Quote:
Originally Posted by Firebugs
I look at it similarly to how you very often find K98's that have had complete bolts swapped by armorers (rifle matching except bolt, bolt matches itself). It happens and seems to have been fairly common practice. Obviously they won't command the same price, but in my eyes they are just as 'original'.
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The bolts on '98s are mismatched because the rifles were thrown into large piles upon surrender/capture, and the bolts were usually removed and thrown into a different pile. A GI that wanted a '98 would grab a rifle and grab a bolt, not knowing or caring that they weren't numbered to each other. U.S. GI's were trained on our stuff, that wasn't numbered and was dimensionally interchangeable. Same with Lugers and magazines.