Capture mark?

[j.bal]

I just bought a Mitchell's Mauser on Gunbroker. It has a mark that I am not familiar with. Could someone tell me what it is? It looks like an X with a vertical line throught the middle.
Three lines, 6 points.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Mitchell's Mauser. Ewwww! UGH! But I won't get into that old saw.

The X should be the Russian Capture marking. The reason for the third line is unknown. (Maybe Mitchell tried to "X" out the "X"???)

Do yourself a favor. Never buy from Mitchell's Mausers ever again, unless you like wasting money.

[j.bal]

I got a good deal on it and took it. i have seen Russian marks before. They are deep and crude. These marks are uniform almost as thought done with a stamp. I will try to post a pic.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Russian capture marks vary. Some look like crossed rifles, others are small or large, shallow or deep. One of mine is just a portion of the legs on the bottom of the X. Doesn't look like a capture mark unless you know what to look for.

[j.bal]

HPIM2595.JPG (14.73 KiB) Viewed 1644 times

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

That mark IS wierd. It's not like the five-tined asterisks used on k98's which was used to denote flaws required reworking, discovered during quality checks during manufacturing. I don't know what that mark is. Often marks like that are used postwar to denote capture, inspection and testing, or other reason. I don't know what this specific mark is for.

[PvtJoker]

I'm not 100% sure, but I *think* that may be a reject stamp (the "tramp stamp" as I've seen it called). These were put on weapons that, for whatever reason, did not make it past the inspection process the first time due to one thing or the other being out of tolerance. They were then sent back through the factory and the problems corrected, and sent out. But then again, I could be wrong. Where on the rifle is the stamp located?

[j.bal]

It's right above the serial # on the left side of the receiver. The rifle is all matching. As you can see in the pic there is some pitting, but very mild.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

I'm not 100% sure, but I *think* that may be a reject stamp (the "tramp stamp" as I've seen it called). These were put on weapons that, for whatever reason, did not make it past the inspection process the first time due to one thing or the other being out of tolerance. They were then sent back through the factory and the problems corrected, and sent out. But then again, I could be wrong. Where on the rifle is the stamp located?

This is not an "unaccepted" stamp. It has six tines and is larger. The reject stamp is five tines and small. Weapons with parts and reworked twice and passed were send into service. If they did not pass the third an final inspection, they were scrapped. The very latest war rifles sometimes have parts with reject marks on them, since toward the end of the war, the need for working rifles outweighed the inspection standards for some parts. Since this rifle is early (1941), it is less likely that a receiver with a reject mark would have made it to testing and issue. It is more likely that this mark was made postwar by whatever institution inherited this rifle from the Germans.

[j.bal]

I found this on a Gunbroker auction. It too is a Mitchill's Mauser Collectors.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

A fellow collector on Gunboards.com said that the "snowflake" is rather common on Mitchell's Mausers (attractive looking noob suckering JUNK k98's). It's just another line added to the Russian Capture "X". Here's another Mitchell's example from GB:

Another Boinked k98 looking for a sucker out there...

Speaking of Boinked k98's, here's a Mitchell's Mauser trying to pass itself off as a rare elite auction piece for $1400.00! UnFriggin' believeable! Check out the Steyr single rune added to a Mauser factory made rifle!

http://merzantique.com/item.php?id=3548_0_2_0

[www.Prussia.us]

My god, is nothing sacred. You think they would have at least used an actual BNZ K98 instead of a BYF to put the fake rune on. Idiots