 The new cartridge used the same bullet and therefore only the chamber of the rifle had to be modified (reamed out by 2 mm plus 1 mm of neck extension) to accommodate the slightly longer case.This operation was easily performed on Gewehr 98 and Karabiner 98k rifles.It also meant that owners of rifles so re-chambered could not then be used as an "ad hoc" reserve to the German Army (that was one of the issues of concern at Versailles of reserves of male civilians disguised as rifle club members with their own privately owned rifles - being trained as reinforcements in time of war as the German Army was by that Treaty limited not only to 100,000 men but also to the number of rifles it could possess) as standard military ammunition could not now be safely fired in rifles so converted.