Paging GEW 88 shooters! Who is shooting GEW 88s out there? Still in the original .318 bore or rebarreled to .323? There are a goodly number of 88s here in the states. They came in waves, post WW1, in the 50s-60s, then in the late 80s-90s. Many passed through Turkey on the way to the states. Remington 8mm soft point ammo is made with the .318 bores in mind as their bulets are .321 as a compromise between the .318 with the relieved throat and the .323 for 98k's. I bought a Turk converted 88/05/35 with a .323 bore on a whim. Only paid $124 for it and didn't expect much but it is a real shooter! I reload using 150gr .323 bullets at around 2500 fps to keep the stress down on the action. The main danger for these rifles is a case failure at the base. It will wreck an 88 action which is why I advise never shooting surplus ball in these rifles. A lot of stateside 88 shooters use lead bullets at very moderate velocities to further keep stresses down. I'm of the school of thought that the Turks put thousands of rounds of their nuclear powered 8mm ball through this rifle and it is still in one piece so my moderate jacketed bullet reloads aren't a problem.
The bore is unpitted and the trigger is like a target rifle. It is a 10 ring shooter at 100yds which is good enough for me. I'm temped to get an original 88 in the .318 bore but prices are starting to climb on them so I may have missed the boat. Let's here your experiences with the 88!
I grew up in Pennsylvania which is #2 in the country for deer harvest for decades. Sporterized GEW 88s were fairly common there when I was a youngin', probably done post WW1 when Bannermann's was selling them cheap. None of the shooters had a clue about the .318 vs .323 bore issue and happily fired surplus ball through them all day long. Probably the relieved throats are the only thing that saved the rifles from coming apart from high pressure. I guess the actions are stronger than we give them credit for. A lot of the full stock carbines were also around, very cute little guns. Many were in 7mm.
Surprised to read that this example of a Turk converted 88 would fetch L500 (no pound symbol on my keyboard!).
I saw a GEW88 Sniper being shot a year or two ago and at 100m it was as accurate as any modern production rifle I have seen, it may even have ended with a member of this forum.
/d
Du lytter aldrig til de ord jeg siger. Du ser mig kun for det tøj jeg har paa ...
Me too..............I bought one a few years back, it was filthy and looked like a rat had made it's home in the barrel....but I always wanted one so bought it anyway and it was quite cheap...well almost.
I took it apart very easily, even the barrel shroud was only handtight, the barrel clean up a treat and looks hardly used. The stock was very dirty with a build up of grease, oil and splashes of paint. I cleaned that with turpentine and fine wire wool and that too cleaned up very nicely.
The GEW88 is a fine rifle with excellent sights, similar to the Mauser 71/84. Mine is a GEW88/14 which was modified at the begining of WW1 with a spring loaded clip system similar to the Mannlicher, the chamber was recut for the Spitzer bullet but the receiver ring was not "notched" so loading with the clip is a bit of a pain.
I have shot it at 200 yards and it is accurate, however, I think the 198 grain Pri ammo is a little too hot, I have had two cases showing signs of pressure, so will load with lead bullets instead.
targetman wrote:Me too..............I bought one a few years back, it was filthy and looked like a rat had made it's home in the barrel....but I always wanted one so bought it anyway and it was quite cheap...well almost.
I took it apart very easily, even the barrel shroud was only handtight, the barrel clean up a treat and looks hardly used. The stock was very dirty with a build up of grease, oil and splashes of paint. I cleaned that with turpentine and fine wire wool and that too cleaned up very nicely.
The GEW88 is a fine rifle with excellent sights, similar to the Mauser 71/84. Mine is a GEW88/14 which was modified at the begining of WW1 with a spring loaded clip system similar to the Mannlicher, the chamber was recut for the Spitzer bullet but the receiver ring was not "notched" so loading with the clip is a bit of a pain.
I have shot it at 200 yards and it is accurate, however, I think the 198 grain Pri ammo is a little too hot, I have had two cases showing signs of pressure, so will load with lead bullets instead.
Have you slugged the bore to see what you have? If you still have the .318 bore then that's probably the cause of the high pressure signs. The Germans just opened up the throat to give the bullets a start before squeezing down to .318. Since yours is the '14 conversion, it has the clip guides welded on? Mine is the '05 conversion with the clip guides sweated and pinned on. Post a picture of yours, love to see it!
Pictures like this make me wish I had yet another cabinet, however that would mean an alarm system as well as we are close to maximum between the two of us. My renewal is later this year (I had better check when!) Maybe I will add a couple of slots then and see what they say.
/d
Du lytter aldrig til de ord jeg siger. Du ser mig kun for det tøj jeg har paa ...
I made an error in my post....(too much single malt)......my GEW88 "Commission" rifle is in fact an 88"S" not an 88/14.
The only modifications from the 88 are to the chamber to accomodate the longer Spitzer ammunition and the magazine which has a spring steel cover to the hole in the bottom of the magazine ,through which the clip originally fell, that has a spring and plunger that ejects the Mannlicher style clip up out of the magazine when the release button in the trigger guard is pressed.
The barrel is the original and is .318" as measured.
Using Privi ammunition, out of 50 rounds, I got three were there were definate signs of head seperation. I am not going to risk anything so will reload using 200 grain .323" gas check lead with an appropriate powder load, probably about 35 grains of N140, (which worked well in my 1889 Schmidt-Rubin).
