Mauser K98 marked 7.89. Is it .318 or .323 bore?

[Mauserk98k]

Hello everyone. I recently acquired a very interesting 1917 Spandau Gewehr 98 that was converted to a K98 in 1938. It SHOULD be a .323 bore, but the barrel is marked 7.89. I haven't fired it yet and I'm not going to until I find out for sure what the actual diameter is. Has anyone else found one like this or have any insight into these? And info helps. Thanks everyone!!

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

German barrel markings should be Teutonically accurate, but they confuse the heck out of me too. Here's the designations from a 8.15x46R rifle bore that I slugged and verified for .319" bullets:



My advice is to ignore the markings and either try driving a soft lead bullet down the bore or cork off the barrel about 6" below the muzzle and make a Cerrosafe bore casting.

 

[GooseGestapo]

AFAIK, only the 1888 Commission Mausers, and some commercial Mausers had .318” bores.
All military M98 8mm Mausers -7.92x57; were .323 (or larger).

 

[DocRock]

7.89mm will likely be the bore diameter. It’s likely to groove out at 7.98mm - 7.99mm

 

[792mauser]

My 2 1888s
#1 .319 (sporterized 1889 WW2 bringback iirc)
#2 Turked to 7.92 so .323

Every ex military 1898 I've ever run across has been .323
ONLY the VERY early 1898s were .318 so I've read and have seen (so far).

My 2 1898s are .323 (1916 & 1918)
The cz 98/22 .323
The k98 .323 (1938)
The chinese deathtrap (Hanyang) is .323
The Turks are all .323
My Spanish m43 is .323

 

[entropy]

I suspect that there are dyslexic Germans.....but slugging the bore will give you a definitive answer.