Today’s Photo of the Day is taken from a Bavarian called “Schrombo“, who takes excellent photographs of many interesting firearms – both modern and historical.

Here in Germany the Karabiner 98 kurz chambered in 8x57IS (8mm Mauser) is one of the most commonly available milsurp rifles.

Since its creation in 1898 (as the Gewehr 98 then and the K98k from 1934 onwards) the Mauser system 98 has been manufactured in the more than hundred of millions.

After WW2 most of the captured German Karabiner were taken by the Russians, stripped, reassembled and then distributed to many of their satellite states.

This Karabiner here was given in the early 1950s to the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR/GDR) to equip their new military and police forces.

After receiving it a few days ago, I took it apart down to the last screw – just to really get to know it. And boy did I have to scrape out tons of cosmoline. The previous owner probably had just wiped down the outer surfaces and never even cared for what happened underneath.

If you want to learn more about the firearm itself, please check this link.

Picture used with permission thanks to Schrombo – check his Instagram out!