recently found an old 98. It was sporterized to 270Win, new stock, and Lyman peep sight. The serial is 23XXX, and beside this mark is what appears to be German eagle insignia. please help me with some history of the rifle. if there is any other marks i need to be looking for, let me know. thanks

there are 2 different eagles - the straight wing eagle of the wwi nazi era and the droop wing eagle of the weimar republic. beyond that i couldn't tell you much but that could place the era. as to the nazi eagle, that mark went on many, many, many mausers made in any occupied country that had a mauser production set up in place as well as perhaps dozens of german factories. i take it the receiver ring carries no marks - specifically lwr case letters and numbers or combinations of the 2?

not to muddy the water but not knowing where you found these marks, there is also a spanish mauser made at their la coruna arsenal, post wwii and the ones made for the spanish airforce had a straight wing eagle on the rcvr ring, quite large w/ wings oriented right/left across the receiver. but the serial # would (should) be on the lh side of the rcvr on those

i will try and get more info later. it's at the gunsmith.