What to look for in Polish Mauser

[RogerDat]

My brother in law is thinking of selling his Polish Mauser. I was thinking it would make a nice companion for an Enfield already in the gun safe. We both have no idea of either the current value OR what things to look for to determine if it is a rare model that commands a premium price. Have seen these listed online for as little as $150 or as much as $2,400.

Figure that if anyone could give us the honest information on what to look for to determine value and what the current prices are it would be here.

I know it shoots well, have shot against it a few times for fun. If it is just a milsurp rifle I'll buy it, if it is a valuable collectors item he might do better selling it to a collector who can give him the premium price.

Thanks for any advice or information you can provide.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

A photo or two would help a great deal in determining the model and value. I've collected mil surps for a long, long time and would be surprised to find a Polish Mauser worth $2,400. Many of their WW II rifles were reworked German rifles received as reparations after WW I, and there didn't used to be any shortage of them. Anyway, some photos with close ups of any markings would be helpful.

[lefty o]

photo's and every detail you can think of are required to get in the ballpark. you've just asked the question, i have this old chevy whats it worth? info, info, info lol

[RogerDat]

I was actually asking what were the things to look for or photograph. Seems like for the folks that have knowledge of this stuff even little things such as type of sight, or shape of bolt handle matter.

Just got a call and brother in law will drop it off on Saturday so I can get photos and take pictures, he said it was sold to him as Polish but in looking at the seal more closely he thinks it might be Czechoslovakian, I was thinking Yugoslavian is another possibility.

Have been doing some reading and looking, the history of this rifle is interesting but pretty involved. Compared to the Chevy it is not enough to know year, make and model and which engine, have to know engine serial number, carburetor make and CFM, the cam timing. And who made the distributor cap. :-) Then you know what you have.

Will use these pictures as a guide to what pictures I should take and post as starting point.
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?144316-Mausers-Only-Mausers

Some antique gun sites and gun auction sites had some pretty high prices, not sure if those are sucker bait prices or legitimate collectors items. I'm torn. Would be neat if he had a collectors item that put a few bucks in his pocket, on the other hand be nice if I could add a mauser plinker to the household. Don't really get all that excited about the new guns but do like the older ones. And I have 8mm reloading dies for it already.

Look for pictures in a couple of days.

[Adam Helmer]

RogerDat,

I am a serious military arms collector and have several Polish Radom rifles on the heap. Please tell us all the info on the receiver and bolt. Is the rifle "matching", are the receiver and bolt of the same serial number?

I am an arms appraiser for several attorneys in my county. Without seeing the rifle, an opinion as to its market value is not possible.

Adam

[RogerDat]

Thanks Adam,
Will get that information this weekend. Just looking to avoid making a big mistake on price rather than get a solid appraisal over the internet. Find out enough to see if an appraisal is warranted. Or if simply finding out what the LGS will pay sets a fair market value for me to pay him. B in L trusts me to find out a fair price so I have an especially strong obligation to make sure the value I provide for him to base his sale price to me on is fair. I don't want to base value only on statements from someone at LGS with a vested interest in setting a low price. I figure the people here are a fair minded bunch with no vested interest. And the knowledge of what makes this firearm more valuable than that firearm. Frankly sometimes a scary amount of knowledge about firearms and related subjects.

[bouncer50]

Before WW11 China bought quite a few Polish Mauser. After WW1 the Poles i think during the early 1920 bought a lot of Germany surplus Mauser parts to build their rifles. Its cheaper to buy surplus parts them to make your own. During the mid 1980 a lot of surplus Chinese Polish mauser were being sold at gun shows. Some were strip of parts i bought a few just for the reciever for 10 buck each.

[UBER7MM]

A lot of those Polish Mausers were captured by the Germans and sent to the Puch Armory in Austria for refurbishment before being issued to the Wehrmacht. They'll have 660 stamped on the action and Nazi proof marks. I don't know if a Polish Mauser is more sought after then any others. I saw a Czech 98-22 and a Persian 98-22, (30 in barrels) both in very nice on condition and matching serial numbers, for $589 each this morning.

I hope this helps,

[gew98]

All I can tell you is some of the "advice" given so far is "stooopid". Pictures o fmarkings , unsanded wood , matching condition are paramount. Many years ago I found a really nice bolt mismatch gew98...turned out it was a 1923 warsawa made (polish made ) version of the gew98. I got a kings ransom for it back then as I kinda knew something was different about it.
So unless you supply details with appropriate pics...it's a tosser.

[Adam Helmer]

gew98,

I do not know you and perhaps you do not know me. Thus, I think your opening statement about "some of the advice so far is stupid" IS Stupid! Ok, so what is your pedigree on being a source of ALL Knowledge? In one or two sentences, PLEASE make us all as "SMART" as you?

Adam

[NuJudge]

You can find some good pictures of Polish-made Mausers at this website:
http://collectiblefirearms.com/RiflesMauser.html

The Polish short Mauser, wz. 1929, does look a lot like the Czech short rifle, vz. 24.

Most Polish-made Mausers were made with a large Heraldic Eagle on the front receiver ring. Many Polish-made Mausers do not have any markings on the front receiver ring now, because they were "sanitized" before being sold to one side or the other in the Spanish Civil War. I have two of these sanitized rifles, a wz. 1929 and a wz. 98.

[gew98]

gew98,

I do not know you and perhaps you do not know me. Thus, I think your opening statement about "some of the advice so far is stupid" IS Stupid! Ok, so what is your pedigree on being a source of ALL Knowledge? In one or two sentences, PLEASE make us all as "SMART" as you?

Adam
Whatever man....stay smart and just keep on appraising.

[RogerDat]

Won't have time to get pictures up this morning, chores need doing. But it matches the Yugoslavian receiver in this post. With an extra "5" or maybe a letter after the 1924 date. But has that Yugo emblem. Stock and receiver have same SN but not the bolt.

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?144316-Mausers-Only-Mausers&p=1118951#post1118951

Also does not have all the extra writing on the sides of the receiver, actually pretty plain. Missing the cleaning rod, sling looks old enough to be original. Some sort of left over mark from something mounted in side of stock. Not much in the way of markings or stamping on this one. Few parts have numbers might be a letter or tiny symbol stamped on the bottom of the magazine. Nice patina, showing where hands have held it many times or not, finish is dark in places, golden in places.

But at least Yugo is a place to start. Any of the Yugoslavian models especially valuable?

[flounderman]

check the length of the bolt against a regular 98 bolt. The Yugo is shorter.

[bouncer50]

check the length of the bolt against a regular 98 bolt. The Yugo is shorter. I believe only the M-48 had the shorter bolt. The early model had the regular 98 bolt at least the few i have does.

[RogerDat]

You can find some good pictures of Polish-made Mausers at this website:
http://collectiblefirearms.com/RiflesMauser.html
.....

Those are a bunch of the examples listed with prices between $1000 and $2500 seeing that page was one of the reasons I thought some might be of higher value. No idea if those are real prices or as I said before just over priced noob bait.

[gew98]

Those are a bunch of the examples listed with prices between $1000 and $2500 seeing that page was one of the reasons I thought some might be of higher value. No idea if those are real prices or as I said before just over priced noob bait.
Oh , Mr Gastior....well if you like to pay uber high prices.... that's the not native born dealer you want to go to. He will make your nose bleed money if that is what you are into. He sold two gew98's to a buddy several years back and they were horrible put togethers to include a barrel so poorly indexed threads were visible. Yeah he refunded my friend...but to sell such things and not see the obvious defects for his uber nosebleed pricing from the get go ?.

[Bigslug]

But at least Yugo is a place to start. Any of the Yugoslavian models especially valuable?

In the grand scheme, generally not, but even there, the term "Yugo Mauser" is not a definite. Mine's a reworked, restamped K-98 with the odd Nazi-marked part here and there. You'll also see the shorter-actioned M-48's that have handguard wood behind the rear sight.

98 long and short rifles. . .it's easier to list the countries that DIDN'T carry them than the ones that did, most of the parts on them will interchange, and one nation conquering another pretty much ensured that those parts WOULD be interchanged. Frankenguns abound.

In other words: PHOTOS MAN! PHOTOS!

[RogerDat]

And Photos (Finally) you shall have! The serial number on the stock matches the one on the side of the breech. The bolt has a totally unrelated 4 digit number. There is what looks like a 23 or 25 on the band at the barrel end. I make the barrel length to be 24 inches and maybe an 1/8 or 1/4.
141788
141790
141791
141793
141795
141796

[pietro]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=141788&d=1433900179&thumb=1



That crest is the Yugoslav royal crest, which appeared on all Model of 1924 rifles.
.
The bolt mis-match makes it a shooter.

The reason behind the mis-match is that after WWII, when the rifles were surrendered to the Allies, the bolts were removed to preclude some hero with a live round or two in his pocket from grabbing a rifle to shoot an Allied soldier or two.

The bolts were thrown into a pile separate from the rifles, and since it was virtually impossible to sort though the piles for matching up the parts, the surrendered rifles were re-assembled as mil-surps via grabbing any bolt from the pile that would fit/close.

IIRC, matching number military Mauser rifles were individual/direct capture rifles, and not in the mass-surrender category.




.

[RogerDat]

That was an interesting bit of history pietro. So what do "shooter" Yugolav mausers go for? Has a pretty decent bore if nothing else.

Does anyone know what was mounted on the side of the stock where that embed mark is? Third picture down.
Also what a cleaning rod missing from under the barrel might go for if one could be found.

[UBER7MM]

That was an interesting bit of history pietro. So what do "shooter" Yugolav mausers go for? Has a pretty decent bore if nothing else.....

This is what J&G Sales has listed this morning:


http://www.jgsales.com/mauser-98-bolt-action-rifle,-8x57,-german-98-rebuilt-by-yugoslavia,-29-long-barrel,-gew-style,-c-r,-used.-p-83319.html

http://www.jgsales.com/mauser-k98-bolt-action-rifle,-8x57,-german-k98-rebuilt-by-yugoslavia,-24-barrel,-with-cracked-stock,-c-r.-p-80385.html

http://www.jgsales.com/yugo-mauser-24-47-bolt-action-rifle,-8x57-8mm-caliber,-vg-condition,-used.-p-6408.html


You can also check with your local "Big 5 Sporting" store. They carry them as well.

I hope this helps,

[gew98]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=141788&d=1433900179&thumb=1



That crest is the Yugoslav royal crest, which appeared on all Model of 1924 rifles.
.
The bolt mis-match makes it a shooter.

The reason behind the mis-match is that after WWII, when the rifles were surrendered to the Allies, the bolts were removed to preclude some hero with a live round or two in his pocket from grabbing a rifle to shoot an Allied soldier or two.

The bolts were thrown into a pile separate from the rifles, and since it was virtually impossible to sort though the piles for matching up the parts, the surrendered rifles were re-assembled as mil-surps via grabbing any bolt from the pile that would fit/close.

IIRC, matching number military Mauser rifles were individual/direct capture rifles, and not in the mass-surrender category.




.

It was more often than not that rifles surrendered had their bolts as evidenced by the vast majortity of pics of piled rifles in the field and in depots after capture. In the great war it was SOP to remove bolts form enemy rifles in the attack so they could not be used to shoot you in the back. WW2 was considerably different and more fluid. Of th emany vets I met and questioned over the years the majority had their bolts pulled from them while on the way home as a safety measure by the ships commanders. This you will find is the reason most vet bolt only mismatches are so.
When you see pics of mountains of 98k's and assorted rifles surrendered in WW2 you rarely see bolts missing. Even pics of GI's smashing rifles against trees and pavement , and tanks crushing same the rifles have their bolts.

[RogerDat]

That J&G links were helpful. Am hoping this information will allow for a fair price to be determined.

Am hoping I can land a cleaning rod and maybe whatever was mounted in side of the stock. Just to tidy up loose ends so to speak. Also can't wait to reload for it. Some moderate loads would make for a pleasant trip to the range.