My First Gew 88/05

Hello All,

This was purchased on the boards today for $425. It's an Amberg example that will go quite nicely with my 1915 Amberg Gew 98 (Also a first for me into the Gew 98 realm) I picked up a few weeks back, there's a thread on here for that as well for those interested.

I'll have more pictures uploaded upon receipt, but what can you guys tell me about it so far? I understand by looking at the stripper clip modification, finish, and markings that it passed through Turkish hands at some point, and was re-worked by them. It's mostly matching, but since I have yet to get my hands on it I cannot say exactly what matches and doesn't besides the barrel shroud and receiver. Seller gave me the okay to use modern 8mm, can you guys confirm that? I almost exclusively use PPU for my surplus rifles but I will absolutely REFUSE to shoot anything through it until I am absolutely sure, like any responsible collector with an appreciable amount of brain cells, at least a couple in my case.

Thanks guys,

EDIT: Before I forget to mention it, yes the sling is obviously a repro, and I'm totally fine with this.

Herk

I think it would be a good idea to go to the Gunboards Forum, and read the thread "Gew 88- Bore Sizes and Ammunition" There are guys that shoot the heck out of these 88's and there are guys that wouldn't shoot one if their life depended on it.
The thread will explain why.

Please someone correct me if im wrong but as far as I know the "s" is only a chamber ream. Later work also includes a "z" mark for deeper grooves .323" or greater which is suitable for modern ammo and a dot punch mark for a less tapered and therefore reinforced stronger barrel. This is my gew88/05 so you can compare.

The Z does mean a .323 + groove barrel . The dot does NOT mean a reinforced barrel , that is just bad info posted by one of the guys who has no idea about Gew-88's . The dot is clearly stated in Period German documents to mean the BARREL nut was resoldered with REINFORCED solder , they need to learn to read German . It will have been done whenever the barrel shroud was removed to to work on the rifle . To confirm that I found on about 100 rifles that each one with the dot had the solder and the ones without did not , 100 % . The original rifle in question does not have enough , or clear enough photos for me to be able to tell all about it . Without enough info , all I can say is that if your rifle just has the S and no Z [ or no Turk barrel ] , that it is a standard .321 bore and is not meant to fire the later sS .323 dia , long bearing surface, higher pressure , 198 bullet load [ if that is what was meant by " modern ammo " ] . Post some clear photos and I will tell you what I would say was safe to fire . This is a perfect example of why people need to stop repeating incorrect information about these rifles . The jp guy has written some 50% wrong articles , old doc has no idea , scarf's book is really bad and gun jesus just repeats them .

If my rifle is “S” marked only, can I consider it safe to use commercial 170 grain (Remington etc.)? I won’t shoot any PPU through it, it’s great ammo but can be considered hot. I’ll read the gun boards thread on the topic when I have the time.

Rem ammo will be fine .

Tribsa56 said:

Please someone correct me if im wrong but as far as I know the "s" is only a chamber ream. Later work also includes a "z" mark for deeper grooves .323" or greater which is suitable for modern ammo and a dot punch mark for a less tapered and therefore reinforced stronger barrel. This is my gew88/05 so you can compare.

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Also another correction to add . The S is not really a chamber ream . The original ammo was a .3188 dia bullet , the S ammo bullet was .3208 .That is only .002 larger dia . Most military rifles had much more neck clearance than that to begin with . The rifles were checked and if they had enough clearance they were stamped with the S . The documents do say to send a rifle back for extra neck clearance if it did not pass . I do not think 1 out of 10,000 did not pass . All mt non S rifles have the same inside neck dia as the S rifles , about .004 + more than needed for the S bullet . Another bit of misinformation that is in print often is that the throat was " lenghtened " to clear the S bullet . That one does not even make sense as the throat for the long P-88 bullet was 3x longer than what was needed to clear the much shorter S bullet .

ernie8 said:

Also another correction to add . The S is not really a chamber ream . The original ammo was a .3188 dia bullet , the S ammo bullet was .3208 .That is only .002 larger dia . Most military rifles had much more neck clearance than that to begin with . The rifles were checked and if they had enough clearance they were stamped with the S . The documents do say to send a rifle back for extra neck clearance if it did not pass . I do not think 1 out of 10,000 did not pass . All mt non S rifles have the same inside neck dia as the S rifles , about .004 + more than needed for the S bullet . Another bit of misinformation that is in print often is that the throat was " lenghtened " to clear the S bullet . That one does not even make sense as the throat for the long P-88 bullet was 3x longer than what was needed to clear the much shorter S bullet .

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Ernie, I have seen lots of Gew. 88 with Czech replacement barrels. Were these rifles in service in Turkey when those were installed? I have also read that the Czech barrels tend to have very tight bores, some as small as .312? Can you shed any light on that?
thanks, runner

No Turk rifles ever got the small dia Czech made barrels . Those barrels are only found on Gew-88 rifles that went to SA . The Turks never used any Gew-88 rifles , only Gew-88/05 rifles . The main Turk replaced barrel is a .323 that they got from the Czechs for the M-93 rifle conversions to 8mm . They turned them down and used them on some of their 88/05's . The Czechs did also supply them with a smaller number of German replacement barrels as they did get all the German parts after the war . The small dia Czech barrels are a copy of the German civilian design and were supplied with civilian spec ammo . The Czech made 88 ammo has a smaller dia bullet and is loaded to a shorter OCL . Since the barrel and ammo specs are the same as German civilian , it seems the Czechs got a hold of a supply of those components .

Wow Earnie,

Thanks for clearing this mess up for us!

Well thank you . I am glad someone enjoyed my info .

Thanks you for all of the information guys. How do you think I did for 425? Great bore with no corrosion between the shroud and barrel.

Late to the party as usual, but, I picked one up a few years ago, matching but Turked. I had a box of 60's vintage Remington laying around and went to the range. I can confirm what the seller told me, they are tack drivers.