New Mauser K98 Caliber

[bobo]

Just came across this one at a Danish auction house.

Mauser K98 militærriffel kal. 7x58JS med ammo

Mauser K98 militærriffel kal. 7x58JS. Med Otterup pibe. Våbennummer: 7940u. Totallængde: 111 cm. Pibelængde: 62,5 cm. Fremstår med stram og funktionel mekanik, skarp riffelgang samt med aldersrelaterede brugsspor. Riffeltilladelse påkrævet.

www.lauritz.com

 

[HonestJohn]

That’s an amazing caliber! lots of factory ammo available from major manufacturers for sure

 

[bobo]

Notice some of the Old orginal German WW2 ammo for it is SMK = Spiz mit kern = armorpiercing.

 

[Sinistral]

Notice some of the Old orginal German WW2 ammo for it is SMK = Spiz mit kern = armorpiercing.

AP is high velocity (S.m.K.H.) 'Patronen - Spitzgeschoss mit Kern Hart' with a tungsten carbide core.

The boxes stamped (S.m.K.) in Red are steel core 'Patronen - Spitzgeschoss mit Kern'.
The boxes labelled Patronen (S.m.E.) are military ball.
These have lacquered steel cases '(Stahl) + lackiert', sometimes overstamped 'fur MG' for machine-gun use.

 

[bobo]

I have learned that SMK = Spiz mit Kern, is normal AP with Hardened steel core.

SmKH is with tungsten, which the Germans did not have access to during the war.
SmKH are extremely rare, and the relative small number production stopped in early 1942, due to a lack of tungsten.

I have never seen German SmKH war ammo in reality, only pictures of it, and as an ammunition remover, I have seen many 1000 boxes of German WW2 ammo in all kinds of versions, 8x57js from the war is very common here in Denmark, and there is still a lot of it lying around.
If there should have been a pack of SmKH ammo in this lot, the auction house would have picked it out and sold it separatly in their "collectives" section.

SME = Spiz mit eisen that means Spizer with iron core.
Lead was in short supply in Germany during the war, so to save on lead, the projectiles were given iron cores, and yes steel cases as brass was short in supply.
And yes, they were used as ordinary ball.