[my-rifle]

My experience with five k98s and an equal number of Czech Mausers is that the RC K98s were the quick and dirty of the Mauser line. Loose-fitting bolts, rough triggers, and sheet metal parts just don't compare to the "smooth-as-buttah" Czech rifles. Once you've fired a Czech Mauser you will know what I mean. The fit and finish of the Czech rifles puts them near the top of their contemporaries.

Now the South American pre-war Mausers are also excellent. Like the Czech Mausers they have that smooth action that you just don't find in RC K98s. I don't know if this is true, but I've read that DWM and Loewe produced them as sort of advertisements for the Mauser brand. Since they had no European war to feed they could afford to do good work on the Mausers they built for export.

 

[my-rifle]

I would always prefer a K98 over a VZ24, simply for collectibility. Don't limit yourself. And the only thing "down and dirty" about the RC K98s is that they were refinished and put together out of scrambled parts. They didn't leave the factory that way.

Agreed, yet thats the condition we find them in now.

 

[my-rifle]

Nice find. My understanding of cosmoline theory says that they heat up a tank of cosmoline, then they dunk the entire rifle into the tank, remove it, cool it, then store it. That way everything gets coated inside and out. Nice find, by the sound of it. Tell me, did the receiver ring have a crest or writing? "Zbrjovka Czechoslovenska" or some such? If you're like me and came into Mausers via Mosin-Nagants, then the Mauser action is a thing of beauty. Congratulations.

I'm jealous that you live so close to RGuns. I suppose I should be glad that I don't though ...