Pre–World War II export Though most Karabiner 98k rifles went to the German armed forces, the weapon was sold abroad in the years prior to World War II. In Portugal, a large quantity of Karabiner 98k rifles made by Mauser Werke were adopted as the
Espingarda 7,92 mm m/937 Mauser infantry rifle. They were later used during the
Portuguese Colonial War. Other pre-war exports of Karabiner 98ks were to China (an unknown number of rifles 1935 - 38), and 20,000 in 1937 to Japan. Exports of Karabiner 98ks decreased as war drew closer, as all available production capacity was needed to equip the German Armed Forces.
World War II use . The Mauser Karabiner 98k rifle was widely used by all branches of the armed forces of Germany during
World War II. It saw action in every theatre of war involving German forces, including occupied Europe, North Africa, the Soviet Union, Finland, and Norway. Although comparable to the weapons fielded by Germany's enemies at the beginning of the War, its disadvantages in rate of fire became more apparent as American and Soviet armies began to field more semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns for their troops. Still, it continued to be the main infantry rifle of the Wehrmacht until the end of the war, and about between 900 thousand and 2 million of them were produced annually. Resistance forces in German-occupied Europe made frequent use of captured German Karabiner 98k rifles. The
Soviet Union also made extensive use of captured Karabiner 98k rifles and other German infantry weapons due to the
Red Army experiencing a critical shortage of small arms during the early years of World War II. Many German soldiers used the verbal expression "Kars" as the slang name for the rifle. Sweden ordered 5,000 Karabiner 98ks that were provided from the regular production run in 1939 for use as light
anti-tank rifles under the designation
gevär m/39 (rifle m/39) but it was soon evident that the penetration offered by the 7.92×57mm Mauser was inadequate and thus the gevär m/39 were rechambered to the
8×63mm patron m/32, which was a more powerful 8 mm cartridge specifically designed for long-range machinegun fire. Accordingly, the Karabiner 98ks were rechambered in Sweden for the 8×63mm patron m/32 and the
internal box magazine of the M 98 system was adapted to match the dimensionally larger 8×63mm patron m/32 cartridge, reducing the capacity to 4 rounds and accepted into service as
pansarvärnsgevär m/40. A
muzzle brake was installed to reduce the excessive
free recoil, and the resulting weapon was designated
gevär m/40 in Swedish service. They were however also found to be unsatisfactory and were soon withdrawn from service, and sold off after WW II.
Post–World War II use Soviet capture During World War II, the Soviet Union captured millions of Mauser Karabiner 98k rifles and refurbished them in various arms factories in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These rifles, referred to by collectors as RC ("Russian Capture") Mausers, can be identified by an "X" stamp on the left side of the receiver. The Soviet arsenals made no effort to match the rifle's original parts by serial number when reassembling them, and some metal parts (the cleaning rod, sight hood, and locking screws) were omitted after rebuilding, and instead were melted down and recycled, presumably with the other parts that weren't suitable for re-use. Many of these rifles (along with the
Mosin–Nagant rifle) served in conflicts after World War II. One example of Soviet-captured Mauser Kar98k rifles being used in post-WWII conflicts is the
Korean War, where a number of these rifles were provided by the Soviet Union (along with Soviet-made small arms) to Chinese Communist forces to supplement their supply of
Type Zhongzheng rifles. Both the Soviet-capture Kar98k rifle and the Chinese Type Zhongzheng rifle were used extensively by the
People's Volunteer Army throughout the course of the Korean War. The Korean War would not be the only conflict where Soviet-capture Kar98k rifles and WWII German small arms were provided to the allies of the Soviet Union. The
Vietnam War would become another example with Soviet-capture Mauser Karabiner 98k rifles being provided to
North Vietnam by the USSR as military aid. Many Soviet-capture Karabiner 98k rifles (as well as some Karabiner 98k rifles that were left behind by the French after the
First Indochina War and Type Zhongzheng rifles provided by the People's Republic of China) were found in the hands of
Viet Cong guerrillas and
People's Army of Vietnam (NVA) soldiers by US, South Vietnamese, South Korean, Australian and New Zealand forces alongside Soviet-bloc rifles like the Mosin–Nagant, the
SKS, and the
AK-47.
Post-occupation service In the years after World War II, several European nations on both sides of the Iron Curtain that were invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany used the Mauser Karabiner 98k rifle as their standard-issue infantry rifle, due to the large number of German weapons that were left behind by the Germans at the end of World War II. Nations like France and Norway used the Mauser Karabiner 98k rifle and other German weapons in the years after World War II. France produced a slightly modified version of the Kar 98k in the
French occupation zone of Germany in the immediate post-war period. The new manufacture Kar 98ks equipped some French units that used them in
Indochina for a limited time. French Police forces, the
Paris Police Prefecture and the
Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité, used 98ks from 1945 to 1992, to fire
lachrymator and
smoke grenades. These rifles were also used by West German border guards. , is still visible on many of the rifles that were used by the Norwegian military. The "FLY" prefix to the serial number denotes that this rifle was issued to Flyvåpenet (Air Force). Norway's captured Karabiner 98k rifles were soon superseded as a standard-issue weapon by the US M1 Garand, but remained in service as Norwegian Home Guard weapons until the 1990s, in which role they were rebarreled for the
.30-06 Springfield round used by the M1, with a small cutout in the receiver so that the slightly longer US round could still be loaded with stripper clips. These Norwegian conversions had a section of the receiver flattened on the upper left side, where a new serial number (with a prefix denoting the branch of service) was stamped. Some of these rifles conversions were rechambered again to
7.62×51mm NATO, In West Germany, the Karabiner 98k were issued to the
Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS; ), which was originally organized along paramilitary lines and armed as light infantry; in the 1950s. Former German Karabiner 98k rifles were widely distributed throughout the Eastern Bloc, some being refurbished two or three times by different factories. They were used by military and para-military forces (such as the
East German Combat Groups of the Working Class), and were replaced by Soviet weapons in the 1960s. During the
Greek Civil War, the Greek pro-communist factions were equipped with large numbers of Kar 98k rifles, captured from the Germans or supplied by Yugoslavia. Later, during the
Cyprus Emergency, the Cypriot
EOKA smuggled several dozens of these rifles from Greece. members of the
Combat Groups of the Working Class,
Border Troops and the
Volkspolizei at the border of the Berlin sector in 1961. The Combat Group members are equipped with Karabiner 98k rifles. East German refurbished Karabiner 98ks featured Russian-style thicker blue finish, a 'sunburst' proof mark and sometimes had the factory designation '1001' applied, which was the factory where the refurbishment was carried out. Numbers were re-stamped to match the receiver and old numbers barred out. Numbers of East German and Czech refurbished Karabiner 98ks were exported to the West in the late 1980s and early 1990s and are now in the hands of collectors. Russian Capture Karabiner 98ks were exported to the West in large numbers in the early and mid-2000s.
Yugoslavian postwar refurbishment Because of the lack of weapons after World War II, the
Yugoslavian arms producer Crvena Zastava (Nowadays
Zastava Arms) refurbished German Karabiner 98k rifles that were left over or captured during the war. These rifles are readily identifiable as the German factory code markings have been scrubbed from the receiver and replaced with the Yugoslavian communist crest and the marking "Preduzeće 44" on the receiver's ring. In addition to this, if the refurbishment took place after 1950, the marking "/48" was added to the "Mod. 98" originally present on the left side of the receiver, becoming "Mod. 98/48". The refurbished rifles were known also as
Zastava M 98/48. The refurbished Prеduzeće 44 Karabiner 98k rifles were still being used in the
Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.
Austrian modification and use as SSG 98k sniper rifle By modifying and accurizing surplus Karabiner 98K rifles, the
Austrian Army created and adopted the
SSG 98k (
Scharfschützengewehr 98k, literally Sharpshooter Rifle 98k) in 1958 as their standard sniper rifle. Modifications and updates included rechambering to the at the time recently introduced 7.62×51mm NATO with new free floating barrels, sporterizing the original stock and adding a rubber Pachmayr recoil pad. The rechambering matched the adoption in 1958 of the 7.62×51mm NATO
Sturmgewehr 58 by the Austrian military. The SSG 98k was issued with the Kahles ZF 58 4×41 telescopic sight that could be quickly user detached and attached from their mounts, but retained iron sights for back up purposes. The ZF 58 optical sight featured a
Bullet Drop Compensating (BDC) elevation turret tuned for the
ballistic trajectory of the gun-
cartridge combination with a predefined
projectile weight/type,
muzzle velocity and
air density at ranges. The Austrian military ZF 58 sight's BDC was calibrated from in increments. For storage and transport, the ZF 58 sights were issued with a leather carrying pouch. In Austrian service, the SSG 98k started to be replaced from 1969 when the
Steyr SSG 69 sniper rifle was adopted. ==Accuracy potential==