Third Party Press

1917 'H' Spandau

mauser1908

Senior Member
This is another one that I never properly photographed when I received it. Some extremely interesting barrel markings, certainly the first time I've seen a C/RC on the barrel. I don't remember the barrel having so many markings on it. These are interesting builds, this example was assembled on a Siemens and Halske receiver, I hope to have another one someday only built on a Pieper receiver. The duffel bag cut is very odd, I'm not entirely sure if it was cut with a special type of saw that removed such a large section. Or if the ends were damaged at some point and had to be removed. Other than the cut it has a very nice Beech stock with relatively few dents.

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Thank you for posting the pictures of your 1917 H Spandau rifle Sam, and at least your rifle's receiver was cut in half like mine is! But we now have two of these posted up and maybe we can determine more about them.

Damn shame about my rifle though but at least I got a decent complete stock set out of it and the data. Which I know Paul greatly appreciate that.

Once I get that stock cleaned up I will post up the stock markings.
 
Thanks Jordan, I agree it's super unfortunate about that rifle. You hate to see it with any of them, but non standard stuff hurts more. I think yours is cool because of the Pieper receiver, I've been trying to find one for a while. If you look at the top and bottom of the barrel shank on mine you can see the idiot marks. Bubba definitely made a valid attempt to turn this into a sporter. Luckily he failed.
 
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Yes I hate it too like you said uncommon stuff really hurts even more. And I can see the marks you were talking about looks like bubba was trying to take that barrel out. Luckily it was for work then he wanted to put in!

I do wonder sometimes how many rifles did bubba ruined over the years. Or maybe I don't want to know.
 
Yes I hate it too like you said uncommon stuff really hurts even more. And I can see the marks you were talking about looks like bubba was trying to take that barrel out. Luckily it was for work then he wanted to put in!

I do wonder sometimes how many rifles did bubba ruined over the years. Or maybe I don't want to know.

On the South American mauser side of the house, I've heard of gunsmithing schools in the 50s and 60's buying them by the crate and using them as practice. I understand the reasoning but it really is a shame.

What gets me more is why is Bubba still doing it? I bet there were a lot of vets who were too poor to afford rifles before the war and had all intention of making a high speed deer rig out of their trophies.
 
Very nice Sam, very tough to find this original and matching... probably not even a handful of similar rifles, most were used up thoroughly. Wish I could find the origin for these, still not convinced Hannover is a match, perhaps though, it was important and an AK HQ, but I could never tie a munitions depot or artillery depot to the place, which seems to be where most collection centers and reworking was done. I could even see a fortress or some training grounds being one, there is evidence of such after WWI, but nothing seems to connect Hannover other than its an important city that starts with an H that had some military functions (and away from the unrest late in the war - which would exclude cities like Hamburg, that place had runaway riots 1917-1923 rivaling Berlin....)

Anyway, neat rifle and neat BC/C-RC, which as you say is pretty uncommon, only Erfurt seems to have been prone to this inspection problem, though I could see Simson pulling a few too... not sure if Simson had a real problem with quality/production or just some antisemitism at work (which Germany was no special case until Hitler came along... contrary to modern "historians", Germany wasn't special in that regard, matter of fact they weren't the worse, antisemitism was widespread throughout all of Europe and the US, naturally it was worse where Jews were more common and more successful in the professions... Russia/Poland had it worse, France was just as bad as the worse spots in Germany, and Austria had a terrible problem in Vienna where Jews were extremely successful in the professions and academia, - England too was no haven for Jews, anti-immigration laws from Eastern Europe was focused upon Russian Jews fleeing pogroms, and Austria's problems were from her ridiculous "Empire")
 
Yeap they were just cheap rifles to buy instead of spending more money on newer made hunting rifles at the time. In those days they were nothing but a tool to use to put food on the table. Your Luger was your priced war trophy.

If you went to a gunshow in those days a Kentucky long rifle, Sharps rifle, or Rolling block was the big collectable rifles.

It is unfortunate to us Gew 98 collectors but I'm happy to have saved quite a few over the years. If you really think about it, could you imagine if bubba would have gotten his hands on that Gew98 1914 DWM I bought?

I can hear the band saw and drill press off in the distance from his tool shed! :laugh:
 
Very nice Sam, very tough to find this original and matching... probably not even a handful of similar rifles, most were used up thoroughly. Wish I could find the origin for these, still not convinced Hannover is a match, perhaps though, it was important and an AK HQ, but I could never tie a munitions depot or artillery depot to the place, which seems to be where most collection centers and reworking was done. I could even see a fortress or some training grounds being one, there is evidence of such after WWI, but nothing seems to connect Hannover other than its an important city that starts with an H that had some military functions (and away from the unrest late in the war - which would exclude cities like Hamburg, that place had runaway riots 1917-1923 rivaling Berlin....)

Anyway, neat rifle and neat BC/C-RC, which as you say is pretty uncommon, only Erfurt seems to have been prone to this inspection problem, though I could see Simson pulling a few too... not sure if Simson had a real problem with quality/production or just some antisemitism at work (which Germany was no special case until Hitler came along... contrary to modern "historians", Germany wasn't special in that regard, matter of fact they weren't the worse, antisemitism was widespread throughout all of Europe and the US, naturally it was worse where Jews were more common and more successful in the professions... Russia/Poland had it worse, France was just as bad as the worse spots in Germany, and Austria had a terrible problem in Vienna where Jews were extremely successful in the professions and academia, - England too was no haven for Jews, anti-immigration laws from Eastern Europe was focused upon Russian Jews fleeing pogroms, and Austria's problems were from her ridiculous "Empire")

Thanks for the great info Paul, I've taken better photos of my 1915 VCS next, it won't be as detailed because really only the stock and hardware is matching, but the heal acceptance and a few other parts are something I didn't document before. It was a Koblenz rework.

I can hear the band saw and drill press off in the distance from his tool shed! :laugh:

Jordan, you forgot the Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil and Cold Blue :laugh:
 

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