German K98 DOU 1943 Kriegsmodell from AIM?

[boofus]

I just got in my new $189 Mauser from AIMsurplus. It's a Russian capture marked DOU 1943. It looks kind of odd when compared to other K98s. The front barrel band is a very crude solid piece of metal. There is no bayonet stud, and no place to attach the cleaning rod. There is no spring loaded bar on the front end with the barrel band either.

The barrel and stock are matching but the floorplate and bolt don't. I've heard later on in the war the Germans started to cut corners like not including bayonet lugs or cleaning rods and using stamped metal instead of milled. The magazine floorplate and trigger guard look like they are milled and not stamped though. They have the additional locking screws as well, which the later models didn't have.

I'm at a loss as to what kind of K98 I actually got from AIM. Is this some transitional model with higher quality parts mixed in with a late-war crude stock? or did I just get a FrankenRifle that AIM scrounged enough parts to throw together?

 

[Beetle Bailey]

AFAIK it's a Frankenrifle, but Dr. Frankenrifle is a Russian who did the job after WWII, not AIMsurplus. As I understand it, the Soviets did the mixmaster thing to have as many servicable surplus rifles as possible, in case we decided to invade them. Instead of "The one with the rifle shoots. The other one follows the one who shoots. When the one who shoots goes down, the other one picks up the rifle and shoots!" they could presumably have two guys running around with Frankenmausers shooting at the same time .

Since we never bothered to invade them, they put the "Russian Capture" 98k's on the surplus market (my guess is that they probably have plenty of surplus AK's by now, should the need arise). Just enjoy it as a shooter .