Comission Rifle

mikerock

mikerock

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
104   0   1
Location
Cascadia
Not one to normally poke my head out of the EE, I saw a post about an estate sale in Vancouver. I went to it and picked up a Gew. 88/05. After cleaning it up it is in superb condition. The only Turking is to the bolt and the rear sight, which is about all you can get from these rifles. The bore is shiny with no pitting.

The pictures with the grime are before I cleaned it up.

danzig1.jpg


danzig2.jpg


danzig3.jpg


danzig4.jpg


danzig5.jpg


danzig6.jpg


danzig7.jpg
 
Ahh! So you're the b*st*rd that outbid me :) I wanted that rifle for my wife but when it hit $340 I was out. It looked like a very nice old rifle and German, like her. I didn't know much about them at the auction but I've been learning. And it didn't go to Bubba!
 
Eos, it is my understanding that there is no designation 88/14, just that that is the year those rifles were brought up to the 88/05 standard. The clip on the magazine on this rifle is marked e 1914.


Rattus, sorry man but I had a need for a non '35 conversion and this was the last chance to get one before I get married. Going to be eating ramen for a while now to pay this off too! Did you get anything else from that sale?
 
Yes, I bought the second US Rifle Pattern 1917 for $200 and a Winchester Model 1910 for $100 so I was good. I bid or was interested in a couple of others but they went too high for me. My brother got what he wanted, the second RCMP Centennial rifle, so it was a worthwhile day.
 
Last edited:
Bugger - I missed that auction - how often do they happen in Vanc?

As for the GEW - were their bore diameters .323 or .318 like some of the early mausers? I thought that early Gew98's were .318 (read somewhere...) so I've held off getting a Gew88. I could be completely wrong though...
 
Rattus, those Centennial rifles were had for really good prices too. Nice one on the Eddystone.

Wally, it depends on the rifle. The vast majority of the 88's we see in North America went through Turkey. They replaced all sorts of stuff on them but not to any standard except in 1935 when they pretty much just made new rifles out of the receivers and magazines. You have to slug the barrel of a rifle to determine its bore size as it could be either .323 or .318. You also have to be careful which ammo you shoot out of them as they were designed for the 7.92x57I cartridge, which along with a smaller diameter bullet, the bullet weighed in the neighbourhood of 150 grains. Modern European ammunition is too hot to shoot out of these rifles but I have heard that SAAMI spec US produced ammo is OK. The best bet is to reload your own though.
 
mikerock said:
You have to slug the barrel of a rifle to determine its bore size as it could be either .323 or .318. You also have to be careful which ammo you shoot out of them as they were designed for the 7.92x57I cartridge, which along with a smaller diameter bullet, the bullet weighed in the neighbourhood of 150 grains. Modern European ammunition is too hot to shoot out of these rifles but I have heard that SAAMI spec US produced ammo is OK. The best bet is to reload your own though.
Click to expand...

wasn't the original bullet of the patrone 88 227gr and the switch to the 154 grain bullet was made in 1905 with the patrone S?

i recall reading somewhere that the original pressure was 3200 bars which = 46000 psi which is not exactly low pressure (my memory could be faulty as well), but, we have no idea what these rifles have been through in the last 110+ years and metal doesn't get stronger with age.
 
I have one with an exposed barrel and another with a type of metal shroud over the barrel. Both are 1988 Commission rifles. Are they different models, or differnt time periods?

I think they are both .323 barrels. I assume they got re-built at some point and were re-barrled.

I know little about 1988s.
 
Ganderite said:
I have one with an exposed barrel and another with a type of metal shroud over the barrel. Both are 1988 Commission rifles. Are they different models, or differnt time periods?

I think they are both .323 barrels. I assume they got re-built at some point and were re-barrled.

I know little about 1988s.
Click to expand...

the shrouded barrel is how the germans originally made them. the regular barrel is probably a turkish rework and should have a 1930's date on the receiver.
 
The Gewehr 88 (1888) went through two major modifications. 1905 was to switch from the 7.92x57I cartridge to the 7.92x57IS cartridge, and to replace the mannlicher style en-bloc clip magazine with a stripper clip fed mauser style magazine. This was to make them more compatible with the Gewehr 98s that were slowly replacing this rifle. Near the end of the war most of the rifles were given/sold to the Turks who held on to them. In 1935 they rebuilt the rifles with new barrrels and new stocks. The barrel shroud was removed and an upper handguard was added as well.

MiG25 said:
wasn't the original bullet of the patrone 88 227gr and the switch to the 154 grain bullet was made in 1905 with the patrone S?

i recall reading somewhere that the original pressure was 3200 bars which = 46000 psi which is not exactly low pressure (my memory could be faulty as well), but, we have no idea what these rifles have been through in the last 110+ years and metal doesn't get stronger with age.
Click to expand...


You may be thinking of the 11mm mauser round, 7.92x57I was definitely underpowered and undersized compared to the 7.92x57IS round.

Although I could be wrong, Wiki is agreeing with you.
 
Last edited:
mikerock said:
You may be thinking of the 11mm mauser round, 7.92x57I was definitely underpowered and undersized compared to the 7.92x57IS round.

Although I could be wrong, Wiki is agreeing with you.
Click to expand...

i am not equiped to debate the finer points of german ammunition, but the 11mm was of course a black powder round and i think the bullet was approx 370 grains.

it is my understanding that all (or nearly all) the first generation of smokeless rounds (ie 6.5x55, 7x57, 7.9x57, 7.62x54R, .303 british, 30-40 krag, 8x50R et al) originally used heavy roundnosed bullets, then were upgraded post 1905 (and the trend setting 7.92 S) to lighter spitzer bullets.
 
Yes I think you're correct. The rifle I have though has the "S" on the receiver denoting the spitzer conversion, along with all the other 1905 modifications.
 
mikerock said:
Eos, it is my understanding that there is no designation 88/14, just that that is the year those rifles were brought up to the 88/05 standard. The clip on the magazine on this rifle is marked e 1914.


Rattus, sorry man but I had a need for a non '35 conversion and this was the last chance to get one before I get married. Going to be eating ramen for a while now to pay this off too! Did you get anything else from that sale?
Click to expand...

Not identical with the 88/05 conversion method it seems:
http://www.texastradingpost.com/m88/commission88.html
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom