The history of the next German rifle, called the Gewehr 88, is very curious, as well as herself. The fact is that all rifles of the second half of the 19th century were at first rather large-caliber and were loaded with black powder cartridges. Accordingly, as soon as a cartridge with smokeless powder and a rifle for it appeared in France, as all other European countries urgently needed exactly the same rifle, and preferably even better! So the development of the 1888 model in Germany became a "challenge" from France, where a new magazine-type rifle of the Lebel system of the 1886 model (Fusil Modele 1886 dit "Fusil Lebel") entered service, using the latest unitary cartridge of 8- mm with a charge of smokeless powder. As a result, the Lebel rifle had a longer firing range, higher accuracy and rate of fire than rifles of other countries, which provided the French soldiers with tactical superiority over the German army, armed, as we know, with an 11-mm Mauser M1871 rifle chambered for black powder and with a lead bullet, while the French had a tombak bullet. That is, the Lebel rifle surpassed the German M1871 Mauser both in its combat and in service and operational characteristics. It is clear that it was absolutely impossible to endure this!
German soldiers with Gewehr 88 rifles during the First World War.
The German response to the French challenge was the creation of a special commission for the testing of new rifles (GewehrPrufungsKomission), which in 1888 decided to replace the M 1871 model with the Gewehr 88 rifle. As a result, this rifle is known as the "Commission rifle" ("commission rifle") and as "Reichsgewehr" ("state rifle"), although it is also called "Mauser", and, by the way, there are certain reasons for this.
Gewehr 88 rifles and carbine (below). The top rifle is a batch loading modification. Medium - Gewehr 88/14 (sample 1914). Below is the M1890 carbine.
First of all, for the new rifle, a new Patrone 88 (P-88) cartridge was developed, more advanced than the French one. Perfection consisted in the presence of a flangeless bottle-shaped sleeve, in which the charge of the now smokeless powder was placed. Bullet - 7, 92 - 8 mm blunt-pointed with a diameter of 8, 08 mm of traditional design. That is, a "shirt" filled with lead. The bullet in the cupronickel shell weighed 14.62 g, the weight of the charge of smokeless powder was 2.5 g. The bullet had an initial velocity of 635 m / sec. The weight of the entire cartridge was 27, 32 g. The cartridge was designed very well. The sleeve had a cap with a circular groove, there was no rim. The small capsule weakened the bottom of the case less. Thanks to the successful external shape, the new cartridges fit well in the clip, took up little space in the store, were fed and easily sent by the bolt without delay, which made it possible to make the bolt of a smaller diameter, and to facilitate the entire bolt and, accordingly, the receiver.
True, on the rifle itself, the rifling depth soon had to be increased by 0.1 mm. No wonder it is said that the stingy and stupid always pay twice! The fact is that the Germans "one to one" copied the step and the profile of the rifling in the barrel from the French, but did not think that the bullet of their rifle was different from the French one. The French was shellless (that is, it was entirely made of copper, or tombac without a lead core). Therefore, it was less susceptible to expansion when fired. And the Germans had a shell bullet, which protruded more into the rifling. As a result, both the movement of the bullet along the rifling and the survivability of the rifling themselves have changed. I had to improve …
Cartridge 7, 92 × 57 P-88.
More perfect than the Austro-Hungarian, flangeless German cartridge also led to a more perfect shape of the cartridge pack. She became symmetrical on both sides and therefore could be introduced into the store of either of them. In 1905, this cartridge was replaced with a new, even more advanced Mauser cartridge 7, 92 × 57 mm, already with a pointed "S" bullet of a slightly larger diameter of 8, 20 mm and with a more powerful powder charge inside the sleeve. That is, the rifle received the same Mauser cartridge, and it is not for nothing that it is said that the cartridge is half of the rifle! Although it is hardly worth calling this rifle "Mauser" for this very reason. After all, an important part of it - the sliding bolt was not developed by Paul Mauser, but Schlegelmilch, a gunsmith from the arsenal in Spandau. Although, of course, creating it, he looked at the Mauser shutter. In addition, the rifle was equipped with a Mannlicher single-row magazine, which, incidentally, Paul did not like very much.
Pack for the Gewehr 88 rifle.
It was this magazine that became the main feature of the new Gewehr 88 rifle. The peculiarity of this design is that the pack of cartridges remains in the magazine until the very last cartridge, and only then falls out of it through a special hole at the bottom of the magazine. Such a device speeds up the process of reloading the weapon, but there is a possibility that dirt gets into the store through the lower hole, which as a result can lead to delays in firing.
Diagram of the bolt device of the Gewehr 88 rifle.
The use of Mannlicher's batch system was a violation of copyright, which in turn resulted in litigation (as if this could not have been foreseen in advance ?!) and a claim from Steyr on the German side violating Mannlicher's patents. As a result, they bought off the Austrians by transferring them the rights to … the production of the Gewehr 88 rifle for those orders that will go to the Steyr company both from Germany and from other states. In addition, the company was given the right to install Schlegelmilch breeches on its own rifles. Truly, the "Solomon solution", isn't it ?!
A hole in the magazine for the bundle to fall out.
Whatever it was, however, from a legal point of view, but from a technical rifle it turned out! The perfect design of the trigger mechanism with a warning provided her with high firing accuracy. But what we now call the fashionable word "trend" went further in it. The trend for the Gewehr 88 was that the relatively thin barrel of the rifle was housed in a metal Miega design, without the traditional wooden lining on it. This was done in order to exclude the influence of such a phenomenon as the shrinkage of the wooden parts of the box due to changes in temperature and humidity, which was reflected in the accuracy of fire. In addition, the "tube" protected the shooter's palms from burns during intense shooting. But as it often happens in life - "they wanted the best, but it turned out as always", that is, not too good. It turned out that the presence of a casing increases the risk of corrosion, since water could get into the space between it and the barrel and it really got there, despite all the efforts of engineers and technologists in production.
Gewehr 88/14 rifle with bayonet.
And this is how the bolt box of the Gewehr 88 rifle, model 1891, produced in Dantzing by order of Turkey, looked like. In 1914, all of these rifles were converted to ammo rifles.
Following the rifle for arming the cavalry, the Karabiner 88 carbine was released, which was put into service already in 1890 and differed from the rifle in a number of details, that is, as usual - a shorter barrel, no ramrod and bayonet mount, and, most importantly, a flat bolt handle, bent way down.
As you can see, the numbers on the sighting bar are "Arabic".
Rifles of this series later received the designations Gewehr 88/05 (i.e. sample 1905) and Gewehr 88/14 (sample 1914), which used new Mauser cartridges 7, 92 × 57 mm with pointed bullets. These rifles, like the Kar.88 / 05 carbines, were converted from early weapons by re-marking the rear sight, deploying a bullet entrance in the barrel and applying the “S” mark to the receiver just above the chamber. Both rifles were adapted to be loaded with clips. Moreover, the last of them on the left wall of the receiver received a recess for the fingers for greater convenience when loading from the clip and a re-cut barrel with grooves deepened by 0.15 mm. In total, about 300,000 copies of the Gewehr 88/05 rifle were produced. During the First World War, the Kaiser's army used them along with the modern Gewehr 98. In addition, they were used by Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, China and even … the South African army!
Here you can clearly see the barrel casing and the "half-ramrod". Each rifle had exactly a “half ramrod”, but to get a full length ramrod, two half ramrods had to be screwed together. Saving metal and money!
Strap swivel and false ring attachment.
As a result, it turned out that the model 1888 rifle is faster-firing than such rifles as "Lebel", "Gra-Kropachek", the Japanese Murata rifle and in general all other systems with an under-barrel magazine. The German rifle in rate of fire was only slightly inferior to the Austrian Mannlicher rifle, also of the 1888 model, but it had a lighter weight, a more perfect cartridge, a more compact magazine, an improved double-sided pack clip that can be inserted by either side, and finally - a more perfect trigger mechanism. Among the shortcomings was a thin barrel with a clearly superfluous "shirt" and a slightly slower bolt opening than that of the Mannlicher rifle. In general, it was more perfect than modern rifles of the same caliber, created at that time in countries such as France, Japan, and Portugal!
But in this photo, the added guides for the clip are clearly visible, on the left there is a recess for the finger for the convenience of equipping the magazine from the clip, and a flag fuse on the bolt stem in its rear part. On the M1888 / 05 modification, the cage guides were riveted, and on the M1888 / 14 they were attached by autogenous welding, a very technological and modern solution at that time.
During the First World War, when losses in manpower and weapons in all countries began to simply go off scale, Germany developed a modernized version of the Gewehr 88/14 rifle, which, as noted above, in addition to being able to shoot Mauser cartridges 7, 92 × 57, was charged using plate clips that replaced the previous packs. The alteration was simple and consisted in installing guides for the clip and a special frame part in the store, which played the role of a shaft. In fact, it was the same pack, and quite heavy, which at the same time had a cut-off function, which did not allow double feeding or jumping out of the cartridges from the magazine under the action of the spring. Accordingly, the window for their ejection of the pack in the bottom of the store was closed with a stamped steel plate. Rifles of this sample were produced about 700,000. And the total production of model "88" rifles, which were produced by both state and private companies, amounted to about 2,000,000 copies. So the Germans fought then not only with new, but also with their old rifles!
Pay attention to the shape of the store and to the lid, which was used to cover the hole for the pack to fall out, which was no longer needed.
This lid is shown in close-up here.
Interestingly, in 1897, to replace the "88" in the army, the G.88 / 97 rifle was ordered with a bolt based on the Paul Mauser design of the 1898 model, but without a third additional combat larva, and with a Mauser double-row box magazine in the box. But Gewehr 88/97 lost the competition to the Mauser in 1898. But when the production of these rifles in Germany was discontinued, some of the equipment and the license for its production were sold to China, where they established its production under the name "Hanyang rifle", after the name of the city where the manufacturing plant was located.
The shutter is open. The old "pack" lever of the cartridge feeder is clearly visible. They did not replace him, because every little thing in a weapon costs money.
From the point of view of technology, the Gewehr 88 was a rifle, traditional for that time, with a sliding bolt action and two radial lugs located in the front of the bolt. The ejector tooth and the plunger reflector were on the combat bolt head. The main drawback of this design was … the ability to assemble the bolt without this part and even fire a shot, only this led to the destruction of the rifle and, even worse, to the injury of the shooter.
Fully open bolt rifle. You can clearly see where the guides for the cage were welded. Welding marks are clearly visible.
Close-up shutter.
The rifle used packs with a capacity of five cartridges, which were inserted into the magazine protruding from the box and held in it with a latch. Naturally, the store had a rectangular hole for its removal, through which it fell out. In the back of the bolt there was a three-position safety catch. The sight consisted of a front sight and a frame rear sight, which was calibrated for firing at a distance of up to 2000 meters, and for a carbine - up to 1200 meters. The rifle barrel length was 740 mm, total length - 1250 mm, weight - 3, 8 kg. Accordingly, the carbine had a barrel length of 445 mm, a total length of 950 mm and a weight of 3.1 kg.
The impression from this sample by the Turkish order is about the same as from … the Mosin rifle. By the way, they are even outwardly similar. Despite the casing on the trunk, the wood of the box does not seem "plump", which suggests that high-quality wood was taken for its manufacture. The rifle itself does not seem heavy. It fits comfortably in your hands. Well, the bolt handle located in the middle of the bolt is a direct "relative" of our "mosinka" in all forms. At that time, such an arrangement was considered the norm. By the way, the shutter “knocks” in the same way. Because of the protruding store in the middle, you can't take it. But this is the trouble with all the rifles with the James Lee magazine. That is, in principle, there are no special differences from our rifle … no. Well, except that the casing present on the barrel, and the "Arabic" marking of the numbers on the sight scale, looks unusual for the eye. So the impression remained somewhat strange, as if he was holding something like a clone in his hands, but it's not very clear who is whose clone.
