"Turked" Gewehr 88's

[Chris Boonzaier]

Many german collectors dont like Gewehr 88 with Turkish stamps.

I dont think there are many matching number Turkish stamped ones out there, and if they have German unit stamps, they are seldom like this.... :-)

[Chris Boonzaier]

But I see it differently... a non "Turked" Gewehr 88 probably stayed in a depot for many, many decades.

With the Turkish ones you have rifles used in germany, then not put into mothballs, but used again.... leaving a rifle that has a real history behind it, with many years of service, and probably some exotic stories to tell....

[The Prussian]

Hi Chris!

A very nice piece!!!

It´s a 88-05. The 05 means, it was changed in 1905 for "Ladestreifen für S-Munition".

After the Hindenburg-Programm, there were a lot of 98, so the 88 came into the Depots.Most of them were sent in 1917 to Turkey. After armistice, the britains made them "unshootable" by removing the clasps.

In 1923 the turks bought new clasps in the Weapon-manufactory in Brünn (Czechoslovakia), that´s because there were turkish numbers upon the clasps.

[Trajan]

... After the Hindenburg-Programm, there were a lot of 98, so the 88 came into the Depots.Most of them were sent in 1917 to Turkey. ...

And along with them large stocks of 'Erstaz' bayonets and Waffenfabrik-Mauser S.98/05's! Almost all the S.98/05's I see over here are WM made, and spine marked and dated 'W / 17'