Gewehr 88 I just got from auction. Potentially a war bond rifle?

[Teku]

This is a Gewehr 88 thats non-turkish unconvered to the 05 pattern. Hoping to get a bit more info on it. Its missing the bolt head and the pin looks flattened which I was told indicates its probably a bond rifle. But I don't know much about them.

 

[Teku]

More pics

 

[chrisftk]

Looks like a nice Koblenz rework. The clipped pin and missing bolt head are anecdotally tied to possible bond raffle demilling, but I do not have a document source for that. Seems to be the popular consensus though.

That's a nice one overall. I like the renumbered bolt and receiver rail unit mark. The stock was hit with sanding but still presents well.

 

[biggymu]

One of our forum members makes the hard to find bolt heads for these rifles . FALgrunt . He may be able to help you complete it if desired.

Gewehr Karabiner 1888 Bolt Head Kar Gew 88

For Commission 88 rifles, both Gewehr and Karabiner 88 and Gewehr 91. This is for the bolt head ONLY, there will NOT be an extractor or ejector included. These are being made from quality US made alloy steel and are heat treated. I am making them ever so slightly large based on samples so as to...

www.myersarms.com

 

[PrayingMantis]

Nice Danzig, i too like the unit marked receiver.

I don't think that all 88s with clipped pins and missing bolt heads were given away in bond drives though. Like Gews with clipped pins, i think many were lightly deactivated before being taken as souvenirs. Removing the bolthead could be done easily, it's not anything like grinding down the bolt face on a 98, which yo do see in bond rifles.

 

[ottodog8]

My understanding is that the government clipped the firing pins after bringing the rifles to the US, prior to giving them away, at least on the Gew 98s. The government brought thousands of small arms (including machine guns) home after the war, then didn't know what to do with them. Some they gave away to people who bought war bonds, some they gave to veterans groups as trophies, some they dumped in the sea. Wish I could remember where I read this.

I don't believe the WW1 doughboys brought many long arms home as souvenirs, they were just too big to carry. Those guys walked a lot. I have owned a couple, but I have owned more WW1 long arms that were sent home after WW2.

 

[Stan]

Interesting that the rear swivel seems to be the type seen on Austrian used Gew 88's.

 

[heavy_mech]

Can we agree that what's pictured in photo#5, post 2 is what we see in a clipped pin? Cut off right where it flares to its full diameter?

 

[PrayingMantis]

I don't believe the WW1 doughboys brought many long arms home as souvenirs, they were just too big to carry. Those guys walked a lot. I have owned a couple, but I have owned more WW1 long arms that were sent home after WW2.

I know of quite a few Gews that came directly from WWI vets who brought them home. Personally, I have one from a member of the 308th Field Signal Battalion, and another with a guys name and engagements scratched into the stock. One of those cases where it may not “make sense” but sure enough it happened. (Though to be fair more probably came here by other means.)

 

[ottodog8]

Just going by my experience. Most of the guns I bought direct from the doughboys were handguns. I asked them about longarms, most said they were just too difficult to get home. As I said, I bought a few, a couple of Gew 98s and a Kar 98a, but most were handguns. In fact most of the guns I bought from doughboys were their own issue 45s, both automatics and revolvers.

 

[gew98]

This is a Gewehr 88 thats non-turkish unconvered to the 05 pattern. Hoping to get a bit more info on it. Its missing the bolt head and the pin looks flattened which I was told indicates its probably a bond rifle. But I don't know much about them.

I have only seen ONE gew88 that was a bond rifle. It had a plugged muzzle and chamber. The muzzle was quite expanded and deformed and it did not allow me to remove barrel jacket because of that. I did manage to drill it out and then gently counterbore. I then used a 22 long rifle fired into the muzzle to drive out the hardened steel slug they inserted into throat. Sadly as in most cases this peice fo steel driven into throat causes damage to the bore there that greatly effects accuracy. In some cases I have got them to shoot how they should by seating bullets out quite far to get passed that damage. Too long OAL to use the magazine at that point generally.
This 88 is not a bond rifle as it's bore has not been plugged. The program to send bond rifles to America was fairly thorough in plugging bores , grinding face of bolt and destroying firing pin and extractor in that grinding.

 

[runner]

I have a Gew 88 that I am pretty sure is a bond rifle. Bore is plugged just as Bill described. From what I remember, I don’t think the bolt face was damaged, I will have to drag it out to be sure.

 

[runner]

Was at the old house today and dug out the Gew88 I mentioned in the above post.
Spandau 1889. All mat except barrel bands. Both the muzzle end and the chamber end of the barrel
were plugged. The matching numbered FP was clipped, bolt head missing.