I agree, I don’t believe the bolt is original, I don’t care for the font nor its application, it’s also not a 98a bolt, there is no flat on it. Curiously however, on earlier JP Sauer Mausers, I have observed bolts with a similar odd bend on more than one occasion, so there is a chance it is a “period” bolt of some sort but subsequently modified. Also as an aside, there are other sources for “flat bottom” bolts, namely Mauser Oberndorf during the last few years of their production, but the bend itself is not that of the Kar98a, and many of them feature an internal detent in the root.
Back to the rifle, retailer attributions aside, we know it went to South Africa.. as the Diamond U, is a military marking for out of service for the Union Defense Forces. The majority of these markings appear on Portuguese 1904 Mausers, but also Gewehr 98’s, Enfields etc, they had a hodgepodge of weapons due to their sourcing at the time. All in all, a semi original rifle, in a wonderful cartridge, and with a very cool history. I’ve been keeping track of it since it popped up in 2024. Maybe we can answer more of the questions we have on it in time.
