When I was about 9-10 years old I was spending the weekend with my cousins. We passed the time digging holes behind their apartment building to play with our toy cars in when I hit metal with my toy shovel. Being a child I was excited I found "something" so I grabbed at what I now know the be the bolt handle of a Mauser action. Guns were not big in my family but I knew enough to know when this thing cleared the dirt it was a rifle. We ran inside and my aunt immediately called the police as she assumed it has to be a murder weapon. The police arrive and are happy to inform her this is no way a murder weapon and is in fact a "musket" from the Civil War (no battels took place in Conyers Georgia to my knowledge) and I had just dug up my college fund... Looking back it's easy to tell this guy was obviously not a gun guy. I took the Mauser home and showed my dad, who told me bolt actions weren't used to his knowledge in the Civil War but if the police ran the numbers and gave the go ahead I could keep it. Time passed and the rusty "pipe" as my mother called it was misplaced. Fast forward 22 years I get a call from mom asking if I wanted to keep the "rusty pipe" I found as a kid. She was cleaning out the garage and had found it behind the water heater of all places. I took some pictures and wrote Ian of Forgotten Weapons to find out what kind of mauser this was. He actually responded quickly and was happy to tell me the Mauser was in fact a VK-98 a last ditch rifle from what was left of Germany in 44-45. It's a shame it's in such poor shape and is far beyond restoring. Just thought I'd share as to my knowledge digging up WW2 bolt action rifles isn't so common state side.
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That time I dug up a VK-98
- Thread starter GOAT
- Start date
I do plan on trying to save the receiver and maybe making a pistol caliber carbine out of it. The bolt is frozen and the electrolysis didn't free it up but did take it back to bare metal. It will probably make the collectors mad but I can't think of anything else to do with it.
Cool story. Nice find. Must have been an exciting day when you dug that up.
Cool.
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