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what the deal with this spandau receiver ??

mauser99

Senior Member
I saved these pic's. Im sure the reg's here have seen this rifle. It was curious to me. Is it a subcontracted rec ? I thought assembled gew's had a star stamped on them.. what does the H stand for ?? Also the stock proof looks odd to me..
 

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No one knows for sure, but Hannover has been the speculation for a long time. Mark Wieringa suggested it in the KCN and since then no one has had a better guess. You can find others too "E" receivers are known, possibly Erfurt, as the receivers have Erfurt style fireproofs (All of Suhl and Dresden used the Erfurt proofing, so no telling really)

This receiver is a subcontract receiver, S&H made, they made other things too, MG08/15, grenades and all manner of material as they were a massive corporation.

Spandau starting 1917 dropped the Gew.98 assembly, moved to MG08/15 variations, and about half of all known 1917 Spandau's and all 1918 dated Spandau's were assembled by other firms. The Hannover jobs, Mauser and Danzig all finished Spandau receivers 1917-1918. Many were also finished in the interwar period, many depot builds are just leftover Spandau receivers.

If you see "one" acceptance on RR then it wasn't finished by a manufacturer during the war. It is only the hardness acceptance for the receiver and means a depot built it in most situations- same deal with the BSW and Astrawerke ordnance spares built by the LW in 41-42.
 
1917 Spandau- Mauser Oberndorf assemble

Here is a sad one that was assembled by Mauser Oberndorf, too bad it is so badly altered but at least it survives and these are not too common.

When Spandau went MG08/15 in a large way during 1917 they dumped receivers on Danzig and Mauser Oberndorf, the Danzig's are much more common. This one is a little odd in that it "seems" to only have one acceptance stamp on the RR, like a postwar depot assemble, though it isn't clear. Generally these rifles are incorporated within MO serial ranges, not in blocks, but intermingled and they usually have the typical MO RR acceptance stamps.

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?279771-Gun-Show-Find-and-Question
 
What is that squiggle below the 1920??
 

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Yes, this is a Mauser Oberndorf symbol or cartouche of some sort. I first identified the variation when I discover that Spandau production was wildly erratic starting in 1917. Trends work on serial ranges and RR acceptance were totally incompatible, the gaps in serial ranges were extremely wide and erratic and the fireproofs on many of them resembled Danzig's style. When I compared the RR patterns, they were perfect matches for the same ranges in Danzig's production, which led me to consider other traits typical of Danzig production and they matched up well also.

This still left a small number of rifles (Spandau/1917 marked) that didn't have either Spandau or Danzig traits, it took awhile but I was able to match up Mauser Oberndorf RR acceptance patterns to these remaining rifles. It still left the unanswered question of the odd marking Ryan refers too, so I went through Jon Speed's books and found these pictures (attached- my association of the rifles to MO is because of the RR, this marking is just another identifier that they have in common). I assume it is some Mauser identifier, which is very typical of the Imperial era, you will find some "E" marked receivers (different host rifles) and they have Erfurt traits, the 1915 builds of older receivers also have the assemblers identifier across the top (CGH, S&S Suhl, Danzig etc..).

Anyway, I do not know the exact meaning or purpose of the cartouche or trade mark across the top, but I suspect it has to do with Mauser Oberndorf identifying their assembly. Usually we have the RR to prove this, about 7-8 are known, but in this rifles case I think it might have been re-numbered when re-barreled. Hard to say as the pictures aren't clear enough (detailed) and he doesn't show the RR fully.
 

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