Royal Tiger Imports German Gewehr 98 Unboxing 

Shooting the rifle here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HM9Nxhpqjek.html

Talk about a twist ending! I was thinking of ordering one myself, until I saw the last bit of the video.

No excuse for a barrel in that condition on a firearm sold to be in shootable condition. No excuse at all. I know I won't be considering any purchases from RTI.

OMG I first thought this is way better than the Enfield you just got. Until I saw that barrel. Crying shame. It looked so nice on the outside. Proves you can't judge a book by its cover.

This is trashed. Return it. You could get a lot more with your $900.

I've just sourced a new barrel for this so will have that on soonish!

Oh sweet, the famed Gewehr 98 musket. I've only read about these in books!

This is what happens when you shoot corrosive ammo and don't clean the gun right away...

Maybe you can load up some 8mm shotshells to use in it.

I got a 1916 Spanish mauser with a sewer barrel and shot key holes. I took it to a gunsmith and got another barrel installed for $300. It shot really well after that.

I got my RTI SMLE No. 1 Mk. 3 from them this week. Definitely a "project" gun. It was absolutely filthy and had a lot of rust that needed to be converted. Not anything surprising, however my bore was also completely hosed. Luckily I am able to source a replacement barrel. All things considered, your rifle looks to be (externally) in great condition, except for the bore. Keep in mind, RTI mentions on their that bore condition is not considered part of their grading.

Yikes! Hope you got a good replacement. Thanks for sharing with us as I have yet to try my luck with RTI.

I bought one of their M1 Carbines last year. I watched some review videos first from others who'd done so, and since I'd been unable to find one in my area (except a couple of post-war commercial versions that I wasn't interested in), I took a gamble and bought one. It helps that the M1 didn't use corrosive ammo. The gun was in reasonable condition, given where it came from, but the parkerizing was quite worn and parts had light surface rust that I thought was dirt at first. I toyed with the idea of trying to fix it up myself, but ended up sending it to Fulton Armory. It took months, but when I got it back I was very pleased. They bead-blasted and re-parkerized the metal parts, re-crowned the muzzle, polished the feed ramps, cleaned up the stock (which was actually in good shape aside from being dirty and having God knows how much oil on it), and replaced some small parts - springs, the extractor, etc. It wasn't cheap, but I'm very happy with the result, and feel like I was able to save the old girl from an ignominious death, slowly rotting away in some Ethiopian warehouse. I got lucky. Hopefully a new barrel will bring that G98 back to life. Good luck!

I've seen similar bores come out pretty shiny and shootable after filling the barrel with a bore cleaner and letting soak a few days (I used old foam ear plug to stop the front of the barrel), using a brass brush then firing 20 rounds at a quick rate at the range then cleaning again. Good luck!

I am in the same predicament. I ordered a K98 and when they finally shipped it what I got was basically what you got. The outside wood and finish weren't bad but that bore was totally phucked. I called and let them know and I had to finally go to a gunsmith and get the same evaluation, bore = toast. There is no option for getting your money back from RTI only an exchange. So, I had to pay to ship it back, I had offered to drive there since I'm only about an hour away, but was told they didn't want non-employee's in the shop. OK, so Fedex cost me $40 to send it back plus another $200 for a hand picked model. So, this has been 3 weeks now that I'm waiting for them to ship the thing out, took them 2 days to cash the check but almost 3 weeks to just think about shipping out the replacement. As I understand it, there no sense in posting a truthful review on their website because they'll scrub anything not glorious. So, at this point I would say buyer beware, customer satisfaction doesn't seem to be their strong point, and if these things were so great they would've been all sold already.

Put it on the wall, above the fireplace... Great looking gun!

You’re incorrect about the stock. Your stock is definitely a replacement and being made in 1911 it should have a unit ID disc up until 1916. Then in 1916 they added the bolt takedown washer and finger grooves in the stock. It wasn’t just K98ks in WWII that had takedown washers. (The bolt and receiver should also be in the white but almost all refurbed Gew98s were blued after the war and sent to turkey and Ethiopia, etc.) Not sure if anyone has already said this on here.

I would be interested in one of those for a display piece to go with my butcher blade bayonet but not at the prices they are asking.

Don’t know if you’ve found one yet but there’s an original barrel for sale currently on gunbroker.

Yes Gewehr 98’s had disassembly disk in the stock your stock has been replaced at some point

What a shame. I was about to get excited about that rifle, but then I saw the bore. Four years ago I picked up an all matching number GEW98 for $800 that is about the same cosmetic condition, but mine did come with the cleaning rod and had a very nice bore. I would think that they could at least take a moment to look down the barrel on those and separate out the ones that have a sewer pipe instead of rifling.

Oooooof. I just bought a Gewehr 98 from here. Thank god I wasn’t really planning on shooting it. At least right away. I haven’t gotten mine yet but when I pick it up from the gun shop I’ll ask them to look at it.

Besides the barrel, its actually in very good shape, very little surface rust and no pitting. I'd try leaving some barrel cleaner in the barrel for a few days and plug the muzzle with a cork, drain and pass some very fine steel wool through before you return it to see if it improves. 900 for an imperial ww1 gewehr 98 is a decent deal

I went to the website and the website says the barrels are in bad conditions, on this rifles.

Royal Tiger Imports is I.O. Looks like they're at it again....

That's really strange indeed. Having seen so many customer reviews of RTL's products, most follow a kind of pattern and this one doesn't. It's actually got quite a bit of the original finish on the outside, whereas most are worn to a shine and the barrels are simply shot out, they'll tumble a bullet and you'll get a side on impact hole in a target at fairly close range. BAD. So why is that barrel so bad down the bore? Looks as if it had salt packed down the barrel in a effort to render it useless if it was robbed from the goat shed where it was stored for the last 40 years. Strange that externally it looks fairly handsome when compared to some of their previous offerings. Remember why this batch ended up in goat sheds, they were no longer fit for purpose (worn out barrels being the main cause, they had become dangerous to use, even by Ethiopian standards) and some had been robbed for spare parts. You ain't going to find many gems in those goat sheds)))

You can tell the barrel has been changed on mine because the blueing is nice and the rest of the rifle has patina. It went from being $100 beater to a $400 beater that shoots like a new gun. I like to keep milsurp as original as possible but if they can't shoot straight then what's the point?

I guess if you ever wanted to reenact WW1 Germany you have the perfect gun for it

It's a toss up to see who can sell worse looking guns, Royal Tiger Imports or Classic Firearms and the famous Sweaty Ben specials.

Any updates after cleaning?

See if you can get the barrel bored out and sleeved and rechambered back to 7.92 Mauser.

Have you had the chance to get the barrel changed out?

Royal tiger is known to be shady. Classic has some of the same stuff. They are eerily similar.

You may be able to clean up the bore some. I've had good luck connecting my cleaning rod and bore brush to a power drill and just going to town.

Hole Lee Chit. That barrel was pretty rough!!!

Great video dude! New sub, saw your post on Facebook. I have a No.4 Enfield coming from RTI. Can't wait to do my own box opening.

Anybody think one with a shot out barrel would be ok to run blanks for reenactments?

Yikes.. that's very disappointing.. Cosmetically it looked pretty good, but that barrel looks like a nightmare. I bought an M1 carbine and Enfield No4 from RTI. Cosmetics were okay, the Carbine had some surface rust, but barrel was good. Enfield was better cosmetically, and thr barrel was good. Honestly, I would ask for an exchange. I would want something that I could at least shoot. Especially for the price on their Gew98s.. Gone are the glory days of surplus rifles being readily available and plentiful. Good luck, give us an update. Subscribed..

wow.... m night shyamalan plot twist there

That is sad and disgusting. One guy said its a $600 wall hanger. I would knock that down to $400. Outside looks decent, but that rifle is INOPERABLE!!! Royal Tiger should be taken to court for fraud.

For those of you who are interested, here is part II: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kTK5Mbe5dU4.html

Good Lord! That's a sewer pipe! Did you send it back?-John in Texas

A display gun!

How does a rifle look that clean on the outside, yet have a barrel that is ruined like that?

Good luck getting any help from them ,I ordered a K-98 no email nothing saying it ship .Rile just "appeared " one day weeks later ,good thing I was home for it . Went to shoot it ,would not fire nor extract ,looked at bolt it was worn down to a nub .No contact phone to speak of ,just a few Emails back and forth .My advice ? Stay away from them .

Was that all pitting or some dirt ?

You can buy a good used barrel.i have a spare used barrel for my gewgher 98 rifle.

Readiness Reviews has the solution to your problem. I think if you do take the power drill option, which is probably going to be your best method of cleaning the bore, you need to try to find a stainless steel spiral bore brush and use that first. All you want to do is knock of all of the rust in the rifling. Then you can go to a brass brush and finish up cleaning the bore. I guarantee you that will give you your best cleaning results. Just be careful not to ride the edge of the crown of the bore with your rod. And use lots of 3 in one lubricating oil when you are brushing the barrel. Then shoot it several times and i think you will be pleasantly surprised at how accurate the rifle actually is.

Right now I'm looking to trade a good chunk of my militaria collection for a K98 or Gewehr 98, bud sadly seems like not many people are interested in swapping a meh one for a bunch of M1 US helmets, Brodies, and M1917 Eddystone stock.

A few thoughts on these Ethiopian weapon imports. When CMP went to import a number of Philippines-domiciled M-1 Garands a short time ago, they found that the rifles had been stored in as crappy conditions as I’ve heard about the Ethiopian arms and things got really complicated (and expensive) due to insect infestation of the wood. Be a shame if you bought one of these for your collection and had termites or other critters attacks your other collected weapons.

Did you get a refund ?

Sell to a re enactor, they don't need a working bore to fire blanks.

I’m not surprised given the other reports of junk being sold by RTI

Perhaps a good gunsmith can realign the bore it's the possible way to do it but it might be very expensive

RTI ? This is not the first tube video featuring the "fine offerings" from ReamAss Imports. Why that model? Did you check J&G Sales? Maybe I will take my 24/47 to the gun show, ask $1200 ... It is a complete set.

Didn’t they all shoot corrosive ammo?

"Royal Tiger Imports"..... never heard of them, I'll have to check 'em out. DRAG about the bore! Kinda makes me doubt if Royal Tiger can be trusted. Can bores be 'reconditioned?' Albeit I've never heard of that being done. I hope you'll get your money back if that's what you want; otherwise I agree, it looks like a very nice '98! How are the numbers???? Any matching?

I need to get a gewehr 98, Not a sewer pipe, but I need one to match my gewehr 88.

After I saw pictures of the Ethiopian Goat shack barns and several of these C&R "antiques" received by collectors, I became very disillusioned with Royal Tiger/Interordinance. Their manufactured AK's are very low quality, even by AK standards! John in Texas

Well, I'll say this, if you live in an area with half-decent gunshows or if you find a deal online for a good military barrel, grab one and get the barrel swapped and the sights transferred. Mausers are one of the easiest milsurps to rebarrel and most gunsmiths worth a shit can do it no problem. Most it should cost is $200 at the max, but again this will depend on your area. Even matching, the gun is bottom tier to most collectors with that sewer pipe bore. The Ethiopians had those mausers a lot longer than any of the export enfields, even the "grade C" ones, and took the brunt of the abuse over the years.

To be honest I doubt your even going to find a GEW98 with a good barrel on the secondary market either. Maybe you might get lucky at a gunshow but I actually saw a Enfield where the forestock was held together by bailing wire and it looked like a Mk1 #3 but it could have been a Mk4 dressed to look like a Mk1 and who know how bad the barrel may have been.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m always excited when new surplus hits the market, but this had me wary. Glad I wasn’t being overly suspicious. This reminds me of the rifles that came out of communist stock piles in China... although the exterior did seem nice on this one.

If you can’t get your money back maybe see if you can just buy a replacement barrel

Poor fellow, a wall hanger with that barrel. Shame as it looked pretty good on the outside.

My Kar98 out the box was filthy covered with mud, and bugs etc, especially on the insides, I don't even believe this is straight out the box lmao! Dirt would coat your hands touching it.

A sewer pipe bore is still good for a re enactor.

Hi

This is the reason I will never buy surplus firearms online its to risky. Its like a gamble when you get these from Royal Tiger and Classic Firearms. They don't know how to grade there rifles or hand guns. There is another youtuber that got a SMLE no1 Mk3 from Royal Tiger and his was shot out. I hope you get your money back. What you got is a good example why its very risky to buy these online. I wouldn't bother changing the barrel its very expensive and G98 barrels are a little hard to come by.

You got hosed, hope you get your money back. Maybe they can replace the barrel

I can't believe you missed the crack in the stock running from the stock bolt back to the rear of the receiver . That barrel is absolutely trashed. Don't blame you for wanting a refund. RTI charges what you'd expect to pay for a shooter, not a wall hanger

Brass brushes several and lots of oil, I've cleaned several and saved a bunch including a 1907 Gew # matching one, rifling wasn't never real strong then plus corrsive ammo and the lack of proper maintenance or knowledge of how to

RTI should have known better, prior to import they should have culled them out, and graded them accordingly or leaving the crap one behind or selling them for parts as inoperable rifles. Shameful.

RTI just seems a bit scummy to me. You see them offering 100 dollar hand select, which is absolute insanity and 4 times more than any hand select fee I've ever seen. But OK, they can charge whatever they want, that's fine. My issue is that they claim their hand select is "best of ten" yet they still take people's money for hand select when there's only like 3 rifles left in inventory. Most people would probably notice that and not pay it, but how many 100 dollar "best of 10" fees have they pocketed when they don't even have 10 items left to hand select from? It would take their person who runs the website 2 minutes to program it to where that option isn't available when there's less than X number of guns left in inventory, but they don't. If you are going to charge that much for hand select, at least be honest about it. These rifles were 900 dollars. For that kind of money you should know whether you're getting a shootable rifle or an absolute trashed sewer pipe. Instead they are so lazy they just toss them all on a pile and say "welp, you'll get anything between a piece of rotted trash to a rifle in very good condition, good luck!" It's just ridiculous for the prices they are asking. But, unfortunately enough people are paying it so they have no problem moving inventory.

Sewer pipe

Sadly, as cool as the Ethiopian horde may be on the surface, RTI and others are going to make a fortune off of trashed guns based solely off the human nature of "I dont want to miss out". Its a free market but it seems like RTI and maybe a lesser extent Classic seem to get awfully loose with thier grading. Just on the right side of the line of truth versus deceit.

Sorry you got a $600 wall hangar.

Dang. Literally the worst bore I’ve seen on any gun, ever. Which is surprising considering the decent external condition. My luck with RTI has sort of the opposite: got a rifle with a pretty decent bore but externally worn to hell.

I'm surprised that people still buy from them or Classic Firearms. They have been getting a bad rap for quite some time now. Their firearms don't even qualify as gunsmith specials at fair to good prices.

They are well known for their VERY over priced battlefield pickups from Ethiopia.

If not id get a refund

The barrel looks like a sewer pipe.

Don’t shoot it!! It may explode.

BUYER BEWARE !!!

Why buy that junk? I would give my money to thr CMP.

Dont drag out your intros

Listen gun guys ‘ the golden days of surplus weapons are gone and the days of a perfect Mauser for 35 dollars are over, Now in the 1950s a Mauser g33/40 cost 35-50 bucks and a union auto worker made 125 a week so you are paying 900 bucks for just history unless you’re a reinactor youre foolish to buy junk

My Turkish Mauser 98 is in better conditions.