The 1916 Gun has a serial Number the same as a gun on the Canadian register of war trophy's, I can only Guess the Canadian gun is a Spandau gun as the Spandau serial number range was prefixed every 10,000 guns unlike the unbroken DWM serial number range so in theory there would be a number of guns with the same serial number if the prefix was not recorded. One day I will try and research the NZ trophy register and see weather the guns have any interesting details recorded.Both guns are NZ war trophy guns, once upon a time there were plenty of MG08 over here but time has taken its toll n them and today complete guns are quite scarce.
I honestly think that story or no story these are incredible pieces of history, And a good many of them would have seen considerable use against allied troops in the field and would have been captured in some serious combat. Both of my guns exhibit scars from battle. 1915 gun had a bullet through the base of the receiver box and water jacket "in the field deactivation" the 1916 gun has a shrapnel slice through the water jacket
Dont have an 08/15, maybe some day. The 08/15 feed block in the 1916 gun is a WWII NZ Home Guard .303 conversion done out of desperation due to a lack of available armaments a number of 08's and 08/15's were converted to .303 for the Home Guard to use in case of Japanese invasion. The threat of invasion was a very real prospect for the local population at the time and the stress was only relieved when the U.S Marines arrived in 1942.
I definitely love them ! Would be happy to get a few more if the opportunity arises.