1891 Turkish Gew 88
- Thread starter Buckmastr
- Start date
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
That is a Gewehr 88/05. Made in 1891 at Spandau. Sometime around 1905-1910ish it would have been updated to use the new 'Patrone S' spitzer round. The modifications included modifying the receiver and magazine to hold cartridges without a mannlicher clip, modifying the receiver to accept the new stripper clips, modifying the receiver with the divot to allow loading from stripper clips (the overall length of the cartridge never changed, it was do with the stripper clip loading), and re-calibrating the sights for the new round.
These rifles were then used in WWI by the Germans, as a secondary arm which still saw a lot of frontline service. As the war progressed the need to use the 88/05s started to dry up (as they now had enough Gewehr 98s) and they ended up being stockpiled. In 1916 they started sending them to the Ottoman Empire, who used them up into the 1920s or 30s (including all the conflicts fought by Turkey in the 20s) before putting them into storage after a rebuild. Part of them being sent to the Ottomans was to have the rear sight markings ground down and put on in Arabic numerals. Ironically the Turks later on in rebuild would often grind off the Arabic numerals and replace them with standard numerals, I have a example of a 88/05 with that exact treatment.
Things to note, your bore is very likely not .323, but rather a .3215 diameter bore. Unless you have slugged it and 100% confirmed it is a .323 bore I would not shoot any .323 bullets out of it. These are weak actions and have been known to blow up in both German and Turkish service. That being said these rifles are a blast to shoot if you get set up for reloading. I personally use .32 Winchester Special bullets (.321 dia) and some 3031 powder (can't remember the exact amount off the top of my head), and it is one of my most accurate milsurps. You need to load light, but that also means there is next to no kick when shooting them.
These rifles were then used in WWI by the Germans, as a secondary arm which still saw a lot of frontline service. As the war progressed the need to use the 88/05s started to dry up (as they now had enough Gewehr 98s) and they ended up being stockpiled. In 1916 they started sending them to the Ottoman Empire, who used them up into the 1920s or 30s (including all the conflicts fought by Turkey in the 20s) before putting them into storage after a rebuild. Part of them being sent to the Ottomans was to have the rear sight markings ground down and put on in Arabic numerals. Ironically the Turks later on in rebuild would often grind off the Arabic numerals and replace them with standard numerals, I have a example of a 88/05 with that exact treatment.
Things to note, your bore is very likely not .323, but rather a .3215 diameter bore. Unless you have slugged it and 100% confirmed it is a .323 bore I would not shoot any .323 bullets out of it. These are weak actions and have been known to blow up in both German and Turkish service. That being said these rifles are a blast to shoot if you get set up for reloading. I personally use .32 Winchester Special bullets (.321 dia) and some 3031 powder (can't remember the exact amount off the top of my head), and it is one of my most accurate milsurps. You need to load light, but that also means there is next to no kick when shooting them.
Eaglelord17
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Sault Ste. Marie
Never seen that marking. Normally if a firearm or ammo has 7.92 it is 8x57 as that is what most countries actually called it. Possibly might have been marked like that to differentate between the 7.65x53 they were also using at that time. These rifles are over 100 years old and were sold and given to many people in that time. Who knows who did what to them, and even if it is untouched it is hard to try and figure out the actual meaning of the markings (Gewehr 88s are very debated in terms of marking meanings). Bore diameters vary between guns, and its not like these were the most well designed and understood actions out there (when originally made they didn't even proof the guns, the proofing process consisting of taking one gun out of a batch and firing service ammo through it, not even proof rounds!). Smokeless powder was brand new when these guns were made, and the designers didn't fully understand what they were doing (not to mention the metallurgy at the time was rudimentary in comparison to modern methods).
Cool guns, tons of fun, just need to understand there weaknesses and accommodate them.
Cool guns, tons of fun, just need to understand there weaknesses and accommodate them.
Nice rifle! I hope to own one too someday. I found this video enjoyable and learned a lot from it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pMs5RRTpEPw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pMs5RRTpEPw
Turkish Gew 88s have been rebuild many times along the way,they also received new barrels from variety of sources.I have 3 gew 88-one with original .318 bore,one with .321 and one with nice .323 bore.
Slug the bore after very good cleaning.All 3 of my rifles came with insane amounts of crud,dust,copper and God knows what else.They shoot just fine now and on a good day they are very accurate rifles.
BTW-if you are thinking about cast bullets I suggest giving them solid but light crimp.Feeding ramp on Gew 88 is very steep and Lee bullets tend to get pushed into the case rather than feed into chamber.
Slug the bore after very good cleaning.All 3 of my rifles came with insane amounts of crud,dust,copper and God knows what else.They shoot just fine now and on a good day they are very accurate rifles.
BTW-if you are thinking about cast bullets I suggest giving them solid but light crimp.Feeding ramp on Gew 88 is very steep and Lee bullets tend to get pushed into the case rather than feed into chamber.
