German Sniper Rifles

In the run-up to World War II, military planners in Germany expected a fast-moving mechanized war. They considered that a sniper firing one well-aimed round at a time was a holdover from trench warfare. On December 6, 1934, the German Army’s High Command ordered all “Telescope Sight Rifles” to be turned in by the 15th of that month. There was no plan for their replacement (from Sniper Variations of the German K98k Rifle by Richard D. Law).

- Mike Venturino

Mike is shooting his low turret K98k with a Zeiss 4x scope at a vintage sniper rifle match. Minutes after this photo was taken, something broke inside the scope.

After World War II began with Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the German Wehrmacht began an about-face on the subject of sniper rifle usefulness. Then, after attacking the Soviet Union in June 1941, their about-face was completed because very quickly their troops encountered a host of trained Red Army snipers who wreaked havoc on German officers and NCOs. In essence, this opened the dam for a wide array of scopes and mounting system combinations lasting until war’s end in May 1945. German ordnance put technical names on their sniper rifle scope/mount creations, but modern collectors have simplified the matter. Their terms for K98k sniper variants range from low turret, high turret, short side rail, long side rail, single claw, double claw and swept back, along with a few others.

In the beginning of Germany’s sniper rifle reboot, scopes were those available on the civilian market. Some of the better-known scope manufacturers were Zeiss, Hensoldt, Kahles and Swarovski. Later, the German ordnance designed its own scope called the ZF4, which was produced by several companies. Collectively, these scopes ranged from 1.5x to 6x, with 4x being the most common.