The 'cy' indicates that the barrel was originally made in Czechoslovakia at a Spreewerk facility and the 'bnz' in a shield probably indicates that the barrel was reprofiled at Steyr. These barrels were reprofiled and used in Kar.98ks, Stg.44s, VG.1s, VG.2s and other 'last ditch' rifles. The Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht released spare barrels for obsolete 8x57mm machineguns to rifle production in December 1944, because there was a general shortage of rifle barrels. The receiver may have been quarantined when originally produced for some minor flaw and then returned to assembly at the end of the war, a common German practice in 1945. The barrel on this rifle was an MG.15, MG.34, or MG.81 aircraft machine gun barrel turned down to Kar.98k profile. The '4' on the receiver indicates that the receiver was made in 1944, but the gun was probably assembled in 1945. You have a very late war production Steyr Kar.98k or VG.2 which has been sporterized. Value will depend upon condition and matching parts. No Polish 'bnz' Radom Model 98/40's were made for the SS. Steyr, Mauser ('byf', 'svw') and Brno ('dot') were the last major producers of 98k's in 1944 and the Mauser and Brno output was dedicated to the German Army. 98k's for the SS earlier, but were diverted to StGw 44 production in early 1944. 98k's made by Steyr are dated with a '44' (1944) date code. Some factories had multiple offices, and some articles were made up of parts inspected at different factories, explaining multiple WaA numbers on a single firearm. The 'XXX' number was the number of the inspection office assigned by the German Army's Quartermaster Corps. The 'Eagle' mark over a 'WaA XXX' is the German military inspector's acceptance stamp. It also appears on war material made at factories under Steyr supervision, such as the Radom factory in Poland. The 'bnz' production code was assigned by Organization Todt to production of German war material at the Steyr factories in what had been Austria during most of WW II.

Mauser 98 serial number lookup