Blitzgewehr!

Aww yeaaa... Bavarian M69/71 Werder Lightning Rifle.

Local auction had it marked "Old Military Gun" and I was thoroughly convinced nobody would know it. Turns out they had a phone bidder from Iowa, but I beat him and a local yokel easily with heaps of cash. $400 for a $1400 rifle seemed prudent.

Bore is pristine. Everything else is hazed from poor storage but not pitted. Someone had popped a spring off a sear, and I had to reassemble the triggerpack. Pray you never play with one of those.

I'm ecstatic. I've wanted one for a VERY long time (http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?253055) and I even paired it with the bayonet I bought three or four years ago for $40.

I'm VERY happy.

Okay guys, just 'cause apparently I'm way past average on the Weird Guns Lore (Where's Ian?) here's the deal:

This is a falling block action, like a Martini-Henry.

It was built in Bavaria before German Unification.

To load it, you slide in a cartridge and pull back the cocking spur, like thumbing back the hammer on a wheelgun. This lifts the breech closed and cocks the internal striker.

Pull the trigger, bang. The striker fires, but there is still some tension on the cocking spur, because...

Press the spur inside the triggerguard, and the remaining tension of the striker spring drops the block and trips the ejectors, spitting out your empty casing.

Slide in a new round and thumb back the cocking spur, and you're ready to go, ruck-zuck.

Thus, why it's called the Lightning Rifle.

This particular example is a Werder Aptiers, a conversion/rebarrel after German Unification where the original chambering (11x50R) was changed to 11x60mmR, or 11mm Mauser/ .43 Mauser. It's a bit long for the action, just barely fits, and the rifle was soon made obsolete by the 71/84, but I daresay it was a better rifle at the time than the Prussian IG-71.

The other cool thing is, unlike the Martini and most other guns, the entire guts come out as a pack, as pictured, making cleaning far easier and working on said guts far easier as well. Pretty innovative when you consider that the triggerguard is such soft iron I bent it by hand to reposition the hook on the back of it that keeps the triggergroup in place.

I am quite looking forward to shooting it.

It does not. I collect far more cutlery than rifles, and the Sg71 and Sg69 have so little in common in terms of hilt and blade shape there's no mistaking one for the other.