M1871 Steyr 1874 856e Regiment Marked

[joryfreeburg]

Here is a rifle that’s out of my comfort zone for sure…. A friend here sent me the listing with some persuasion.. It was up on GB with a rather reasonable BIN. Now that I have a M71, I should probably find a 71/84 and a gew88. It’s all there except maybe the sight leaf and slider, but maybe one of you guys here more familiar with the M71’s can comment to that. Hopefully you guys that know the regiment markings can also chime in…..It has a rather bright bore with sharp rifling for a 150 year old rifle. I really dig the brass trigger guards on these. This rifle has awesome stock with some tiger stripe which also helped speak to me…….

 

[joryfreeburg]

More of the Steyr

 

[joryfreeburg]

Last few… enjoy

 

[Cyrano4747]

Good catch getting an original brass trigger guard. A lot got melted down and replaced with steel in ww1

 

[AndyB]

43Reserve Inf.Regiment over older stamp with normal Infantry Regiment which has outdoted number, Ersatz Batallion, 1.Company and weapon nr.143, most real clasical life, firstly by line Regiment , later moved to Reserve and Ersatz units.

 

[chrisftk]

Heck of a nice 71 Jory. Just to rehash what we discussed when you first got it; Steyr (aka Oesterreichischen Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft or ŒWG for short) made a ton of these both for Germany, as well as for commercial export. German-use ones seem to have had a low survival rate, making this very desirable from a collector standpoint.

The rear sight and slider look like they are there to me..these used a very distinctive design that also appears on the Dreyse rifles that were updated with the Beck bolt post Franco Prussian war.

Condition is a factor with 71s-- many of these were used pretty hard. Yours was definitely carried, but still has a decent amount of finish on it which is always nice to see.

Regarding the brass versus steel trigger guards; We know for sure that the Bavarians did not seem to melt down their brass trigger guards-- Storz discusses this point specifically-- so I doubt you'd see a steel guard on any Amberg-- If you do, my suspicion would be the stock was replaced or with some sort of a depot rebuild. The others appear to be a mixed bag. I've got a ŒWG, Spandau, Erfurt, Danzig and NAA with a steel guard, but the rest of my 71s are brass.

Sounds like we need to find you a 71/84 and 88 now so you can have the full spread.

 

[PrayingMantis]

Glad you ended up with this one, Jory. It's a great untouched example, thanks for getting the photos up; i added it to the reference.

The unit mark is especially cool considering Chris's is so close, they both seem to have changed regiments but the battalion, company, and weapon number were retained: https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/1874-oewg-m71-ig.49394/

 

[chrisftk]

Glad you ended up with this one, Jory. It's a great untouched example, thanks for getting the photos up; i added it to the reference.

The unit mark is especially cool considering Chris's is so close, they both seem to have changed regiments but the battalion, company, and weapon number were retained: https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/1874-oewg-m71-ig.49394/

The thing that still puzzles me is that mine is one of a small number with a crown above the makers mark. Very odd. Maybe it was a short-lived thing.

 

[AN-94]

Congrats on the '71 Jory, fantastic stock on that one! Chris makes a great point on the ŒWG made rifles for German service vs export, I have seen more exports from Steyr vs German accepted ones. The export rifles can have a mix of Imperial acceptance vs internal Steyr acceptance based on limited experience from the one I'm working on fixing up though serial numbering format is slightly different on some parts compared to German accepted examples.

 

[OnlyMil]

Awesome pickup Jory, hadn't realized that Steyr had made 1871s. Pretty cool connection there that Chris points out.

 

[AndyB]

Steyr made for Preussen in fiscal year 1873/4 212000 rifles IG71, but this should be a early production as E range, also 50000 range.