In the interim decade, Mauser rifles became recognized as the world standard, and the German Army became outclassed by a German-made product in the hands of others.

In 1901, the first troop issues of the Gewehr 98 rifles were made to the East Asian Expeditionary Force, the Imperial German Navy, and three premier Prussian army corps.

Some other bolt-action designs (e.g. the Lee–Enfield and Pattern 1914 Enfield/M1917 Enfield) offer trained operators a faster rate of fire as the ergonomic relation between the bolt handle and trigger is more favorable and they can be cycled without loss of sight picture.

Only if the bolt is not brought back far enough, sharply enough, in a controlled round feed bolt-action the cartridge case may not be cleanly ejected and a jam may result.

From 1905 until 1945 the German military used Ballistol intended for cleaning, lubricating, and protecting metallic, wooden and leather firearms parts.

For easier loading a crescent shaped thumb hole cutout is present at the left rear of the receiver top.

New systems were being manufactured not only by the Mauser GmbH in Germany, but also by FN in Belgium, Zbrojovka Brno in Czechoslovakia and Zastava in Yugoslavia.

Military doctrine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries considered firing at distant area targets, where an officer would call out the range and the soldiers shot in volley, normal.

German government driven efforts to improve the performance of the military M/88 ammunition and the service arms in which the M/88 was used resulted in the design by the Gewehr-Prüfungskommission and adaptation in 1903 of the dimensionally redesigned 7.92×57mm Mauser chambering.

The 1903 pattern 7.92×57mm Mauser S Patrone (S ball cartridge) was loaded with a lighter 9.9 grams (153 gr), pointed Spitzgeschoß (spitzer bullet) of 8.2 mm (0.323 in) diameter and more powerful double-base (based on nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin) smokeless powder.

A top handguard was standard on all rifles and extended from the front of the rear sight base terminating just ahead of the bottom barrel band.

The advantage of this solution lies in the fact that muzzle rings can interfere with barrel oscillation which can significantly impede the accuracy of a rifle.

It was called the "Butcher Blade" by the Allies due to its distinctive shape, and was initially intended for artillerymen and engineers as a chopping tool as well as a weapon.

The Scharfschützen-Gewehr 98 (sniper rifle 98) was officially adapted in 1915 featuring for the period advanced 4× Görtz or Zeiss telescopic sights.

By the end of World War I, 18,421 Gewehr 98 rifles were converted and equipped with telescopic sights and issued to German snipers.

Experiments in 1904 with Karabiner 98A carbines rechambered for the S Patrone cartridge showed excessive recoil and muzzle flash problems, leading to the suspension of production in 1905.

The considerable length of the rifle and the minimum sight setting of 400 meters (far in excess of the typical range in trench battles) were particular handicaps.

For determining accuracy the German military fired a group of shots into a target and used statistics to calculate a hit probability.

For this specialized type of hunting, where absolute reliability of the rifle under adverse conditions is very important, the controlled-feed M 98 system remains the standard by which other action designs are judged.

Since the 7.92×57mm Mauser round was so stout and great for hunting, people did not want to give up on it, so a redesign of the cartridge was made for the civilian market resulting in the 8×60mm S featuring a new longer case.

The also rare 8×64mm S cartridge offers a comparable rechambering option for Mauser Gewehr 98 and Karabiner 98k rifles sporting 8mm S-bores.

Today these sporter rifles are extremely rare and the 8×60mm S, 8×64mm S and 9×57mm Mauser cartridges are nearly obsolete, as only few mainstream ammunition manufacturers along with some other smaller companies continue to produce them.

Also, many Gewehr 98 rifles acquired as trophies by Allied forces during the war and brought to the US were converted to the 8mm-06 wildcat cartridge, a modification of the original 8×57mm IS chambering to 8×63mm S to accommodate the use of the plentiful .30-06 Springfield brass for reloading, with 8mm (.323 caliber) bullets.

In the 21st century the US based company Rhineland Arms started to produce .45 ACP conversion kits for the Mauser action using M1911 pistol magazines.

[31][32] The Weimar Republic, the successor state to the German Empire, implemented a program designed to update their remaining supplies of Gewehr 98 rifles for the Reichswehr in the years following World War I.

[36] During World War II the Germans captured German-made Yugoslav Model 1898 carbines and rifles and designated them Gewehr 298 (j) and Karabiner 492 (j).

Models 1903 and 1905 were still in service in the 1960s, large numbers of Gewehr 98 rifles were also given to the Ottoman Empire both during and after World War I, including the majority of 1916 Waffenfabrik Oberndorf production.

It was also commercially successful - among users were Romania, China, Bolivia, Turkey, Japan, Spain, Iran (also locally produced under licence), Ecuador, Brasil, Lithuania, Yugoslavia; after WWII also Israel, North Vietnam and many others).

The rifle saw some usage in the Spanish Civil War, mostly in the hands of Generalissimo Franco's Nationalists and German volunteer legions.

[41] During the formation of the state of Israel in the aftermath of World War II, the Haganah acquired substantial numbers of Karabiner 98k rifles from any European sources they could find.