Mine is in like new condition, shoots great and looks great. I've had one for several years and have no complaints. I wonder how many people who are bad mouthing the Mitchell's Mausers actually own one. Other than the "humped" complaints, I've never heard anything bad about a Mitchell's Mauser as a shooter. Personally, I've always loved the AC Cobra, but if and when I ever go shopping for one, you can be damned certain it'll be a replica, as I'd rather spend $20-30k on something I can drive than $500k for something I'd be afraid to even wax! As long as the seller lets me know what I'm getting, I'd have no problem with it. I have no complaint with their product, just with the shady way they market them. You can buy a pristine original model for a LOT of money (like a Collector Grade Garand), a rougher version for a lot less money (FG or RG), or a new model for (possibly) even less (well, there's nothing comparable in a Garand, but you get the idea). There's 3 basic types of antique gun, with lots of grey area in between and a fair amount of overlap between the types. someone looking for a pristine "version" of an older gun without paying the premium for a "real" one. The same person who might pick up the Springfield Armory, Inc version of the WW2 1911A1 (GI.45), or the Remington version of the 1911, or the Auto Ordinance M1A1 Carbine would probably be very happy with a Mitchell's K98, i.e. While their advertising pushes the envelope for honesty, in my opinion, their guns aren't too bad of a deal for some buyers. Thank goodness the OP asked before buying.īut again, they can be good shooters, so there is nothing wrong with getting a used one for a RC price, as long as you know what you are buying. They are looking for customers who don't know much about K98k'sīut, I Know dang near nothing about them.Īnd advertise heavily in gun magazines to try to find them. I have seen Mitchell's Mausers at gun shows where an extra line was added to the "X" to make it into a * to disguise it. Most RC K98k's have an "X" stamped on the receiver, which was a Soviet capture marking. I'm sure their lawyers made sure of that. But while the ads are misleading they aren't bald-faced lies. They also say the rifles were "factory refurbished" while not mentioning that the "factory" was in the Ukraine or Russia, not Germany. They don't mention that the "military" that kept them in storage was the old Soviet Union. They also like to use the phrase "kept in military storage" and imply that the Germans hid some secret cache of K98k's.
They aren't original markings and they might have been stamped last year or last month or last week, but they are "matching numbers", so technically it isn't false advertising. Like when they say "matching numbers" the numbers do indeed match each other, so they are technically correct. You need to really read the wording of all advertising - much like you have to check out the exact wording of politiciansĮxactly. But there is no reason to pay the increased price for their pimp-shined version when you can get an unmessed-with RC Kar98k for less Ī regular RC at least has some collector value as an RC and can be just as good a shooter, for less than Mitchell's charges.Ī Mitchell's Mauser pimp-shined RC Kar98k.
They have even less collector value than a regular RC Kar98k, but like any Kar98k they can be good shooters. Mitchell's Mausers takes the RC Kar98k's and pimp-shines them: heavily sand the stock, polish the bolt to an inauthentic bare-metal shine, stamp new "matching numbers" on them, then charge a premium for their handiwork. At some point the Soviets took the valuable Kar98k's apart down to parts, refinished the parts, and then assembled mixmasters from parts, pretty much destroying the collector's value of the rifles as German Kar98k's. Then like a lot of importers they got access to Russian Capture (RC) Kar98k's that were real Nazi Kar98k's that had been captured by or surrendered to the Soviets. They used to advertise Yugo M48 Mausers as "98 Mausers made with German machinery" blah blah, and fooled some people into thinking they were getting Kar98k rifles.