Built during World War II, K.Kale-marked Turkish Mausers feature actions actually made in Turkey. Around 250,000 M1938- type rifles were made over a six-year period.
While all previous models of Turkish Mausers and many of the so-called M1938s were actually made in Europe, K.Kale-marked rifles were manufactured in Turkey. The first domestic-made Turkish Mauser-type rifles, they were built in Kirikkale Tufek Fabrikast, a government-owned “Military Factory.”
During World War II, Turkey was neutral but isolated, and for the first time it had to rely on local armories to produce military firearms. Thousands of Gew.98s were parted out and converted to the M1938 configuration. These were for the most part marked ATF, for Ankara Tufek Fabrikast (Ankara Rifle Factory).
According to the site turkmauser.com, a few early K.Kale-marked...