Picked up another Gewehr 1888 Commission Rifle.

[Claven2]

I think I was quite lucky to find this one on the Collector's Source website for a very fair price. It's an 1890 Steyr Gewehr 1888/05 Commision rifle in original trim with a Turkish property mark on the receiver. For those that don't know, the 1805 modification involved adding Mauser-type charger guides to the receiver (silver soldered and riveted on), and a conversion of the magazine from mannlicher-type en-blocs to a standard single-column internal magazine for use with the Gewehr 98 charger clip. A shallow thumb-cut was also added to the receiver side-wall as shown here:



This one does not appear to have been reworked since the 1905 upgrade in Germany and retains all matching serial numbers except the bolt and the serrated button on the sight slide. The stock is unsanded with few dings and all cartouches still crisp. Blueing appears original and most of it is still there. Bore is about perfect and slugs to .311" land and .321" groove. barrelled receiver and all the other parts that should be are still in the white.

It looks like Turkish changes are limited to arabic script being added to the original sight leaf, a replacement Czech-made bolt that matches itself, and the property mark on the receiver. It's thought that a good many of the Gew88 rifles in turkey got there after WW1 with the bolts missing, presumably due to the disarmament terms of the Versailles Treaty and the Paris Peace Conference. Turkey evidently have BRNO make a bunch of bolts up to bring those rifles back into action.

Here are the pics of the serial numbers.
Bolt (in turkish script the serial of the bolt is 76451):

Bands:


Receiver and barrel jacket:

Action screws and the bottom metal:


Trigger assembly:

Barrel (the other number is the assembly number, more on that later):

Front sight:

Rear sight slide and mismatched button:

Sight ladder:

Stock:


Gew88's have assembly numbers stamped on the major components and serial numbers were added later to the assembled rifles as they came off the line. Here are the matching assembly numbers, in this case No. 184.

Bbl jacket below woodline:

Barrel:

Receiver:

Bottom metal:

Follower:


Next we have the original unit marking. This rifle has no struck unit markings and only one marking is present on the rifle, meaning it spent its whole life in the 10th Bavarian Infantry Regiment Prinz Ludwig at Ingolstadt. In 1914, the 10th was the oldest regiment in the Bavarian Army having been formed in 1682. Incidentally, This is the first Regiment Ernst Rohm joined in 1906 as an officer-cadet (he later went on to become Hitler's No.2 and leader of the SA before being murdered during the night of the long knives).



The buttplate has another number on it, "J 11". I'm not sure what that refers to as it's not a typical issue marking.



All the stock cartouches are beautifully preserved including the Kaiser's property mark:




The bore groove diameter is stamped into the rear sight base. This is often seen on rifles that served in turkey, though I'm not sure if the turks did that, or if the Germans did. 7.91mm = .311" which is the actual land diameter of this rifle's bore.



Here we see the original rear sight ladder has had the original markings mostly milled off and turkish-arabic script numbers added. Turkey used this script until 1928 and pre-1928 arms will usually have these graduations. After 1928 they adopt the modern latin alphabet and numerals.



For deciphering purposes, these are the pre-1928 Turkish script letters:



As you can see, originally Gew88's have barrels in the white as well as the receivers, only the thin-walled barrel jacket was blued.



Most Gew88S and Gew88/05 rifles you see will have one of these sheet-metal covers added over the original en-bloc ejection port. These were hastily ordered and added to the stock of Gew88's in Germany in 1914 after the first bit of trench warfare pointed out the issues with having points of mud and dirt ingress on a rifle.



Of course, all over the rifle you will find little proof marks of a crown over a gothis script letter. These are called "frakturs" and are an inspection mark from manufacture. They are commonly found on most imperial-era military arms.




And here is the manufacturer's roll stamp and an overall shot of the rifle:





Finally, a shot of the Gew88 next to the rifle it was built to counter, the 1886 Lebel which is also an 8mm rifle:


Edit:

A LOT of pals get confused over classification of a Gew88 with charger guides as there were two patterns, the 88/05 and the 88/14. Over on the Parallax boards, they have been looking for confirmed Gew88/14 examples and have thus far located a total of THREE (3) examples compared to hundreds of 88/05's. In all likelihood you will find a Gew88 (original trim), Gew88S (still an en-bloc loader but the clip now ejects out the top, not the bottom) or an 88/05 (like the above pictured rifle). A Gew88/14, on the other hand, will have a rear sight ladder with a new scale silver-soldered over the original sight leaf and the charge guides are crudely made from metal built up by welding and don't look clean and precise like the machined and brazed-on charger guides of a proper 88/05 conversion.

Information

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[jmoore]

Very nice post!

Your 88/05 reminds me of my first '88, which got sold off some time back for no apparent reason.

[Michigan Troll]

Great post, I have two 88's, one a 1894 Steyr and the other a 1891 Loewe. Not many matching numbers though. There are some small dings in each of the barrel jackets near the front sight, they are not deep enough to touch the barrel. I thought about removing the dings with a shotgun barrel dent remover, but decided to leave well enough alone. They both have the letter "C" stamped on the butt plates, however considering the lack of matching numbers I doubt these would be original butt plates. Both rifles are missing cleaning rods, if they were more original I would consider getting a couple of cleaning rods. I do not remember where I bought them, but they filled a niche in my collection until a better one comes my way.

[suess15]

nice pics

Does anyone no of link where Ican get info or a video on taking apart the bolt on a 1888 gewehr ?

[Calif-Steve]

I rremember years ago. I went to my Woolworths to find an G88. They let me in the back and I opened 20 boxes, I laid out 3-4 near mint rifles and picked out one. I still have it. Must have been a large shipment as the Turks cleaned out the WWI inventory. I guess all of it went to the USA.

[Claven2]

Does anyone no of link where Ican get info or a video on taking apart the bolt on a 1888 gewehr ?

From Texas Trading Post FAQ on the 1888:

To strip the bolt, hold it firmly and rotate cocking piece a quarter turn to left. Pull bolt head forward out of bolt. Remove extractor by sliding it forward and outward from bolt head. Ejector is retained by peening the bolt head and should be removed only for repair. Place nose of firing pin against a wood block and hold downward on bolt. Depress safety with thumb and unscrew firing pin nut. Ease pressure on bolt and lift off safety, safety spring and cocking piece. Firing pin and firing pin spring come out through front of bolt. Warning - It is possible to fire this gun without the bolt head installed, and (understatement of the year) this would be dangerous. Accordingly, be sure the bolt head is in gun before firing.

[kar66]

Yes I remember seeing them at Woolworth's. I must have been about 1978. I think they were $39.99 or something close. I started out to Columbia to buy one on a Saturday. I even took my wife along. But we stopped at another gunshop on the way. They had a bring back SKS from Nam. I ended up buying the SKS. I never did get one of the Woolworth 88s. I did buy one a year or so later from a local gunshop. I also bought 2 of the 88/98 estraz bayonets that came in with the 88s. They didn't have Turkish modification so they would only fit the Turks came in with the later Turkish rifles. They would work with a 88 or 98 rifle.