I bought this action from the EE. I didn't plan on shooting it, instead buying it for the un-Turked receiver, and the spoon-handle bolt. The stock showed the 1920-30s half-assed attempts to commercialise it, added pistol grip, cheesy stamped decorations and checkering, and a general state that made it worthy of firewood.
After tossing the stock, save the cross bolt and pillars, I set the barrelled action aside for a while. Recently I tried to remove the remnants of a barrel shroud with a Krag rear site attached to it, and found it wouldn't budge. I assume, since it was a kar/gew 88 that maybe there was some rust between the receiver threads and the shroud, and so tapped at it with a small hammer, still no movement. At that point I sprayed some light oil between the shroud and the barrel, and left it to soak for a day. With signs the oil had wept out through the threads I happily tried to unscrew the shroud again, no go. This time the hammer came out, again. After one or two whacks (maybe 10) it had only budged about 1 mm. A little cheesed I gave it a sharp crack, snapping the krag sight. That's when I notice the two screws on the krag base. At that moment I had one of those nice moments when you feel like a total ass, and a genius, realising that they hadn't soldered the base to the shroud, but had screwed it through the shroud to the barrel.
I popped out the two site screws and the base fell off, and the shroud came off by hand.
It revealed an interesting bit of hobbled together crap. The barrel is not a Gew/Kar 88 barrel, but looks to be maybe a K98(?) barrel turned to fit. The barrel is not marked, though was probably marked before it was turned. I believe based on the Krag installed rear sight that this may be a bannerman conversion, as I have seen other guns with this rear sight ascribed to bannerman, but I don't know for sure.
A closer look shows the barrel is recycled, as you can see outlines of a previous rear sight.
Of course the interesting thing to me was the drilling of the holes in the barrel so the krag site screws could be threaded into the barrel. The holes looked deep, very deep, and after measuring the depth, and crunching some numbers, a barrel wall thickness of .885mm was left. Yes, less than a millimeter between the inside of the barrel and the bottom of the crew hole. I am sure it would have lasted at least a few more shots, but I for one am glad to have not gambled on this slapped together POS.
