What were the advantages, and or disadvantages of this weapon? If any at all would help!
you should probably do a search first, but the main disadvantage to a k98 during ww2 was that americans were equipped with the m1, thus giving the average american gi fire superiority over most german infantry, however i think that the mosin-nagant had a higher effective range and so did british enfrields
Use the search function, it has been discussed at length previously. Probably under one of those ghastly “best rifle” threads.
sorry, i just didn’t know where to go to find this information
At the top of this page you will find “search”. Click it. Then click “advanced search”. Enter my username and Mauser or K98 or k98k or kar98k into the relevant fields. Perform the search.
This from elsewhere in the forum:
I’ve dealt with the Kar 98k elsewhere on the forum, but a brief summary follows:
Recoil - punishing, and unnecessarily so.
Action - slow to operate, cocks on opening (makes opening the bolt harder but does reduce the lock time), and can be dirt-sensitive (too many bearing surfaces in the cocking piece mechanism). Bolt handle too far forward.
Magazine - only 5 round capacity.
Sights - Miserable - the blade is too coarse, and are designed in such a way that under stress you’ll shoot high (when the sights are lowered, the little U-notch sits at the bottom of a big, square notch. The temptation is to line the front post up with this big notch, not the little one, and therefore shoot high).
Heating - 3 rounds in rapid fire & the heat haze coming off the barrel starts to obscure the target and sights. 10rds & it’s getting really wobbly.
Safety catch - awkwardly placed, awkward to use.
Forward locking - although theoretically much stronger (this is only an issue if you want to make a hunting rifle using a high-pressure cartridge though), the breech face is shrouded by the front of the action - makes cleaning difficult & checking clear harder.
Does that answer your question?
Damn MoS maybe its nappy time! Grumpy bastard 
Yes, thanks! the info was most helpful
See, I am doing some amateur research on the german weapons of WW2. And I just needed some quick links/info to get me started.
Thanks!
Aside from M.O.S. excellent info, I was told by a friend years ago, who was in the Wehrmacht that the biggest problem with the 98 was that it was a bolt action rifle fielded in a time of semi-automatics.The higher rate of fire, better sight picture control, and larger magazine capacity, made the semi-autos far superior to 98’s Though this was not the problem in the East, so much, rifle against rifle, the sub-machine gun evened the odds against the 98.
Which is why we don’t pay too much attention to “a friend years ago, who was in the Wehrmacht”, because he’s wrong.
- The Soviet Union fielded a 10-shot semi-auto rifle before the US army did.
- Rifle to rifle the M1 garand may be superior to the Kar98k, but section to section the Germans had superior firepower over the Americans because of the MG.34 and MG.42 which by far out weighed the US advantage of having every rifleman armed with a semi-auto.
- The submachine gun does not “even the odds” against a rifle. It enables a country to quickly and cheaply arm and train masses of conscripts.
i believe your refering to the SVT-40, which i believe was not produced on a lare scale until after the M-1, also only 1.6 million of theses were produced, which when compared to size of the soviet army is not that many
You’re beliefs are wrong.
The Soviets had started the issuing of a self-loading rifle to their troops in 1938 with the SVT-38. Combat experience in the Winter War with the Finns lead to some improvements and the SVT-40 came out. It was intended for the SVT-40 to become the standard infantry rifle for the whole army and mass production was started. However in 1941 the Germans were so rude as to invade, causing the Russians to revert back to the tried and true Mosin-nagant which was cheaper to produce and more suited to raising and training a huge conscript army.
This aside production of the SVT-40 continued throughout the war and probably peaked in 1942 by which time they had produced 1.3 million rifles.
Conversely America was busy staying out of WWII, up until it was attacked by Japan in December 1941. Most of the fighting in the Pacific in the early months was done by Marines armed with 1903 Springfields and Johnson semi-auto rifles. It wasn’t until 1942 that production of the M1 Garand caught up with demand.
Over all production of the M1 was minimal, 4.5 million between 1938 and 1957, compared to an estimated 5 million PPSh-41’s between 1941 and 1950 or the 12 million Kar98ks produced from 1936 to 1945. It’s anybody’s guess as to how many mosin nagants were produced!
thats what i’m sayign there were more m1’s in the US than there were SVT-40’s in the USSR, whose standard rifle was the mosin nagant
The question was about the pro’s and con’s of the mauser 98 in its various forms. and not particularily about how it stacked up against another rifle, The observation I made was one that is often overlooked. It was a bolt action rifle fielded in a time of semi-autos, (regardless of who’s they were) in the context of the second world war, its a relevant observation.
As far as my old friend who spoke of this to me, all I can say is, He was there, in Russia, and lived through it. He was there, were you? Your attitude does not become you. If you have occasion in the future to quote me,or make reference to me, please check your attitude at the door. - Raspenau -
Did you even understand what I said? The M1 Garand was produced from 1936 to 1957 or an average of 214,000 rifles per year. Of course there will be peaks in production (between 1942 and 1945) but compare that against 1.3 million SVT-40’s made between 1940 and 1942. Thats an average of three times as many rifles per year as the M1 Garand.
If you look at those figures you’ll agree that the Soviets were mass producing a semi-auto before the American army was.
[QUOTE=tankgeezer;104481Your attitude does not become you. If you have occasion in the future to quote me,or make reference to me, please check your attitude at the door. - Raspenau -[/QUOTE]
If you’re going to tell me off, at least you could do me the curtesy of comprehending what I wrote. If you are not clear on any points please ask.
do you have any idea how many people were in the soviet army? compared to all those people 1.3 million is nothing
Your disparaging remark concerning my friend now passed on,and what he said about the M-98 is what I take exception to. Choose your words with greater care. When the first words off your keyboard are a slam to my friend, it really doesnt matter what else you may have to say.your point is moot. - Raspenau -
Gee, my first post on this forum and it seems that your simple question has sparked bickering among those who reply. Too bad.
Forget the search; ask a question if you have one. Isn’t that one of the reasons why this and other forums exist? To ask questions? Who cares if it’s repetitive? As to those who want to play the ‘go use the search’ function in response to a logical question, if someone doesn’t like the question, all they have to do is move on to another thread.
While I’m not near as knowledgeable as others on this forum, the K98K was a very reliable rifle as the model went. Unfortunately, the design accomodated only five rounds. Definately a disadvantage when the opposition has a standard issue weapon that is able to handle more rounds. Heating of the barrel after “X” number of shots? Yeah, probably an issue, but my guess is that the average K98K user probably wasn’t too worried about that concept; he was mainly concerned in trying to use the rifle to keep himself alive. He wasn’t commenting to himself during a firefight something like “Gee… I see heat waves coming off the barrel after however many shots I’ve taken. That’s bad for my sight picture, so I should let me barrel cool down before taking more shots.” Hey, just a guess there on my part. And there’s more pros and cons, but I need to let others have something to comment on, don’t I?
So, having stirred the pot here and will no doubt elicit however many ‘nasty’ responses, I maintain my position that if you have a question, ask. Otherwise, sooner or later all possible questions on all subjects will be asked and the forum can be shut down, using the logic of the ‘search first’ crowd.
Now, I’m awaiting the fireworks…