My K98 will never do that, it`s 2-3 moa at least. You need to be more specific about the one you have and the ammo you use, because sum-moa with K98 is rarely possible (if ever) unless its floated and handloads are used.
I think I need to counterbore it though... but anyway: given the ammo they had, given not this nitpicky grouping that maybe 1 out of 10 rifles get, the spread is much more on average 2-3 moa.
And as I said, even more so for semiautos.
I can post if you like a video of an SVT that warps (!!) while being shot, so that's no sniper rifle either.
You think it`s fine, I don`t. We may agree to disagree but not 100 out of 100 K98`s will shoot sub-moa not by a longshot, unless they are hand-picked, floated, and fed some miracle ammo.
S***, sub-moa from that rifle would put it in same category as best bull barreled repeaters we have today. So IMHO you are either extremely lucky with yours, or its modded.
Nope, besides glass bedding one of the rifle's stock they're all original. Best 5 shot grouping I did so far measured 0.73 MOA at 400 m. This was achieved using a 12x scope mind you, and fully resting the rifle along all of the forward stock.
As for the ammunition: I shoot reloaded sS ball, making sure the charges are precisely measured and using modern primers to avoid having to clean the rifle after each trip to the range. The bullets are picked from original cartridges, have around 10,000 rounds of German surplus on stock atm.
I'm trying to closely mimick the ammunition German snipers would have available to them in limited quantities, their own special purpose sniping ammunition known as the 'effect-firing' sS round (Beschuss Patrone). This type of ammunition closely resembled the regular sS ball, except it seated a 12.8 gram sS bullet of match grade quality, missing regular features such as the cannelure etc., and featuring a more precisely measured propellant charge instead.
And regarding the handselected German sharpshooter rifles, the company armourers would actually free float the barrels of these rifles within the stock, as-well as rework the triggers to the snipers' desired trigger pull weight.
So I wouldn't call it unrealistic to expect sub MOA performance from one of these hand selected sniper rifle K98's.
Here's my buddy Ernie shooting his own K98, everything original besides glass bedded stock and a 12x scope. He's shooting handloaded 200 gr Sierra MK rounds. Target is an 18 inch iron plate circle, same size as a human chest. Range is 900 yards, or 850 meters. Result: 5 shots, 4 hits, 1 miss.
WWII German 98K rifle at 900 yards - YouTube
Finally regarding modern sharpshooting rifles, the German DSR-1 is expected to perform sub 0.25 MOA 5 shot groupings using military match ammunition, however higher performance, sub 0.2 MOA, can be achieved using certain commercial match. Besides this these modern sniper rifles are expected to keep performing even during prolonged shooting, which is where they differ greatly from the old rifles which suffer much more in accuracy as the barrel heats up. The Germans went some way to combat this by stepping the barrel, which did help, but it still isn't as effective as the thick modern bull barrels in terms of heat dissipation.
So modern sniper rifles have definitely come some way since WW2, esp. in terms of consistency during prolonged firing, but also in terms of accuracy going from 0.75 MOA at best to consistent sub 0.25 MOA (DSR-1 ex.).
)