Amberg 1903

I got very lucky last week (along with a healthy dose of peer pressure) and was able to close a large void in my collection; which was an early Bavarian gewehr. I do have an Amberg 1904 but it's a bit of a different animal, it can be found in the reference thread if you're inclined to check it out. The photos were quite poor; over exposed and really didn't do a good job displaying the rifle so I took a gamble on it. Additionally, someone added a humped unit marking which was corrected by flipping the disk. Otherwise, the gun is frankly untouched. With the disparity between the photos and the actual gun, I was pretty blown away once I had it in hand. If we could categorize early gewehrs, I think most would define them as rifles made between 1898 and 1903. Of my early gewehrs, this one is BY FAR the nicest and it's not particularly close.

The gun has standard c/R acceptance on the parts, a common feature prior to 1914. A wartime rework was performed at Köln, the most obvious alteration was the renumbering of the bolt body. A couple things of note for some of the guys new to these. A hall mark of early rifles are the old pattern bayonet lug (note the lack of relief cuts) and the 200 meter base. Amberg began production as the German Army adopted the patrone S, which had an exact change over of October 1st, 1905. Due to this, they had far fewer rifles that needed to be retrofitted when compared to their Prussian counterparts who had manufactured tens of thousands or rifles using the patrons 88 at the time of adoption. Bavaria actually sent their rifles back to Amberg for the retrofits as opposed to sending teams to perform the updates locally, this was unique to them. This example was one of 12,000 guns that required retrofitting. Enjoy.

Receiver SN: 5600b
Barrel SN: 5600b (B130)
Front sight SN: 00
Rear sight SN: 34
Sight Slider SN: 00
Ejector box SN: 00
Trigger Sear SN: 00
Front barrel band SN: 00
Rear barrel band SN: 00
Trigger guard SN: 5600
Trigger guard screws SN: 67/blank
Floor Plate SN: 00
Follower SN: 00
Stock SN: 5600
Handguard SN: 5600
Buttplate SN: 5600 (4 Köln)
Bayonet lug SN: 00
Bolt Body: 5600

Sam, so glad you went for this one. It wasn't going to last long at that price. It looks so much better with your pictures.

I do agree though that flipping it was the right thing to do if it went willingly with no stock marring!

In 2017 I took the disc as afake unit marking too, and a very bad sign for the remaining components not shown then, but Sam's post shows a righteous rifle. Not terribly common ether!

For the curious pictures circa 2017...

Loewe said:

In 2017 I took the disc as afake unit marking too, and a very bad sign for the remaining components not shown then, but Sam's post shows a righteous rifle. Not terribly common ether!

Click to expand...

I've never understood those who try to fake unit marks. They look amateurish typically when they do.

From the initial photos i had completely misjudged this Gew, too, but it was a real score. Nicely done, Sam, it's an outstanding early Amberg that i am excited to add to the reference. As for the acceptance, nothing out of the ordinary on it, but it's good to have another well documented example.

Congrats on a wonderful early Amberg! It's in great condition for such an early rifle and some neat history of it going back to Amberg! Shame about the fake unit marking but the rest of it more than makes up for it!

Great early Amberg Sam!! Whoever humped the disc likely was knowledgeable enough to have known better, and thankfully they applied that nugget of wisdom to the rest of the rifle that looks super righteous.

Nice early Amberg Sam….congrats

chrisftk said:

I've never understood those who try to fake unit marks. They look amateurish typically when they do.

Click to expand...

Same reason people try to fake anything - it's an easy way to add a few hundred bucks to a rifle you're selling, or make a otherwise unremarkable (or low condition) gun sell when it wouldn't have.

I'd be willing to bet that a fairly large percentage of the faked SNs you see are done by a relatively small (compared to the general collecting population) number of dealers or wannabe "dealer" / gunshow flipper types.

Most collectors are interested in authenticity above all else. I don't think I've ever known a serious collector who would value a gun with a humped bolt over an honest m/m, and I've known a couple who just won't have that stuff in their safe to the point that they price in replacing the renumbered parts if they're making an offer on something uncommon that they need.

But the dude flipping guns at shows? Oh he has a very keen interest in paying bolt m/m money one weekend and selling the same gun for all-matching money the next. And while he's at it, marking this otherwise unremarkable and frankly salty Gew98 as belonging to an MG regiment will hopefully do the same.

chrisftk said:

Sam, so glad you went for this one. It wasn't going to last long at that price. It looks so much better with your pictures.

I do agree though that flipping it was the right thing to do if it went willingly with no stock marring!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the peer pressure, Chris! It closed rather large gap.

Loewe said:

In 2017 I took the disc as afake unit marking too, and a very bad sign for the remaining components not shown then, but Sam's post shows a righteous rifle. Not terribly common ether!

For the curious pictures circa 2017...

Click to expand...

Thanks Paul!

PrayingMantis said:

From the initial photos i had completely misjudged this Gew, too, but it was a real score. Nicely done, Sam, it's an outstanding early Amberg that i am excited to add to the reference. As for the acceptance, nothing out of the ordinary on it, but it's good to have another well documented example.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Cyrus! I appreciate the gentle prodding. Prior to this, I had nothing with Otto’s cypher, glad to own it.

AN-94 said:

Congrats on a wonderful early Amberg! It's in great condition for such an early rifle and some neat history of it going back to Amberg! Shame about the fake unit marking but the rest of it more than makes up for it!

Click to expand...

Thank you!

OnlyMil said:

Great early Amberg Sam!! Whoever humped the disc likely was knowledgeable enough to have known better, and thankfully they applied that nugget of wisdom to the rest of the rifle that looks super righteous.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Alex! I agree.

joryfreeburg said:

Nice early Amberg Sam….congrats

Click to expand...

Thanks, Jory!

Such a neat example, thanks for sharing