Articles / Markings & codes
How to read K98k maker codes and date stamps
The code is a factory. The date is a year. They are two facts, not one logo.
German military small-arms serials reused number blocks with a letter suffix. Photograph the full serial on the receiver, the bolt, the stock disc, and the bands. A ‘matching’ rifle is matching across those stations, not merely the same number on the receiver and the bolt root.
Oberndorf: S/42, 42, byf, svw
Mauser Oberndorf used S/42 in the mid-1930s, then 42, then the letter code byf, then svw in 1945. They are the same factory at different bureaucratic moments. Do not catalogue a byf 43 as ‘S/42’ because a seller prefers the older look. Read what is on the ring.
Other makers
Letter codes replaced number codes as the system matured: dou, bcd, swp, ce, and the rest. Occupied plants (BRNO, and so on) have their own tables. A 1944 swp rifle is not an Oberndorf rifle. The date is the year of the receiver, not a promise about the barrel or the stock.
Photograph the receiver ring, the barrel shank, and the stock disc as three separate facts.