The destruction of the Treaty of Versailles had already begun after Hitler became head of Germany in 1934, and when German soldiers in wehrmacht's distinctive gray-green uniforms carried rifles to retake the Rhine region, which belonged to the buffer zone, this scene was tantamount to a shot in the arm of the German people who were almost breathless under the oppression of the Treaty of Versailles, and these soldiers carried the famous Kar98k Mauser rifle on their shoulders, and now because of the game and film and television propaganda, there is a simple name "98K".
The predecessor of the Kar98k Mauser rifle is the German World War I standard rifle 1898 Mauser rifle, the World War I period for trench warfare under the combat system of longer rifles are more likely to gain an advantage in white-knife warfare, The length of the 1898 Mauser rifle is 1.25 meters, this length is not long or short in a number of World War I rifles, Germany according to the actual combat experience of the First World War to improve the 1898 Mauser rifle, first of all, there are 98a, the barrel length from the 1898 Mauser rifle 29.1 inch barrel shortened to 23.6 inches, the use of a downward-bending pull handle for easy to carry and walk. Later there was the 98b, still a 29.1-inch barrel also known as the carbine type, the 98b, although called the carbine, but the length is the same as the 1898 Mauser rifle, the carbine should be short but the actual length does not match the carbine.
The 1898 Mauser rifle, equipped by German infantry during World War I, note its length when fitted with a bayonet
In 1924, Mauser introduced a standard Mauser rifle, on the basis of the 1898 Mauser rifle, the barrel was shortened to 600mm, and the length of the whole gun was shortened from 1.25 meters to 1.11 meters, which became a general rifle for infantry and cavalry, this design was not valued by Germany at the time, but in the 30s, China imported some of these rifles and copied them in China.
In the early period of the Anti-Japanese War, the German Mechanic Division was equipped with individual soldiers, and the medium was a formal rifle
In the 1930s, Germany rearmament, based on the Mauser standard rifle and the 98b rifle combined with the rifle is the Karabiner 98k, of which "k" is the abbreviation of "Kurz", German means "short", this classic weapon with the course of the war in the later period due to material shortages deteriorated in quality, and finally even the bayonet card slot was removed, the best quality was made before and early World War II, from 1935 to 1945, a total of 14.5 million pieces were produced.
The Kar98k Mauser rifle inherits the classic Mauser rotary pull bolt of the 1898 Mauser rifle series, with a safety device at the tail of the bolt. The bullets are double-row staggered with built-in magazines, loaded with 5-round magazines, and the bullets are pressed into the magazine through the top of the receiver, or they can be loaded single-shot. The use of a downward-curved pull handle for easy carrying and mounting of the scope, the "V" shaped notched door, the inverted "V" shaped crosshair, the crosshair with a circular guard, and the curved gauge, at that time was a reliable and accurate rifle, considered one of the best rotating pull-back bolt rifles in World War II.
The classic legend of the Kar98k Mauser rifle is its bolt structure, the bolt has two latching teeth are located on the top of the bolt, people often mistake a bump (small hat) located at the back of the bolt for a latching device, but in fact it is a safety bump but does not touch the latching shoulder on the receiver. The bolt pull handle is connected to the bolt itself, and the original straight pull handle on the 98k rifle was changed to a curved shape. This design makes the movement of the bolt more comfortable and convenient. For example, on the Type 98 rifle with a gun sight, if the straight pull handle is used, it will touch the gun sight frame and affect the shooting, and the curved pull handle will not, and there is also an exhaust hole on the bolt to discharge the hot gunpowder gas to prevent injury to the shooter's face (really humane design).
The bolts of the Mauser rifle are reasonably well designed
The biggest modification of the Kar98k Mauser rifle is the sniper rifle version, during World War II, German snipers can shoot targets within 600 meters using 4 times the scope, and equipped with 6 times the scope can shoot targets within 1000 meters, in the battle with the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, German snipers gave Soviet soldiers great casualties.
The German sniper (played by Ed Harris) in the movie "Soldiers In the City", the sniper in the street battle is terrifying and frightening
Kar98k Mauser rifle in the late World War II because of its rate of fire has been unable to meet the needs of the troops, with the United States M1 Garand rifle, Soviet SVT-40 rifle and other weapons appeared, Kar98k Mauser rifle was originally intended to be replaced by the G43 type semi-automatic rifle, but later in the war Germany has been unable to manufacture on a large scale, Kar98k Mauser rifle continued to be active on the battlefield until the end of the war.
Nowadays, the Kar98k Mauser rifle has become a collectible or a weapon in some troubled areas, and the success and influence of the Kar98k Mauser rifle as a classic weapon is self-evident, and even for a while any rifle that is a little similar will be regarded as the "98K".