Mauser Kar98k

The **Mauser Karabiner 98k** is a Germany's standard-issue rifle produced from 1935-45, famous for appearing in World War II games. In Hunt Down The Freeman, Mitchell Shephard use it mainly as a sniper rifle from Act 2 onwards.

## Weapon Description

Excepted from Wikipedia, "*The Karabiner 98k was derived from earlier rifles, namely the Mauser Standardmodell of 1924 and the Karabiner 98b, which in turn had both been developed from the Gewehr 98. Since the Karabiner 98k rifle was shorter than the earlier Karabiner 98b (the 98b was a carbine in name only, as it was in reality a version of the Gewehr 98 long rifle designated a carbine to adhere to the Treaty of Versailles; the 98b was additionally fitted with a tangent rear sight rather than the more claustrophobic "Lange" ramp sight), the new rifle was given the designation Karabiner 98 kurz, meaning "Carbine 98 Short". Just like its predecessor, the rifle was noted for its reliability, safety and an effective range of up to 500 metres (550 yd) with iron sights and 1,000 metres (1,090 yd) with an 8× telescopic sight.*

In the game, the rifle appears to be in an perfect condition despite the possible disrepair judging by the Combine's tend to use their own Pulse Rifles (AR2) or other modern day weapons like the MP7. The rifle also showing great accuracy at long distances thanks to its full power cartridge of 7.92 x 57mm Mauser round and the attached scope. However, due to the position of the scope, Mitchell couldn't use any stripper clips to load the weapon, and has to do it one-by-one. This is a problem when the player encounters a high amount of Combine Soldiers or Rebels that possesed highly accurate shooting skills.

Mitchell can obtain the Kar98k in Act 2 in a old house turned Combine outpost, as well as in Act 3 on a house with a motorbike inside.

## Trivia

* It is quite strange that the Combine will ever produce ammo for the Karabiner 98k since the more common 7.62 x 51mm NATO round would be more likely to be produced than the 7.92mm Mauser due to its more widespread use pre-Seven Hour War. Not to mention that the rifle hadn't been converted to the former caliber.
* Despite being loaded one-by-one, the ammo for the Kar98k appears to be with its stripper clip.
* Earlier Hunt Down The Freeman builds older than December ones had a different animation, including one very long inspection animation where Mitchell inspects the rifle's bolt, and then inserting the rounds. This makes sense in a first pick up scenario, but not after being in the inventory and loaded before, unless the player selected other weapon on the weapon slot after the rifle had been emptied, and reselect the weapon again. This has been fixed by one of newer Royal Rudius Entertainment/ Operation Whiskey Freedom team member by changing it to be just switching the rifle's safety to "fire" position.
* The rifle's entity uses the name weapon\_kar98. In real life, this is an ambiguous name, as there are 2 other rifles designated Kar98, which is Karabiner 98a / Karabiner 98AZ and Karabiner 98b, with the former a carbine of the older WW1 era Gewehr 98, while the latter is just Gewehr 98 redesignated carbine to comply with Treaty of Versailles and has its *Langevisier* sight removed.