Many Gew98's were handed over to the SS whom had the majority of these reworked by commercial firms into 98k pattern rifles. This was still being done to some extent up to 1940. The germans under Hitler embarked on a refurbishment program starting in 1934 to bring all the gew98's then in service compliant to sS patrone useage and reworked them with the addition od the updated tangent sight, as well some got the wide rear band. The barrel length has no bearing in accuracy regarding the 98k and the gew98. The picture with the SS mann and the scharfschutzengewehr does not have a gew98, but a karab 98b sniper version.yes they did make karab 98b's in sniper trim.The vast majority of gew98 snipers were destroyed at the conclusion of the great war that were still in german hands. Very little of the sS patrone made it into the field before the 11 november armistace. Yes the patrone 88 was dropped for use with gew98's wiht the 1903 introduction of the S patrone, and in late 1917 the germans again copied the french pointed bullets to include their 'heavy ball' the germans designated sS patrone, which they intended to use for extended range MG fire as the S patrone was inferior in that respect.
![how to say mauser gewehr 98 igermanyan how to say mauser gewehr 98 igermanyan](http://www.milsurps.com/images/imported/2014/05/K98_BCD42_Mauser_2873-1.jpg)
![how to say mauser gewehr 98 igermanyan how to say mauser gewehr 98 igermanyan](https://i.redd.it/kuefkvlq5h181.jpg)
This is at the same time limited manufacture of the karab 98b was undertaken, which is nothing more than a gew98 with turned down bolt and side sling arrangement. In the 1920's when the germans made the transition from S patrone to the sS patrone gew98's were slowly brought in and given the updated rear sight.