W.W.1 German 13mm Anti-Tank Rifle

[browningautorifle]

Comparitive rarity, and originality in my mind...

[villiers]

I realize the rarity issue. But I meant the general fear of shooting the thing. The other T-rifles should have about the same charge behind the projectile.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Patrick, I think you will find that later anti-tank rifles all had muzzle brakes, shoulder pads, recoil absorber springs etc, making them a lot more bearable to shoot. The T-Gewehr was a brute-force solution, one could call it a monstrosity, being basically a scaled-up Gew.98 without any consideration for the non-scaled up skeleton of the shooter!

[boltaction]

It was the first of its kind, and it is huge. I have a later German piece, the PzB39, and had a chance at a Boyes but missed the chance (dammit), and have also owned the Russian PTRS semi auto AT rifle. I wouldn't really want to shoot any of them, but of the group, I would want to shoot the Mauser T-Gewehr the least. The others do have muzzle brakes, shoulder pads, some recoil reducing features, etc, while the T-Gewehr is just a MONSTER 98. I saw a video of one being fired, and the fellow doing the shooting moves back, with the rifle, about 3 feet through the dirt..........

Having said that, very cool rifle!

Ed

Some photos

Next to me--I'm 5'8" tall


Next to a standard WWI G98


Receiver next to my hand


Chamber marking details


Optimistic sighting graduations


T-Gewehr bolt next to G98 bolt--face view


T-Gewehr bolt next to G98 bolt--side view


T-Gewehr bolt next to G98 bolt--top view


Ed

[RCS]

Attachment 39235Attachment 39234The original US 50 cal cartridge also had a rim like the 13mm Mauser, that was soon changed as the Browning 50 cal M1919 m/g was being developed after WW1.

Photo shows three WW2 cartridges: 55 Boys, 50 cal Browning and 12.7mm Russian

Some collectors/shooters have made 13mm Mauser cartridges to shoot in their rifles

[Calif-Steve]

After WWI the US Army gave away plies of heavy German MG's etc to the VFW Posts. I think lots of these in private collections have a VFW connection.

[villiers]

Considering that ear protection was not in general use at the time ... I´d definitely shoot it. Don´t think I could live with it without having shot it. If apprehensive, you could always start off with a weaker load and progress from there.

[Patrick Chadwick]

could always start off with a weaker load and progress from there.

One shoulder-saving answer would be to turn up a case or two from solid brass (like the Samereier cases for reduced loads), leaving a powder space more like that of a 45-70 or 50-70, and then in effect load it as if it was a 50-70 with a nitro load. Going a bit further, the large mass of the rifle ought to make it feasible to shoot something equivalent to a 50 caliber 3" Nitro Express without too much personal strain!

[browningautorifle]

A sub cal round...that would work extremely well...

[boltaction]

Now that would be a fun thing to try--machine a round, make a .303 chamber in it, and fire something smaller. That would sure raise some eyebrows at the range if one showed up with that and set up! Maybe even a .22!