More than 500 such actions found their way to England, circumventing the Mauser - Rigby monopoly. He sold such actions to gunmakers in Suhl, Zella - Mehlis and even London. A Berlin gunsmith, acting as a scrap metal dealer, bought all the junk from the factory, sorted the junk for the good part, resold the scrap and assembled actions. Here useable parts were thrown into the junk boxes and subsequently sold as scrap by the company. Now “rejected” actions came from the DWM, Berlin, factory. At least 250 actions were sold by these men to Suhl and Zella – Mehlis gunmakers, Meffert, Greifelt and Chr.Funk among them.Ī few years later, 1912, another case became known. The grocer shipped the actions to the Suhl gunparts dealer, who in turn sold them as special offers to the guntrade at about two thirds of the official Mauser factory price. Shallow 'Reject' stamps were filed off and the often quite rough parts assembled to actions. The parts were then smuggled out of the factory. Apparently no one rechecked those junk parts. The gang worked this way: The workers produced parts in the white which were rejected by the two officials. The convicts were two army sergeants who were at the Erfurt arsenal, responsible for parts inspection, 4 Gewehrfabrik workers, an Erfurt grocer and a Suhl gun parts dealer. Some details on those blackmarket Mauser M98 actions: In 1908 Der Waffenschmied reported about a case at the Erfurt district court.

Go back and read Axel's first posting (#3) in this thread, relating to 'lunch box special' actions, this is the most likely answer.

Mauser 98 serial number locations