This rifle is untouched, just as it was when he brought it home from WWII

should be 8mm mauser.....you can buy factory loads for it...though may be hard to find.....my dad runs military ammo through his mausers..(i had the first mauser in the house...he collects them now though) we have a local gunshop that is big into military guns ect and they get in 8mm military ammo often..some is weaker then others....the US made stuff is very weak as already said.....i forget what stuff he shot that was really accurate and he thought it was alot hotter(powerful) then anything else he shot....i want to say it was egyptian made...or maybe made by Olympic....i forget...i heard if you handload them with good brass you can load them up pretty hot and get some good shooting rounds....but the factory rounds will all go bang and pack enough for deer+......

I used to use the Egyption stuff in mine, shot pretty good for me. I sort of miss that rifle.

Paul

If it's still got the ramp sights and all the #s match, yep should be a 8 x 57, however when in doubt take somewhere and have it checked, the piece of mind will be worth it (a lot of the rifles that came back where also reamed to a 8 x 63 or here abouts a 8-06) and that would be an all matching gun also.

The rifle went from a German soldiers hands to my Dads and then to mine, I know it is original in every way. All serial numbers match. bolt barrel and reciever. so I guess it is 8MM

The price of an original, all matching #, K98 has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. Could be worth a couple of grand. Something to thing about before shooting it.

Really! Mine was like 170 dollars in california in the early 90's. And it looked like it had hardly been used. I guess I should have held onto it.

Paul

Bingo. I wouldn't shoot it ....no way. You own a very historic rifle in mint condition. Do not shoot this rifle. You need to preserve this rifle in it's current state. Go to the Mauser board and see what they say. Regards, Rick. http://www.gunboards.com/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=6

Ach, you aren't going to harm it by shooting it, unless you plan on putting thousands upon thousands of rounds through it or shooting corrosive ammo without cleaning it afterward, or leaving it outside in the rain overnight or otherwise grossly abuse it, these rifles were made for fighting battles not for conversation pieces at tea parties. It might be worth a couple of grand if it has SS markings on it, but other than that it isn't going to be worth anywhere near that much, there were millions of them made and they aren't exactly rare afterall. I shoot much older, much rarer, and much more expen$ive rifles with confidence all of the time. The fastest way to ruin the value of such a rifle is to try to 'restore' it or otherwise trying to pretty it up by rebluing or sanding and coating the stock with an abomination like Tru-oil or varnish.