Developed in 1934 as a replacement for the Gewehr 98M, Kar. 98B and the Standardmodell 1924. The Kar. 98K would draw inspiration from a few Mauser rifle variants, namely the Czech Vz. 24 short rifle and the Standardmodell 1924.The Kar. 98k would see adoption by the German military in June of 1935. The barrel was shortened to 23 inches, the rear sight was a tangent style as found on the 98m and Kar. 98b. The kar. 98k is chambered for the 7.92x57mm cartridge. The Kar. 98k would see updates and production quality decrease throughout the duration of the war. Pre war examples have stocks made of walnut and flat buttplates. It was found that stocks were damaged easily in the field and production of stocks shifted to using laminate, which was heavier but stronger. In 1940 the flat buttplate was replaced with a cupped buttplate to support the end grain of the laminate stocks. Late war variants omitted features like the bolt takedown disc in the stock, they would drill a hole into the buttplate for use as a bolt takedown. The bayonet lug was eliminated. Barrel bands were made of stamped sheet steal instead of milled steal. Trigger guards on late war examples are also made of stamped sheet steal. The 98k was produced in a number of factories in Germany as well as in German occupied territory. Like many other German firearms of the Second World War, manufacturers of the 98k used codes to prevent allied bombing raids from targeting the factories. This examples receiver is marked “bnz/43” indicating this rifle was produced by Steyr in 1943. Barrel is marked “cb”.