After the end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles strictly restricted the development and production of German military weapons. However, the Germans secretly developed military weapons after the 1920s, such as the famous Mauser Kar.98k The development of the carbine began at that time. The Kar.98k became one of the most produced small arms during World War II. It entered service in 1935 and was the standard rifle of the Nazi German army until the end of World War II.

The German Army officially tested the 7.9mm caliber Mauser standard rifle in 1929 and early 1930, but this test was not a 1924-style standard rifle provided by Mauser. Instead, the barrel of the existing Type 98b carbine was shortened to 600mm. The shortened 98b proved to be more portable than other models, especially with its downturned charging handle and left-side mounted sling loop. So it was recommended for adoption and was called Karabiner98k, referred to as Kar.98k, K98k or directly referred to as 98k.

Note that the "K" before the number "98" is the uppercase letter representing carbine, and the lowercase letter "k" after the number means kurz (short), indicating that it is shorter than the Type 98b carbine. . This is why this 1-meter-long rifle is called a "short carbine" (note: the correct way of writing must pay attention to the capitalization of the letters before and after). The code name of the ordinary Kar.98k is Adalbert, and the code name of the Kar.98k-ZF41 equipped with a ZF41 sight is Adalbertb. Beginning in 1944, the codename of Kar.98k was changed to Dauerwelle.

Although it was recommended for adoption, the Kar.98k short carbine was not officially finalized or adopted until Hitler implemented his army reconstruction plan in June 1935. In 1933, the Mauser Company launched a new standard rifle with a downward-loading machine gun. Because its receiver was marked with a Mauser flag trademark, collectors now usually call this 1933 standard rifle. "BannerMauser". Aside from its official name, this Model 1933 standard rifle is essentially the same as the Model 98k short carbine. This short rifle was claimed to be for use by the "German Post and Telecommunications Department" (Deutsche Reichspost), but in fact many new guns were delivered directly to the Nazi Party.

The German Army officially announced the adoption of the Type 98k carbine on June 21, 1935. However, in 1934, Mauser and J.P. Saueramp; Sohn had already begun to adopt the carbine. The shortened version of the Kar.98b carbine designed by each was put into small batch trial production. Mauser's gun type and Sauer's gun type each used different barrel guards to fix the barrel. After comparative tests, it was found that Mauser's design was more precise. Reliable, so Mauser's gun type is designated as the standard style of Kar.98k carbine.

The structure of the Kar.98k short carbine and the Kar.98b carbine are exactly the same, except that the length of the Kar.98k is shorter. The Kar.98k carbine is marked "Mod.98" on the left side of the receiver. Models produced in the later part of the war had this mark on the receiver ring. In addition, the manufacturer's identification code consisting of numbers and letters is stamped on the receiver ring.

For example: "K" means 1934, and "G" means 1935. The mark "S/42K" means that the gun was produced by Mauser in 1934, while "S/147 /G" means a product of Sauer Company in 1935. There were many other production contractors responsible for the production of the Kar.98k carbine between 1935 and 1945. If a product was produced by two contractors at the same time, the manufacturer code would be two numbers separated by a slash. code. There are also some Kar.98k carbines produced in concentration camps.

After the Kar.98k short carbine was officially adopted, a large number of original Kar.98b carbines and Gew.98 rifles were sent to the factory to be converted into Kar.98k carbines. This batch of rifle machines The original markings on the box cannot be erased, but the main metal parts are stamped with Waffenamt (Weapons Agency) acceptance marks. There are also some rifles modified from the original rifles that are marked with the skull pattern of the Nazi SS and the ancient Germanic rune mark of "SS". Many unmodified old long rifle models were left for police use.

Kar.98k adopts curved rear sight and “V” shaped notched rear sight. The front sight is a barley grain (inverted "V" shape), with a removable semi-circular front sight guard installed on some guns. The front sight can be adjusted for windage, and the rear sight is adjustable from 100 meters to 2,000 meters in increments of 100 meters. However, the effective range when using mechanical sights is actually only about 500 meters. If a sight is installed, the effective range can be increased to about 900 meters.

Originally, there are two sling buckles installed on the bottom of the butt on the Type 98 rifle, while the Kar.98k short carbine is the same as the Type 98b carbine, with only one buckle on the left side of the front stock. , there is an opening on each side of the butt for a sling to replace the buckle at the bottom of the original butt. Before World War II, the stocks and handguards were all walnut, but this wood soon became in short supply. Therefore, most Type 98k carbines used laminated stocks and thin beech wood plus phenolic resin. This results in a slight increase in weight and is more difficult to produce, but plywood is stronger and resists moisture and bending better than solid walnut or beech.

The bayonet of the Kar.98k carbine is shortened from the long bayonet of the Gew.98 rifle. The total length is 380mm, the blade length is 240mm, there is a bleeding groove on the blade, and the German-style handle has Oblique anti-skid pattern, but bayonets produced in other countries do not have anti-skid pattern. The original 98k bayonet came with a hard metal scabbard, but this was later changed to a soft leather scabbard. The Kar.98k carbine can be equipped with a grenade launcher in front of the barrel, and is equipped with accessories such as a grenade sight, which can eject anti-personnel grenades or armor-piercing projectiles. These accessories can be carried in a leather carrying bag when not in use, hanging on the left side of the soldier's belt.

During the war, in order to speed up the production of Kar.98k carbine to meet the large needs of the front line, many changes were made to the rifle itself to simplify the production process and reduce the difficulty of production. For example, the steel butt bottom plate was machined Changed to casting, the scale on the inside of the arc-shaped rear sight was cancelled, the shape of the rear side of the sliding rear sight was changed from an oblique angle to a right angle, the trigger guard, magazine housing, bullet support plate, magazine floor, barrel guard, etc. All used stamped steel parts instead, and the vent hole on the bolt was changed from long to round. The butt originally had a metal sleeve running across the butt, which was used to accommodate the firing pin when the firing mechanism was disassembled. It was later changed to a hole made directly on the side of the butt bottom plate.

The result of further simplifying the process is that the groove of the butt that accommodates the charging handle is eliminated, the screw that fixes the barrel guard is changed to a wooden product, the bottom plate is changed to a stamped part, and the metal parts are made of phosphate. treatment replaced the original bluing, and in some later models a fixed rear sight was also used. By 1944, in addition to the sniper type, smoothbore barrels were even used directly to eliminate the process of producing rifling. The bayonet jam was canceled in the later stages of the war, and the purge bar was also canceled and a rope-pulling bore brush was used instead.

At the beginning of World War II, the German Wehrmacht had equipped approximately 2.77 million 98k units. During the war, another 7.54 million 98k units were delivered to the troops (including 120,000 sniper types). Among them, there are about 920,000 air force units, about 190,000 navy units, and more than 60,000 SS units. From 1935 to 1945, the total production of Kar.98k short carbine was more than 10 million.

But only the quality of the Kar.98k produced before World War II was the best. As the war progressed, the production process and quality of the 98k carbine declined after accelerating production. In the first few years of the war, the simplified Kar.98k still met military standards, but in the later stages of the war, the quality of the Kar.98k produced became increasingly poor.

In 1940, Mauser participated in the competition to develop a new semi-automatic rifle for the German army, but Walter's prototype gun defeated Mauser's prototype gun and was officially named Gewehr43 (G43) by the German army. , but because the G43 was launched too late and Germany's production capabilities are getting weaker and weaker, the simplified Kar.98k is still being produced and equipped in large quantities.

The Kar.98k carbine was not a weapon with outstanding performance in World War II. At that time, the American M1 Garand and the Soviet SVT used automatic loading technology to greatly increase the rate of fire of the weapon, and even Compared with similar weapons, the front-locked Mauser bolt is not as fast as the rear-locked Lee-Enfield bolt. The shooter using the Kar.98k must move his entire arm to eject the shell and load the gun, while using The shooter of the SMLE rifle only needs to move his wrist joint to achieve this.

So the actual rate of fire of Kar.98k is only 10 rounds/minute, while the rate of fire of SMLE reaches 15 rounds/minute. The only rifle slower than the 98k is the Mosin-Nagant, and the shooting accuracy of the 98k is not as good as similar rifles such as SMLE or Mosin-Nagant. Even the semi-automatic M1 Garand is more accurate than it. But the Kar.98k is not a fire stick after all. With its reliable gun and good shooting accuracy, the existence value of the Kar.98k carbine has been proved in the scorching North African desert and the cold Russian winter. And with the resounding name "Mauser", this backward weapon was taken home by many Allied soldiers after the war for collection or sold to other collectors.

In addition, a large number of 98k were renovated and continued to be used by France, East Germany, Norway, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Yugoslavia and other countries after the war. They were used in the Korean War, the Second Middle East War in 1956 and Later in the Vietnam War, 98k still fought on the battlefield. Today, the Type 98k carbine, a classic World War II weapon, is still popular among firearms enthusiasts and used for collecting, shooting sports, or hunting.