

Since there were no more guns to be issued, they started taking Gewehr 98's out of the reserves and re-issuing them. As the war came to a close, Hitler ordered all men from 16 to 60 to go into the army. Even with this, the K98 was produced until the end of the war in 1945. The K98 was the only rifle used by the German army from 1939 to 1943, until the Germans started issuing Gewehr 43 semi-automatic rifles. By time the war started in 1939, all German soldiers had the K98, with the exception of submachine guns machine guns. Although most Gewehr 98's were put into reserve in the next 2 years, the Gewehr 98 remained with police forces and reserve units until around 1938. In 1935, the K98 entered mass production and the Gewehr 98 production stopped.

Like I said earlier, the K98 is really a shorter version of a Gewehr 98. Karabiner means "carbine" in German which is another word for a shorter gun. When the Nazis came to power, they wanted a new rifle to replace the long Gewehr 98's, so they started developing a shorter rifle. It was the standard-issue rifle in World War 1. The Gewehr 98 was used from 1899 to 1936 in the German army. I Just want to say a little bit of the history on both guns. The bolt on the Gewehr 98 was straight, while th bolt on the K98 was curved down.The Gewehr 98 was about 49.2 inches long, but the K98 was about 43 inches long.Differences: The Gewehr 98 weighd about 9 lbs, when the K98 weighed about 8 lbs.It has an internal magazine for five bullets, just like the Gewehr 98.It shoots the same bullet, which is 8mm Mauser.

