quib, these are not captured rifles...germany did it better than that. they "captured" the entire country. heheh! from what i've read, the germans procured 98's from yugo arsenals after they "liberated" the country. certain ethnic groups in yugoslavia were very partial to both german ethnicity and the fascist cause.

the m-48's and 48a's were produced in yugoslavian arsenals (such as creveni zastava), and as the model year indicates, were produced after the war and into the '50's. the quality of machining and the teak wood used are actually better than the german 98's i've owned. as an aside, the yugo built kalashnikov was one of the finest akm's ever built.

there are no german/nazi markings on my m-48a. for $139, i got a "collector grade" rifle. minty wood and metal, bayo, ammo pouch, sling, cleaning kit and adapter to use the wooden training bullets.

the m-48 is a big ring mauser. it started life as a k-98 built on german tooling in german occupied yugoslavia.

quib, the yugo's, did indeed, capture many german weapons in the closing days of ww2. however, due to the many atrocities that occured in yugoslavia, the germans were hated by many of the ethnic groups that made up what would become the communist state of yugoslavia (hence, the continuing hatred between ethic serbs and the bosnians. the ustashi and the checkerboard flag is still cause for a fistfight...or worse...to this day!)

most of these "battlefield pickups" have had the hated nazi marking ground off (just as the israeli's did) and replaced with an arsenal stamp of a banner, commemorating the victory over the germans.

"real" nazi marked, yugo re-arsenaled german k-98's are considered somewhat rare.

glad you got a nice one! be sure and post how is is marked, and if it marked in cyrillic or arabic letters.