Gew.98 in 8.15x46R

[bubi]

Gewehr 98

I just had an email from a really knowledgeable man in Munich. He calls himself Feuerbixler-Biggi. His website is www.feuerbixler.de. It contains a lot of historical information about the history of German firearms.

Biggi told me that you guys seem to "have been digging in the fog." He says that the gun 1) is a Wehrmannsgewehr 2)could have been built in 1911 3) was directly ordered at the Mauser plant as a "noble Wehrmannsgewehr" and probably been engraved there 4) was never intended to be used for military service because there are no acceptance stamps 5) it might be possible that the barrel was exchanged 6) that a double trigger for target shooting was installed because in the class of Wehrmanns shooting there were only single triggers allowed.

More info on the Wehrmannsgewehr, you will find on his website.

 

[Float Pilot]

Germany was strictly limited in the military arms they could have by the treaty of Versailles. The Wehrmannsgewehr or "service man's rifle" in 8.15x46R mm caliber was classified as a target rifle and exempt. I am pretty sure somebody here already said that..right here in your thread..

This rifle is written up extensively in Ludwig Olsen's Book Mauser Bolt Rifles. (Brownells)

Sometimes you see:

Bl. G = Blei Geschoss = lead bullet

Sch. J = Scheibe Hulse = target case

Stamped on them...

Often with modified sights to match the shorter range of the cartridge with 300 meters being the max.

I have never seen one that was engraved like yours.

Back around 2007 They had an article about these in The Rifleman magazine.

 

[bubi]

Gewehr 98

You said that before, FLOAT PILOT. Good work. I just repeated what Biggi said. Really nice guy making me all jealous talking about the good beer and sausage he had just been consuming.

But I am still confused. The gun was obviously produced in 1911. After 1918, a new barrel and safety and trigger group was installed so that the owner was allowed to keep it.

Do I understand this correctly?

 

[Jim Watson]

I think that is a possibility.
I really doubt that Mauser was going to mark a factory Serviceman's Rifle "GEW 98" because it is certainly not a military rifle as it now stands.
The picture from the top down into the magazine is fuzzy but it looks like the regular Mauser magazine follower is still in place. There was no point for a Serviceman's Rifle to be a repeater and it would be a challenge to get the short, rimmed 8.15 to feed anyhow. The factory Serviceman's Rifles were built as single shots. I am sure some of them were broken down for the single shot actions to build American target and varmint rifles.
I would have expected a conversion to have the magazine well plugged, forming a single shot feed ramp, but it does not look like yours got that treatment.

 

[bubi]

Gewehr 98

I think that Mauser put the "Gew. 98" on it before the war because it still was a Gewehr 98 and the customer wanted it so. He wanted a beautiful one. Then WWI came and passed, the Kaiser fled, the gun was illegal with the present caliber, and the owner made the minimal changes to prove that it was a target rifle in order to be able to keep his rifle as close to the original form as possible.
I think we are getting somewhere guys. The whole story starts to feel more and more likely. Thanks a lot.

 

[Float Pilot]

There is no way to know unless you stumble across the family or families that owned it over the last 103 years.

Maybe somebody rebarreled a 1911 military rifle and later had it engraved and later added a double set trigger.

Maybe it was built that way from an unused 1911 action alone.

Maybe you went back in your time machine just to confuse everyone.

 

[bubi]

Gew 98

Dear Float Pilot:

I know, but let me have my potential illusion as long as it fits the facts. People do this all the time: We all assume that the revolutionaries threw the English tea into Boston Harbor because the British demanded exorbitant tax for it. Actually, there is a funny alternative: I once read in a British history book that the opposite was true. There was no tax at all on this particular shipment. This infuriated the patriots. Why? Because they procured their money by smuggling tea. The Brits wanted to cut off their money supply.

But now back to the gun. When I wanted to reform the cases, I found out that my RCBS sizing die does not size the shells correctly. The diameter is too big for my chamber. I have to reform the cases by grinding brass off--in addition to changing the diameter and thickness of the rim.

Are the Hornady dies better?

Which gave me another idea: When I tried to make the cases fit my gun and have them also be extractable with my action, I told myself: "What if the chamber and action do not fit together? What if the gun was just made to look like a target rifle--and never meant to be shot? What if the owner hid the original stuff? I really do not think that the gun I have was ever used as a target rifle." Archeologists very often think similarly. They try to form a coherent story, which may be wrong. But because it is coherent, it can be corrected more easily.

 

[Jim Watson]

"Grinding brass off" does not sound good.
If you can get a few to chamber and fire that way and send to RCBS, they will furnish a sizing die to suit your chamber.

If the oversize is way down in front of the rim, where the depth of the shellholder and the mouth radius of the die keep your .30-30 or whatever from being reduced there, you will either have to cut brass or get a proper head swaging die to be used with an arbor press.

I doubt just buying Hornady dies off the shelf would make much difference.

Call RCBS and ask for help.