New, Gew 88/05, had some questions

[Calif-Steve]

Not a Czech barrel, but looks to be real German Gew88 barrel. Not too sure, but is that a crack just over the chamber? Really can't be sure. I would be careful with that rifle.

[Aragorn243]

I looked with super magnification and the one "crack" looks to be nothing but a scratch. The second one, in the last photo showing the barrel, I would examine very closely in person. Hopefully it is just a scratch also but it does not look straight or have smooth transitions.

[CaptSimon]

I thought I'd catch up with this post. First, I noticed the marks on the barrel on the chamber after I took the pics too. I disassembled it and used my trusty magnifier/lighted headgear and am 99.9% certain that there scratches and not cracks. One is just deeper than the other, and the one I found looping the barrel is actually part of the threads of the barrel. As for ammo, I tried slugging the barrel and being the first time I've done this, results weren't good. Checking around the muzzle with calipers yields at most .318 (need to clean for lead) and least .308-.311. If it comes to it, I'll take it to the smith and have it checked.

[Aragorn243]

If you wipe the area down with mineral spirits, if it is a crack, it will remain wet. Otherwise it should dry almost immediately.

[CaptSimon]

Thanks to Aragorn, I can say for certain that there scratches, not cracks. I also checked the chamber and there are no scratches or cracks in it (chamber condition is 99-100%). The reason that it looked so mean in the one picture was because it had grease/cosmo in it. I am glad that the barrel was replaced at least once in German service (and I've seen barrels floating around if it needs to be changed again). Now I can get back to finding out the bore dimensions.

Bernard