. Mausers are pretty cool rifles IMO.

actionexpress

It gets confusing as a lot of K98s were sold to other countries after the war. One guy has one that was sold to Israel and is a 7.62 cal.

I just want an original German model, although I have a feeling the supply is starting to dry up based on some prices I've seen on them.

Nick0410

What cal is the original? My cousin has an 8mm Turkish one that was pretty interesting, was a while ago and is long gone now. I think around this time most surplus military stuff is drying up

Axeman4040

In browsing other C&R forums I've read a lot of negative feedback regarding Mitchells Mausers stating their guns were over priced and misrepresented. Do some Google searches and I'm sure you'll find the info. K98K Mausers are very nice, but I'm a Mosin Nagant fan personally ( I have 5) and have had some great success and fun turning them into great shooters for CHEAP.

LunaticFringeInc

Got a couple...One is a Nazi SS model with Death Head stamp and numbers matching. The other was a non numbers matching non collector grade gun that was cleaned up, rebarreled and chambered for 224 TTH. Both are awesome guns! While its not a K98, I also own a Intra-Arms X newly manufactured Mauser chambered in 7mm Rem Mag that will likely end up as a 264 Win Mag or 35-338 wild cat that closely duplicates the 350 Norma Mag.

If your going to buy a K98 do your research! There are a gazillion of them out there in a large number of models. All are not created equal. There are large ring and small ring Mausers as well. Most of the collector grade models with matching numbers have already been snapped up and if you find one you can expect to pay a premium price for it. Most non matching number sporting grade guns are in decent shape and may or may not need to be rebarreled.

brimic

There really aren't any K98s in the hands of wholesalers any more. The last bunch that came in were 'russian captures' and that was about 7-8 years ago. About the only place you're going to find one is from a private seller.

How the surplus market operates is that importers buy out entire national armories of their surplus weapons, import them then sell them to secondary wholesalers. The prices are usually initially really low, then go up as the inventories dwindle. Usually the prices are at their highest after all are sold.

10 years ago was the beggining of the end of the surplus bolt action rifle market.
In a span of a few years, I bought
-a pair of K98s for $200 ea
-1/2 dozen Swedish M96s and M38s for <$170 ea
-Dozen Swiss K31s for <$100 ea
-A handful of Turkish, Persian, Czech long rifles for $39-200 ea.
-5 Mosin nagants for $50-80 ea
-a pair of unissued Yugo M48s for $130 ea.

The k98s sold by Mitchell's are priced about right as they are about the last ones that you can still buy. Their reputation isn't the highest though, but I'm not sure if its because of their high prices, because of their passing off Yugo M48s as K98s, or there is some speculation that they were refinishing the rifles that they sold (which actually makes them far less valuable to collectors).

I looked through my list of suppliers and the closest thing still available outside of Mitchell's are Yugo 24/47s which are very nice rifles.
Here's the lowest price I could find:
https://www.samcoglobal.com/1-M24-47.html

About the only thing thats readily available and cheap anymore are 91/30 mosin nagants.

Lead Slanger

I've read the same thing.

humboldt

I have at one time, or another had all the Mauser 8mm variations, and most shot better than me. The only exceptions were Turkish Mausers. Of course I was only paying $69 for them at the time. All the 8mm ammo was at the time very corrosive, and it seemed that the Turks were not as careful about gun cleaning as they should have been. The Mitchell guns are very nice, and most Iron Curtain Country guns were re-habed very well.
Fortunately, I stock pilled some of the old 8mm ammo, when you could get it for about $100 a 1,000, and even the 1938 head stamp stuff shoots very well. Just clean the gun bore with soap, and water when you get home. The 98 Mauser is still one of the best bolt guns available.

oneyeopn

I have 2 K98's one is a 1916 Erfurt and one is a 1934 Erfurt. The 1916 I have left in 8x57, but have put a nice custom stock and have had it alined and resprung with a Bold Trigger. The 1934 has also had the action blueprinted and resprung with a timney trigger but is getting a 308 palma barrel put on it. I also have a 36 VZ24 which is my favorite Mauser of all of them. It to has been blueprinted and new springs, it has a timney trigger also. After I shot out the barrel I found a real nice Brazilian Mauser barrel in .308, not one that had been relined but a complete barrel in beautiful condition which I installed on my VZ and now have an awesome Deer Rifle. I didnt sporterize any of them I customized every one of them and made extremely accurate shooters out of them. I bought them all from private sellers and got good deals on all of them. I know a private seller who may still have some if you want to message me I will give you his contact information.

dano03

I have a russiam capture K-98 in 8mm, a sporterized M-96 in 6.5 Swedish and a FR-8 in 308 . I bought these and enjoyed the tuff mauser actions. I bought the Ruger GSR and a M77 in 6.5 Creedmoor and have just about decided the older mausers are a lot more fun to shoot but I miss the better triggers the newer Rugers have on them.

BudmanOH

I have a Czech M-24 Mauser I picked up at LGS store 4-5 years ago. It also came with bayonet and accessories. I think I paid around $150-160 for it. It is 8MM. Don't know too much about the Mitchell, other than their pricey.