An Old Lady And Her Rifle

So...this old neighbor lady has this piece propped up in a corner of her living room.

She said her dad brought it home from WW1.

My kids play with her grand-kids, and they've told me about this rifle before.

The kids play a lot of Medal of Honor video games, and they said it looked like an '03 Springfield.

Springfield M1903

I went over to look at it, and I knew immediately it wasn't a Springfield because of the way the sling attaches on the side of the butt and the funky stacking hook thingy near the muzzle...

It's in terrible shape, but the action still works. Looked to me to be some kinda German/Belgian Mauser type thing, but I ain't too up on my WW1 German rifles.

So, I find out later it's a Kar 98AZ...WWI German cavalry rifle.

Kar 98AZ

As I was looking at the rifle, I asked the old gal about her dad. She says, "He was in the Army in France during WW1."

I said, "The German Army?"

I'm funny like that...

I don't think the old gal is gonna let the rifle go, and I advised her not to, actually. She seemed pretty fired up when I gave her a couple of pages of printed info on the old war-horse.

The rifle is probably destined to continue to deteriorate for eternity.

Too bad... because my old man was a TV repairman, and he had an awesome set of tools, which I now own.

I could fix that old rifle.