Research assistance requested ........

[forty4forty]

Boer War 1896 Mauser, Orange Free State issue, OVS 707x, non matching. This looks like a bullet graze, hard to tell if .303 or 7mm, one would assume .303 British.

Second one in picture is also unmatched, with non OVS or ZAR serial number 774x, I believe the last batch of 10,000.

[Badger]

Boer War 1896 Mauser, Orange Free State issue, OVS 707x, non matching. This looks like a bullet graze, hard to tell if .303 or 7mm, one would assume .303 British.

Wow...

Great pic.. thanks for posting it ...

Regards,
Doug

[Ian Skennerton]

Hi from Australia, 44-40.
Very interesting, I've never seen one like this before, especially from the Anglo-Boer war.
To be a bullet channel, the rifle would need to have been held vertical. Or could it have been a piece of shrapnel?
Thanks for the contribution,
Ian Skennerton

[P-07ShortLee]

Could have been "dropped", laying on it's side.

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 PM ----------

Or leaning (stacked?) in a near vertical position.

[Badger]

Hi from Australia, 44-40.
Very interesting, I've never seen one like this before, especially from the Anglo-Boer war.
To be a bullet channel, the rifle would need to have been held vertical.

I think it's a bullet based upon the grooves in the cut out channel. (see pic enlarged). I've seen similar patterns on other pics on the Internet.

Perhaps he was in motion with his rifle holding it vertical as he moved and the bullet grazed through it that way.

Regards,
Doug

[Ian Skennerton]

A puzzling feature seems to be the channel curve rather than a straight line as one would expect from a projectile.
Would not life be boring if one knew the answer to everything?
Ian

[Badger]

A puzzling feature seems to be the channel curve rather than a straight line as one would expect from a projectile.

That's interesting ...

Hadn't thought of that ...

Regards,
Doug

[jmoore]

The following isn't So much damage as wear and possible finish degradation due to exposure in "battlefield" conditions. Worn wood at the toe seems to show up w/ some degree of regularity on "experienced" weapons.

The areas normally protected by the "dust covers" on the two rifles shown demonstrate that they protect the weapon from more than "dust":

A matching "mum'ed" Type 38 rifle:




Note the very uneven wear of the wood on the toe of this rifle. Buttplates themselves seem to be little worn. Interesting, no?


Whilst on Type 38s, here's some uglies on a carbine fore stock. Nothing earth shaking, but Maybe from field use?:



Und now, a Gew98 previously photo'd in a small thread in the Mauser Forum (it's "feeling less lonely", now!):


Significant wood is gone from the toe, but in a more even manner than the above Type 38 rifle.


Note the lovely sheen of the metal protected by the cover.

Note the bluing that's still on the underside of the cover.

[jmoore]

I don't think this qualifies as "battle damage", maybe it was "practice" damage? At any rate, this bayonet scabbard from an early-ish Type 38 rifle bayonet (Type 30 bayonet? I forget the nomenclature, sorry!) saw many impacts with a very sharp blade wielded w/ a fair degree of force. It's as close as I can come to any sort of blade weapon usage:






That's all I've been able to photograph so far. Hopefully it's of some use.

[Ian Skennerton]

We often hear 'If only that rifle could talk', but given an objective look at markings we can make assumptions in many cases. There was not much damage done to ex-service rifles after their wartime days so we can assume wear, marks and scratches in most cases were done already. Where there are later additions such as peep or telescopic sights, the fore-end or handguards cut or removed, &c. there is little credibility, but when items remain virtually intact and the wear appears to be generations old, we are at liberty to make assumptions.

As posted originally, this can be an interesting study as it covers all types of service rifles... Mausers, Arisakas, Enfields, Carcanos, Mosin-Nagants, &c. Keep looking through your collections and adding posts!
Cheers, Ian Skennerton