S&T spring K98k for sale on evike now

[stuka]

The S&T spring kar98k is out now

www.evike.com/products/88693/

[2nd Bat]

Wow, price is right. This is the rifle we have been waiting on. I just ordered it. I'!l post a review once I receive it. If its all it appears to be this is a game changer. Evike frequently does initial low introductory prices while other times prices come down later. Either way Im taking the leap. If eventually this comes down even lower so much the better. I have been quite pleased with my S&T Springfield and my S&T Garand. If it truly shoots at 400 to 420 w decent weight BBs it will be a harder shooter than the Springfield although I heard that later shipped Springfield shot harder than the initial shipment.

[2nd Bat]

Due to Maap pricing the 20% off coupon didnt apply but that seems too be the norm on a specialized low production WW2 items.

[stuka]

It's actually because it's on sale, the coupons don't apply for sale items but it does work with the freeshipping coupon

[Dracul]

Wow, that is a good price for a main rifle. Its only $50-60 more than a stock BAR-10. I wish I can hop on this deal, its pretty amazing. Even if it jumps up a bit, still no reason for anyone not have a Kar98 for their German impression.

[2nd Bat]

Given that it's a plastic stock ultimately a price in sync with a BAR 10 seems reasonable. The bottom line is its less than I could buy a BAR10 and donor DBOYs Kar 98 or Kar 98 bits for without the labor.

I see where our member Wyatt Hudson received one from overseas and had issues with his right outta the box so that's scary. I will keep my fingers crossed and provide a report upon getting mine (Hopefully by mid week?)

I generously received a Kar 98 wood stock and handguard from Volks which I started inlaying for a Bar 10 conversion perhaps I'll use it to provide a real stock for this?

[hunterj]

A lot of guys in my Central USA WWII Group have gotten them and absolutely love them. I have heard a few complaints about damages to external pieces due to the shipping from SWIT, but nothing wrong with the actual gun itself. Looking forward to all of ya'lls reviews though!

[2nd Bat]

I saw two videos of a French reenactor reviewing this rifle. One is an unboxing while the other is him dressed as a FJ doing a hands on and shooting demonstration. It is in French and his attempt at humor is a little lame but thanks to the subtitle intedpretations the information is very helpful.

He owns the expensive and rare Tanaka (or KJW?) Spring Kar98 whicb he says is virtually a clone. The magazines are even interchangeable. The build quality and materials are somewhat better on the original (real wood, less plastic) but not very distractingly so.

His chrono results with 20 gram were consistently just below 400 FPS and he appeared to easily cock the rifle at the shoulder while aimed when he wanted to. Interestingly when empty you cant push the bolt forward which is cool.

The mag release looks more seamless than the process on the S&T Springfield. If found the you tube video by putting in Airsoft S&T Kar 98. Watch the video makes me even more anxious to receive mine.

[volkssturm]

Thanks for the YouTube video. Looks pretty good overall. I like the way they did the magazine.

[2nd Bat]

The functionality of the Mauser bits is kind of cool in my opinion. Clearly spare magazinez will be forthcoming and not outrageous. He quoted 10 euros. I am hopeful the hop up is decent az I prefer when skirmishing with a bolt action airsoft gun to shoot heavier BBs. They tend to go futher, fly straighter, get felt better and arent quite as effected by wind or brush.

Sometimes with long barreled airsoft guns the FpS amazingly goes up although that phenomena is usually with gas guns.

[cairo1]

YO sorry for no information for a while i Moved back to Japan. so here is some info i can give from my skirmish experience with the S&T k98. So first off tehy shoot pretty well with up to .32 gram bbs, anything over and the hop-up cannot take it. From the 4 that i gathered bolts were hit or miss, some had floppy bolts and other stiff ones. in addition the bolt can be a bit difficult to operate it sticks a bit when opened. also with the magazine empty the bolt has a hold open, to inform you it it empty. 50% nifty, 50% pain in the ass. Speaking of the magazines the big open window is extremely susceptible to dust, dirt and mud. over all performance was good, my stock split open , but i thing i can fix that later. mine with .30bbs were shooting >320 out of box, the airisaka by s&t shot 380~ out of box with .30s. I have another SUper top secreat about the rifles but i cannot reveal it because i cant be sure they will come to exist, all i can say is imagine something other then 6mm. and well over $500. Also i gave my pals at SWIT-airsoft a real K98 stock so expect wood stocks in the future.

[2nd Bat]

Excellent report from over the big puddle. I still havent received mine yet accordingto my wife but then I dont get home from my trip until late tomorrow night anyway. Hoping to have it to fiddle with over the weekend. Awesome of you to supply them with a real stock to hopefully accelerate them offering real wood. With the s&T Arisaka, Garand and Springfield all wood the faux wood seems strange but certainly not a deal breaker for me (obviously)

If this proves to be a good skirmisher (and it appears by all early indications that it will) then we have to collectively jump on these and encourage S&T and other manufacturers to support our needs. Hmmmm? Semi auto, authentic M1 carbine, FJ 42, G43 and ??

Things have come so far in the last 7 years. A no cartridge, spring powered (affordable) Kar 98 has been a huge hole that is now filled.I

With all my on hand BAR 98 conversions I certainly didnt need this but I absolutely had to reward their support.

When over half the weapons on a WW2 airsoft field are springers gameplay realism and emmersion goes way up. MGs become quantumly more significant and fire and manuever becomes infinitely more viable. This is huge for our hobby.

[adrg]

Evike is not shipping to my country! I would love to get one here, especially since my brother owns the Tanaka one. So I could do all tests possible.
Once I’ll get one likely I’ll put into a G33/40 wood stock despite large ring receiver. But still have to wait just a little bit longer

[Dracul]

Have you tried looking at SWIT airsoft? I know another member is having less than desirable interactions with them, but being out of Taiwan, they might have more varied shipping.

[2nd Bat]

I received mine this week but since I only got home late last night wasnt able to check it out and test fire it until this morning. The branded inner shipping box was torn as with the French guys unboxing but that clearly is due the bolt pushing out the cardboard during shipping. Disconcerting but no apparent damage or negative effect.

The gun is packed in the usual formed foam with an upper carboard 3/4 box that depicts the rifle and the S&T brand. With the celephane removed I pulled it out. The Rifle comes with a single magazine (thinner than I was expecting but far more substantial than the S&T Springfield magazine It holds 25 rounds. In addition there is a speed loader with angle hood, a cleaning rod and the front sight hood (which could easily be missed or lost in the unboxing. It also has an owners manual which is fairly complete. Several key tips like the bolt lock when empty are not mentioned.

Loading the magazine is straight forward although its best to draw the spring back and squeaze in your BBs then to do so fighting the spring. Inserting the magazine into the rifle was easy and gave a satisfactory click.

The safety is a cool design. Cocking is as expected and as mentioned earlier occassionally a little snaggy going forward. The action hopefully will get better with practice. You can cock it from the shoulder but the natural flow as with a boot actiins is to lower it down when cocking.

The Rifle it self seems demensionally correct and the fit and finish looks good. The feeling is a bit light and the plastic, faux wood is...plastic faux wood. I am okay with it although at a reasonable bump in price would prefer real wood (obviously). Once satisfield that it functions okay and isnt getting shipped back the stickers and orange tip are coming off and the rifle will be "field aged"

Next post shooting results.

[2nd Bat]

I Set up my shooting station and put about 150 rounds down range using assorted weight BBs and wide adjustments to the hop up. As with a lot of just out of the box shots the initial 7 rounds or so were anemic and varied quite a bit with regard to velocity. (I probably should have run a cleaning rod down the barrel before shooting but while the right thing to do with a new gun I typically don't). I didnt chrono those shots but eyeball chrono put them at around 290 to 320 FPS. Once the velocity climbed and was steady (after 7 or 8 shots) I chrono'd my results. Initially I fired .20 gram with no hop up. As predicted they ranged from 398 to 405. With hop adjusted and generating nice flat trajectories the FPS was consistently 396 to 398. After about 60 rounds (Three magazine reloads as it would seem 20 or 21 rounds is the true mag capacity not 25.). I switched to .25 gram. The velocity increased rather than dropping to a very consistent 418 to 422. Down range flight of the .25s was truer and 165 feet away the twack of if hitting my neighbors plastic recycle container was noticeably more pronounced than it was with the .20 gram. The twack test is my unofficial "would my opponent feel that" test.

The trigger pull is typical for a BB gun and the bolt action did get easier even as fatigue in my 68 year old arms started to take its toll. The hop up is cleverly located under the rear sight and it slides nicely and firmly up and down. It is more substantial than the BAR10 VSR hopup both in effect and operation.

I will need to visually enhance the looks by sanding the apparent plastic seams and age the metal parts like the but plate and stock bands so it looks less new. In addition I probably will put some resin paste inside the stock to eliminate the hollow feel and add a little weight. If I'm really inspired I'll replace the stock and repurpose the plastic bits for another Bar 10 conversion but at this price point it makes more sense to just buy another one of these! This S&T Kar 98 is just what we have been waiting for.

The magazines wont fit in the Kar 98 pouches but that's okay too. I'd say two spare mags and a speed loader and this offering is skirmish ready. Das est gut!

[2nd Bat]

Inidently the bolt lock out does take some getting used to and initially there was this fear that the gun broke. Obviously not something you want to try and force. It is not mentioned in the manual and I really dont quite grasp how it works? Also with the safety on you cant cock or fire the gun. I am predicting some people will assume the gun is broken when in fact it is not?

[2nd Bat]

Did some more shooting this afternoon at 6" plastic soldiers from 35 feet away and at long range into the greenbelt. It definitely shoots harder than my S&T Springfield and much much harder and more accurately than the CYMA/UK Arms M1 carbines. (I got one of the very first S&T Springfields and have heard the later ones shoot better than the early ones).

Where I had stated that the carbines are somewhat more skirmishable than the 1903 this Kar 98 with its greater, power, range and accuracy along with its easy mag reloads (compared to the s & T Springfields) is much more skirmishable. Backed up with a good AEG MG 34 or MG42 as long as the Garand Aegs were limuted to 24 rounds per clip and 1 BAR with 60 rounds in the mags the fight would be pretty authentic and fair.

[2nd Bat]

In further playing with it and trying new things I found you can load 25 rounds although I personally won't. Pushing a mag spring to its max (especially if you leave it loaded for a while) is very hard on the spring and eventually will cause misfeeds. I base that somewhat on my own real steel experience where we loaded 17 or at most 18 rounds in our 20 round mags and 26 in the 30 round mags that in those days were especially problematic.

I put another 120 rounds through this Kar 98 with no problems whatsoever. I wish the mag release was a little bigger but I understand the upside of keeping it discrete so as to not detract from replica visually.

[Dracul]

The magazine could have need some TLC. Just like cleaning barrels of a fresh gun, I typically lube up new mags. I don't know if it ever works or does anything, might just be voodoo, but I guess it can't hurt.

But thats good to hear about it. I want to say I have a reason to get one, but I already whaled for more Kar98's than I could ever possibly need.

[2nd Bat]

After 2 days of playing I do have one complaint about this S & T Kar 98 K. The orange plastic tip is by far the hardest I have ever had to remove. It is both glued into place and secured by two tiny grub screws which required a tiny hex wrench I simply didnt have. Confident that there are no issues with the gun I set out to remove it. My dremel is a God send but hacking it off without butchering the muzzle was impossible. Aside from the aesthetics you have to remove the plastic orange tip in order to install the front sight hood.

Fired more rounds through it once done. It is a hard shooting ribbon straight beauty. I heartily recommend it and our request for an under $200.00 springer 98 k has been answered. Would of course love to see the price drop further.

[2nd Bat]

Already looking into marrying this with an actual late war laminated stock and at first glance modifying the stock should be far easier than doing so for a VSR conversion. There will be no need for the drilling out for the VSR mag and tricky hop up area. In fact the original Mauser magazine area will need to be filled in somewhat to facilitate the thinner airsoft magazine. I will need to figure out how best to do that?

I am hopeful that the trigger, barrel, handguard and receiver group fit will all align without major work.

[cairo1]

Please wait a bit before butchering a real stock, I brought a real one to Taiwan for SWIT to copy, who was it that had problems they have been great so far, i talk with the heads of the company almost every day. One modification i really wholly recommend is cutting out some groves to make pulling out your mag a bit easier, in the field my jammed from dust and dirt many times. I also am a bit saddened by the big non pouch fitting mags i wonder if there is something we can come up with.

[2nd Bat]

Make no mistake before I start dremel work I do all i can to insure dimensionally the marriage will work. Lengths, widths depth etc are right. I fully anticipate having to quite a bit of dremeling for the trigger group receiver and barrel as well as the fill rather than hollow out of the mag well. If it cant work i will be sure to let everyone know and if it can I will chronical the process.

[2nd Bat]

Put more rounds through it today. Mag release and reloading is quite seamless (on parr with a VSR Bar 10 and certainly way better than the S&T Springfield.) For mine .25 or .28 BBs are the perfect BB weight for this gun.

I am reluctant to disassemble it as its shooting so good but I am going to have to if I am going to check out if a real stock will work and how much effort that will require. It has passed my 500 round test. This is a fabulous rifle!

[2nd Bat]

Seperating the stock was very simple and straight forward. Adapting a real stock looks to be about a two hour project. I have startex in on it and will start a seperate thread in the Technical DIY section.

[2nd Bat]

Chronicalled at length in the DIY thread the adaptation of an actual stock came out great but was far far more than a 2 hour project. It probably required 7 or 8 hours over 3 days and was a lot more dremel work than a VSR conversion. Glad I did it but not going to do it again! Let S & T know that it can be done and comes out great. Unless the stock is made somewhat thicker than the original the side walls will however be quite thin.

[2nd Bat]

Here is my S & T Kar 98 married to a real KAR 98 wood stock. Hopefully S & T will offer a real wood stock version.

See all photos here: www.amazon.com/photos/shared/k1wdrRH6QNq--0smHaxeWw.I247tfekw4dI_51dAJ9uno

[hunterj]

Looks fantastic! The S&T K98 has so much potential for our hobby!

[adrg]

So - "Chinese real wood" version is already available in HK.
airsoft.tiger111hk.com/p40260/Snow-Wolf-Kar98K-Bolt-Action-Air-cocking-Sniper-Rifle(Real-Wood)/product_info.html
However - in my experience using a real wood stock is a great improvement.