Mauser Kar98 purchase advice

[davera]

I have lately been bitten by the milsurp bug and have come across a few Kar98's here in town. They are all Russian capture (crossed mosin stamp) but otherwise are not too beaten up or littered with non German markings. The one bore I looked at was dark but showed distinct rifling and showed some rifling at the muzzle too. The guy in the store said they get them from Century.
My choices are:
1937 - S27 - Erfurt - I looked most closely at this one, some sn's match, some looked stamped over or just worn but I'm sure there are mismatches.
1942 - BNZ - Steyr (I don't think it had a rune)
1943 - bcd - Gustloff Werke (Weimar)
1943 - byf - Oberndorf
I am leaning towards the 1937 Erfurt because it's a prewar year but the 1943 Oberndorf might be of interest too as it was not too late in the war to have been getting a lot of manufacturing shortcuts.
The price is $400 - maybe $400 "out the door".
My interest is to get a "good example" of the Kar98 that will shoot reasonably well. They'll all have some history behind them. I know that something that isn't RC and has match sn's will cost a pretty penny more.
So, does one of these look better on paper than the others?

Thanks

 

[Coronach]

I have a Gustloff-Werke bcd 43 and a Oberndorff 1937 (or is it 36?). Both are RCs, so they're mixmasters and slightly rough, with the prewar gun looking slightly more 'polished'...though the Russian "arsenalling" program makes any sort of assessment of the original quality suspect, as all of the small bits come from different guns of unknown model year and manufacturer.

I would buy the one that looks best and seems to work smoothest, regardless of date code.

One thing to consider, the Gustloff-Werke rifles used prison labor for some of their assembly work, with the prison in question being Buchenwald. Apparently, the Gew43 rifles were actually assembled in the camp. My limited research (which basically consists of Google and asking questions here) indicates that the K98 rifles were not made in the camp, but that the factory may have transported slave workers to their plant to work.

I have no idea if any of the other manufacturers used slave labor or not. I would not be surprised if they did (Steyr in particular, as you mention), but it is worth noting that "Gustloff-Werke" was named in "honor" of a nazi "martyr" ( ) who was killed by jews in a prewar assassination in Switzerland (in other words, one of Gustloff's would-be victims proved the worth of an armed populace). I don't know if the naming (renaming, actually) of the arms plant had anything to do with its use of "political prisoner" slave labor, but it seems like a nazi-ish thing to do.

Whatever gun you buy, make sure you have it headspaced. Ivan was less than meticulous with the small details.

Mike

 

[BsChoy]

I agree with coronach...the one that functions best. I have a BNZ 4 (Steyr 1944) that works awesome regardless of the fact the bore is a little dark. I would go early years as well as the historic value of having a possible "combat Vet" rifle would appeal to me.