Thats incorrect and has been proven many times before. The K98 barrel is shorter and the bullets have much more bullet drop.
I will see if i can find my Gun target cards again, where i matched my Mosin nagant against my mates K98k. my shots landed in a 95mm centre while my round with the k98 110mm group.
That was at 300 meters.
Superior build quality? The German mausers are the WORST constructed of all mausers. This came from somebody i visited, who has EVERY mauser model of every country. And he goes shooting with each and every single one of them. When being showed his target cards and groups, the Gewehr 98 performed very nicely, but the K98 had the worst grouping of them all. He is very mauser biased, but he admited himself that when it comes to accuracy, he preferred any other mauser then a K98 and even would dare to take a Mosin nagant.
Even GERMAN snipers preferred the Russian mosin nagant sniper rifles. The Zeiss optics of the K98 where ftw, but the PU scope of the russians was actually pretty good aswel, and went together with the mosin nagant like a bar with beer
Sorry kid, but you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about.
As an owner of several Karabiner 98k & Mosin Nagant 1891/30 rifles, as-well as thousands of rounds of WW2 surplus ammunition, I can tell you for a fact that the average K98k is a more accurate rifle than the average Mosin Nagant. Furthermore the build quality of the average German made K98 is much higher, and tolerances are tight, which is in complete contrast to the average Mosin Nagant.
And barrel length has no influence on accuracy between these two rifles, the design & build quality has, and the K98 is better on both accounts.
The K98 features a thicker stepped barrel, providing superior barrel harmonics and heat dissipation. By comparison the Mosin features a thinner straight barrel which features very little tapering, and as such it doesn't cope very well during prolonged firing due to poor barrel harmonics and heat dissipation.
The advantages of the K98k's stepped barrel design are the following:
1.) Stepped barrels are very stiff, nearly as stiff as the heavy bull barrels of target rifles. And compared to similar sized tapered barrels, stepped barrels feature superior node harmonics to control barrel whip. In short, barrels were stepped so as to decrease vibration and increase accuracy. "Stepping" altered the barrel mass at the measured nodes of resonance and decreased vibratory motion as compared to simple tapered barrels.
2.) When a stepped barrel heats up due to firing, because of the steps, the barrel will not push out and stick to or distort the woodwork/stock.
Note: Barrel's sticking to the woodwork/stock is a primary culprit for causing inconsistent accuracy.
3.) Stepped barrels were easier to turn and gave less problems when heated by firing if the bore were not perfectly centered to the outside dia.
K98k's stepped barrel:
Mosin's straight barrel
Next comes the ammunition available to both, and again here the K98 has a clear advantage as German wartime ammunition is of much higher quality standards, often getting very close to match grade straight out the pack; esp. the bullets are VERY well made. By comparison the Soviet wartime ammunition is of quite poor manufacturing standards, both in terms of the consistency of the propellant weight and the dimensions of the bullet.
But aside from the manufacturing quality the ammunition used by German snipers was a lot better suited for accurate long range shooting. The prefered round used by German snipers was the s.S. Patrone (Schweres Spitzgeschoss), which was a 198 grain FMJBT round with a very high ballistic coefficient of .580 to .595 (G1). In addition to this the German snipers had available to them actual special purpose sniping ammunition, known as the 's.S. Beschuss Patrone', or 'effect firing s.S. round'. This round was similar to the std. s.S. ammunition but featured an extra carefully measured propellant charge and seated an s.S. bullet of match grade build quality instead, lacking usual features such as the bullet cannelure to futher increase the already high ballistic performance.
By comparison Soviet snipers had available to them no special purpose ammunition and had to rely on std. issue Type L ball ammunition unsuited for accurate long range shooting. The ballistic coefficient of the 147 grain Type L bullet was .393 (G1), and the manufacturing standards were low, and as such it was unsuited for accurate long range shooting.
Standard German s.S. ammunition:
On top of this German snipers enjoyed the advantage of being equipped with a large variaty of much better scopes, scopes from Zeiss, Kahles, Dialytan & Hensoldt sporting the best optical clarity & brilliance as-well as a wide field of view, ranging in power from 4x to 6x and all the way up to 8x in magnification. The scopes weren't as easily zeroed in as the simple Russian PU scopes, but they were however much more precise in fine tuning, and once zeroed in they could be taken off for travel and put back on without loss of zero; something no Russian scope mounting system could offer. The German scopes also had the advantage of being calibrated for the trajectory of just one round, the s.S. Patrone.
k98 Sniper Rifle - YouTube
Four Zeiss scopes of different magnification. Bottom up: Two ZF39 4x Zielvier scopes, one 6x Zielsechs scope & one 8x Zielacht scope:
So obviously German snipers definitely did not prefer the Mosin over the K98k, they simply had no reason to do so, and infact there is not single example of a German sniper ever trading in his K98 for a Mosin. Actual trained German snipers prefered the K98 because of its' superior accuracy and build quality, and this comes directly from the mouth of three actual German veteran snipers:
"If you had a choice, what weapon would you use and why?:
Mattha