I haven't been able to establish a direct link between Sweden and Erfurt. It really gets extensive and complicated unraveling the past so long ago.
You won't.
The website indicates that the Germans engaged is some under the covers hanky panky with rifles, hiding some, modifying some secretly, resurrecting old parts, re stamping, and playing games.
Of coarse they did. How do you think they got prepared for WWII?
The fact remains, the Germans were allowed 18000 Kar98's after WWI under the Treaty of Versailles. These were all marked with the 1920 stamp. Later the number was increased to to 50000. I'm sure the Germans had thousands upon thousands of Kar98's left after the war that never saw circulation because of the treaty. A rare number of them were factory refurbished for the Waffen-SS and have the "dirty bird" stamp but these are very, very rare finds. Why would any country besides Germany put that 1920 mark on their rifle? The simple fact that the rifle has 2 dates on it, a German origin (Erfurt) , German proof marks including a German rejection proof mark pretty much proves the rifles origin and history. especially the 1920 re-marking.
Now if that rifle could talk there is no telling how many countries it's been to in it's lifetime, who carried it and what was done with it. Sometimes when I hold these old rifles that runs through my mind.
Something just is NOT right about ALL of this ID effort. The proofs in the NRA listing have additional stampings usually in the form of letters. The Crown/Erfurt does not ? Why not?
If you'll go back and look at the NRA page you'll find it's not a complete history. The way Erfurt did it was the small crown on the left side was the the proof mark. The letter under the crown was the actual inspector that proofed the rifle. If you'll look at the OP's picture you'll see the first proof mark (little crown) with a "B" under it. The inspector who did the inspection on that rifle was assigned the letter B and all his inspections could be linked back to him. In the case of the rifle pictured he didn't like what he found and rejected it on it's first inspection, hence the R/C stamp above his proof mark. Later the rifle was corrected and the assembly and function proofs were added.
William, It's been a fun thread and you've added to it. I just don't think there is anything that would indicate this was ever a Swedish rifle. It could have been a Swedish rifle but I've never found anything that distinguishes a Kar98 Swede from a German Kar98 other than the modified magazine box. I think/assume the rifles Sweden bought in 1939 were arsenal storage rifles (new) not the ones that were re-stamped for German use.
