We’re probly not looking at the same pic. K98’s are military and all 8mm. While there are something over 50 million Mauser rifles around most are not K98’s. And none are 30-06 without re-building. That forward scope ring is not even connected to the forward base. There is such a thing as an extended ring but that ain’t one. The bolt handle is bent but not re-curved for a scope mount and that’s not even commercial Mauser let alone K98. And no one mounts the scope turrets over the loading port-—no room for the thumb to load. And you don’t want the ejected empty to beat up on the turret.
I’ve been buying, selling, and re-building Mauser rifles for over half a century and have pretty much every variation on the wall right over there, so it’s easy for me to check on how original something might be. I also have all the available scope mounting hardwares in stock. The setup in the published pic is, at best, clumsy, and might work just once. It would be refreshing if the gummint dicks describing what they have were skilled enough to be accurate?
plus mausers generally didn’t have magazines. They fire from clips. So I’m with you...guessing it’s not a mauser.
(trench magazines are rare and aren’t what people think of when talking magazines)