I know its a 1905 DWM! what I mean is, what do these modifications mean? I bought this g98 over 20 years ago at a street fair in Nyack NY. all the local businesses etc were clearing out stuff and contributing; the folks that were selling this said it came out of the VFW post nearby. everything matches but the bolt. there were three things done to it to "deactivate" it -- a steel rod was driven in to the barrel for just about its full length, then cut off at the muzzle (you can see the saw marks on the crown); the bolt end and extractor were ground a bit, and the front sight was knocked pretty far off center. someone once told me that this is how captured rifles were demilled that were given out in bond drives etc but not sure about that story. does seem rather deliberate tho. I've always wondered and assumed there was some sort of backstory. rifle's not really worth much other than for this curiosity aspect to it and I've always wondered.
what do I have?
- Thread starter yellowkid
- Start date
PrayingMantis
Senior Member
It's not a shame, it's a bond rifle. Captured Gewehrs were often deactivated and given away to donors during bond drives, or hung on VFW walls after the end of the war. They a very interesting piece of American WWI history. For particularly rare rifles it can be reversed, but generally isn't practicle.
John, Why not do better pictures? Top-right-left receiver, stock markings if the stock is original?
thx -- thats what i had heard about it being a bond rifle. i do think its kinda interesting for its history. and i will add better pics now that you ask. it is literally matching down to the screws -- except the bolt. and I suspect that these were done assembly line style with no regard to putting the right bolt back in.
They can be rather crude in how they are de-activated, but often have matching parts, minus bolts; I am not sure how exactly these were done. MauserBill suggested done in France and then sent here, could be and would make most sense, but not sure if any documentation has ever been found on the when or how.
We do know 70,000 German military rifles came back through the AEF Ordnance depots in France, primarily Mehun Sur Yevre where they hired a lot of French help during the war. These were not deactivated at the time, but (some) might have been before disposition in the mid-1920's when they were doled out to the various states in quantities based upon the states contribution (soldiers) to the war.
Here is a picture from an old magazine of the rifles stacked, but again these are not bond rifles, these were rifles taken back along with everything imaginable, machine guns, artillery to field kitchens.
-- I added a couple pictures of the bond drive literature, the French had the largest contribution, as they should have, they had the largest armies in the west and probably the most effective by the wars end. (none of these period items mention buying more bonds will get you a helmet or rifle, even newspaper articles of the period, that go into great detail at times, especially in NYC, do not mention this. There is a picture in an old Kaiserzeit, from 1979, that seems to suggest helmets for a contribution, but it doesn't say it outright as I recall)
We do know 70,000 German military rifles came back through the AEF Ordnance depots in France, primarily Mehun Sur Yevre where they hired a lot of French help during the war. These were not deactivated at the time, but (some) might have been before disposition in the mid-1920's when they were doled out to the various states in quantities based upon the states contribution (soldiers) to the war.
Here is a picture from an old magazine of the rifles stacked, but again these are not bond rifles, these were rifles taken back along with everything imaginable, machine guns, artillery to field kitchens.
-- I added a couple pictures of the bond drive literature, the French had the largest contribution, as they should have, they had the largest armies in the west and probably the most effective by the wars end. (none of these period items mention buying more bonds will get you a helmet or rifle, even newspaper articles of the period, that go into great detail at times, especially in NYC, do not mention this. There is a picture in an old Kaiserzeit, from 1979, that seems to suggest helmets for a contribution, but it doesn't say it outright as I recall)
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add'l pics
sorry for the delay took till the weekend. heres some closeups of the gun -- all matching except the bolt. even the screws and rod. i did think about it as "a shame" for the longest time but now i do like the story behind it.
sorry for the delay took till the weekend. heres some closeups of the gun -- all matching except the bolt. even the screws and rod. i did think about it as "a shame" for the longest time but now i do like the story behind it.
Attachments
I too think it is a really nice rifle, pre-war rifles that are original-matching are not common, too bad it doesn't seem to have a unit mark, but sometimes they do not. 1905 was the first year DWM made a lot of rifles, some wild estimates are out there, but at least 50k were made by serial ranges. They could have made a lot more, DWM's facility had enormous capacity, and they are reported much higher.
