Hi All,
Picked this one up back in April off a grey blanket auction. It went fairly inexpensively given the rarity of this piece. The market has been softening quite a bit, but this may be more of a case where people just didn't realize what it actually was. A much more mundane Prussian S rifle went a good bit higher a few months before.
Onto the rifle itself-- it was initially one of the 30,000 units supplied by Steyr to Saxony in 1890-1891 (then another 26,000 the following year)(Storz). These rifles were formally accepted by Saxony, as can be seen with the King Albert cypher on the stock. It's only the 2nd or 3rd 88 that I've handled with this cypher.
The rifle was later converted during WW1 into an "S" rifle (for use with S. Patrone), as can be seen from the large c/S cartouche, milled out flip sight, and the ground and re-stamped sight leaf. These are not to be confused with the simple "S" marking on the receiver face; that simply demonstrated that the chamber was cleared to fire S. Patrone)
The rifle essentially matches, save for the bolt head (original was likely discarded when the firing pin was clipped), and a couple small rear sight components (possibly didn't bother to renumber in the conversion?)
The unit marking is to the recruiting depot of the 106th infantry regiment; a Saxon unit.
I only thought it right to fit it with one of my wartime steel muzzle covers.
Pics follow:
Picked this one up back in April off a grey blanket auction. It went fairly inexpensively given the rarity of this piece. The market has been softening quite a bit, but this may be more of a case where people just didn't realize what it actually was. A much more mundane Prussian S rifle went a good bit higher a few months before.
Onto the rifle itself-- it was initially one of the 30,000 units supplied by Steyr to Saxony in 1890-1891 (then another 26,000 the following year)(Storz). These rifles were formally accepted by Saxony, as can be seen with the King Albert cypher on the stock. It's only the 2nd or 3rd 88 that I've handled with this cypher.
The rifle was later converted during WW1 into an "S" rifle (for use with S. Patrone), as can be seen from the large c/S cartouche, milled out flip sight, and the ground and re-stamped sight leaf. These are not to be confused with the simple "S" marking on the receiver face; that simply demonstrated that the chamber was cleared to fire S. Patrone)
The rifle essentially matches, save for the bolt head (original was likely discarded when the firing pin was clipped), and a couple small rear sight components (possibly didn't bother to renumber in the conversion?)
The unit marking is to the recruiting depot of the 106th infantry regiment; a Saxon unit.
I only thought it right to fit it with one of my wartime steel muzzle covers.
Pics follow:
