1915 Suhl

R

Rrudo74901

Senior Member
Gentlemen,
I happened upon this today and believe I got lucky. Was in a LGS and a friend asked to see this rifle and I bought it on the spot. Lmk opinions, questions and I'll be more than happy to provide more pics. I don't necessarily collect imperial but may put this in inventory as I think I did well.

Opinions?
 

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As I said via email this is an incredible find. The Imperial guys will be lighting up when they see this.

As hard as this year and maker is to find finding one completely matching down to the cleaning rod is near un-heard of !!!!!!

This one also is in better condition than the other examples I've seen posted.. Congrats :thumbsup:
 
As others have said, the rifle looks right and that is rare for any 1915 dated rifle and especially true of the Suhl start ups. I wouldn't say it doesn't get better, a KS (colonial) or a Radfahrergewehr, or some 1898 Mauser (G98), or a 1899-1900 Garde marked, or a DWM KM would be better, but for a straight up wartime G98, this is about as good as it gets.

Really a very nice and rather rare rifle, - actually rare, few 98k are truly rare, certainly as rare as this rifle in this condition. VCS is the hardest Suhl maker to get too. You will have no problem moving it, depending on price of course, many would want it.
 
Also, the firing pin is not clipped and the barrel has strong rifling. Have to check for frosting with a bore scope.
Any other markings I should take pictures of?
The cleaning rod I don't think was ever removed as well. The entire rod is in the white and clean except where it was exposed. Even half and half under the bayonet lug.

Here is the pin,
 

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Nice find, love that rich patina. Thanks for sharing the pictures. The best policy for photographing is one picture of each number and acceptance stamp on a part. Take a look at one of mine in the reference thread. It ends up being a lot of pictures but that's the only way to track acceptance patterns.

Schilling is a interesting maker. Rare though a few '15s have popped up. Is the cleaning rid matching on this? Looks like a 93 instead of a 96. acceptance stamp is Suhl Consortium it looks.
 
The wrist acceptance and the fireproof and acceptance under the bolt handle (opposite the bolt top flat serial). If you ever take it apart (no need to now, but if you ever do) the barrel code and any markings under the stock line would be helpful.

Some time ago i wrote a brief article on the Suhl Consortium, primarily because I thought I had figured out how these were made (after I trended them I found out i was wrong... reminder, do the trends first, then speculate... saves time as you do not have to come up with a new ending). Like all of the variations, there is a certain lack of depth in trends work (data collection), too few are thoroughly documented. Naturally, if more rifles were documented thoroughly more would be known. The barrel is probably a JPS barrel, so far all have been, but if there were a odd barrel, it would probably be early, and this is about as early as they get. (note the barrel coding does change in style over time, as does the acceptance-inspectors)
 
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It's a nice day today and I'll take it outside to get clearer pictures and post.

The rod looks correctly numbered to me, I'll try again as the font is extremely small. The "9" has a little bulb on the end and at first I thought it was a 3.

I'll post more later. Thanks for the assistance.
 
More pics.
Cleaning rod appears to be a 93 so not correct but still cool.
 

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100+ years of closet grime this is an un-touched time vessel that I sure was just brought into that shop you visited. You got damn lucky to find it.
Taking it down 100% should be left to someone who has done it before. Getting the bands off can be a chore and doing real damage is a possibility if not done properly. A shame the rod doesn't match but, its close and its been there since 1918 at least.
 
Thanks for the additional pictures, definitely as fantastic rifle. If you plan to resell it (previous posts pointed in that direction) I would strongly recommend you post it in the Trader here.

I agree about taking it apart, best to wait, this gun is about and untouched as they come!
 
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