My father sent back two 98K rifles from the battlefield sometime in 1944. One was given to a brother who was rated 4F and didn't get to serve during WW2. The other was given to my mother's brother. I never got to see that one. The one that remained close came home with a mismatched bolt, but it had a VERY smooth action. I was amazed at how well I could hit random targets out to 200 meters with the open sights. I wish it were still in my possession, but it now belongs to the son (first cousin) of the brother he gave it to.
Interesting story my father told of how the rifles came home. They had just taken a town and were told that they could stand down for a day before they would go back into the battle. Word came down that if anyone had any souveniers that they wanted to send home, they could do as long as it was done quickly... and prepared for shipment. My father didn't miss the chance so he just went out to the street and took two 98K rifles from their previous owners. He was standing in front of a fabric store. He went in and grabbed the first bolt of material he could find that was wide enough to wrap the rifles to protect them. He said he used yards and yards of material to provide sufficient packing and tied the parcel up with heavy twine. He tagged it to be shipped to his home in West Virginia, and delivered it to his supply sergeant for shipping... and never gave it a second thought.
Once home after the war, he was relating the story of being in that town to his family and remembered that he had shipped the rifles home when he saw that the fabric he had used to wrap them had been used by my grandmother to make curtains and furniture covers. He asked his mother if the rifles had made it home, and she said yes, but didn't remember what happened to them... then my grandfather told him that she didn't want them in the house so he took them out to barn and hung them on a nail. They were still hanging on that nail when he went out to barn. They hadn't even rusted...
I find it amazing that they even survived the journey as I am sure such items were highly prized as trophies...
