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GEW88 Discovery

There are a few things to consider here. Today we have a notion that everything that fits together, should fully, fit together. That is, screws should fit flush with their counterbores. When looking at the original drawings, the depth of counterbore is not dimensioned, at all, however the relationship is driven through the "thickness" or the face that the screw bottoms out on. Which is what really matters.

The front counterbore is thus driven to be 2.8mm deep, and the rear 3.5mm, while the screws have a head thickness of 5.

I frequently challenge collectors, and people in general, just because you *think* something does not appear correct, does not mean that 150 years ago it wasn't. I have seen many a gun, and a plethora of other things badly mutilated or altered because it did not fit the persons preconceived notion of "correct".
 
The only "butchering" I have ever done in 50 years of collecting/shooting was screwing up some slots on bolts. Without the knowledge of hollow ground screwdrivers, the battle with tight screws was titanic and I did conquer all. However, the price was sometimes terrific and I was sorry for even trying.

Back before the Internet and YouTube, finding information on guns, tools, and techniques was a bit difficult. We, of course, had books but you had to know where to find them and how to purchase. If you were lucky to have friendly folks at a gun show or at the gun shop, they gave you the contact information and you called or sent a Snail Mail. Never knew of the Shotgun News till I heard a conversation at a Gun Show and found Nirvana.

Randy
 
It my be me but I do not think he was saying you were butchering , just that some rifles may not have been put together perfectly to start . Sometimes " good enough " slipped through or someone did not follow spec or the way they did it changed . I have several rifles that do not match what a book says but I feel they were made that way so I do not " correct " them .
 
No offense taken here. I have been guilty more times than not, in my early days of collecting for sure, of believing that what it should be was in fact what is was designed to be. Pops taught me early on that if you are loading up on the torque, stop, and think about what your are about to do/break.

Randy
 
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Got an issue with the safety/sear/trigger. When I move the safety quickly from Safe to Ready position, the weapon will fire. No problem when I move the safety slowly.

Randy
 
Good Afternoon,

Back from the range and the '88 shot amazingly well. Thanks all for you input and helping bring back another piece of history.

Randy
 
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Rescuerandy2 said:
Got an issue with the safety/sear/trigger. When I move the safety quickly from Safe to Ready position, the weapon will fire. No problem when I move the safety slowly.

Randy
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Yeow. Did you get that issue resolved? That’s life threatening.
 
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Folks say that you may have to fiddle with the lips on the clip to getting them running correctly. The one I used did not need any adjustments and fell out of the magazine as designed and with no help.

Randy
 
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Rescuerandy2 said:
Folks say that you may have to fiddle with the lips on the clip to getting them running correctly. The one I used did not need any adjustments and fell out of the magazine as designed and with no help.

Randy
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I have heard that on the reproduction made clips. Using original German made ones in my rifles, I've had no issues.
 
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At $40-$50/clip, the originals are too much for me. We fiddle with so much when owning antique weapons, how bad can it be to fiddle with a brass clip?

Randy
 
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Rescuerandy2 said:
At $40-$50/clip, the originals are too much for me. We fiddle with so much when owning antique weapons, how bad can it be to fiddle with a brass clip?

Randy
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It really, really sucks. I had two repros that I bought break in half trying to tweak them to work. They both snapped in the same place, along the fold between the back of the clip and the side. The long and the short of it is that the repros out there right now use this really brittle brass that you have to be extremely careful when working. If I was to do it again I'd probably blast them really good with a torch to anneal them and hopefully knock the brittleness down a few pegs, but then I don't know how well they'd handle holding bullets in since they rely on spring tension to do that.

After wasting time and money with that I got a couple original clips and they work just fine.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it can be done. Maybe anneal them, tweak them for function, then re-heat treat them and then tweak again just slightly to get enough tension? I don't know, I don't usually screw around with fixing springs. If I was doing something where I needed a full bandoleer of Gew88 ammo on clips I'd probably revisit it. But for my purposes it's no hardship to reload the same two clips over and over again at the range.
 
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Another alternative would probably be to 3d print something that might not be exactly like the original in form, but function. That would be a much more involved project, since I assume working with plastic you'd basically be designing a new part that did something similar but not quite identical.

God only knows how long they would last, I assume they would be quasi-disposable.

That's way, way out of my wheelhouse, though. I'm just making a bit of a guess based on what I've seen friends who do know that stuff cook up.
 
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Maybe taking the $100 plunge for two originals would be sufficient for the range. I just do not like giving into the price gougers and GB bidding-monsters.

Randy
 
Rescuerandy2 said:
Maybe taking the $100 plunge for two originals would be sufficient for the range. I just do not like giving into the price gougers and GB bidding-monsters.

Randy
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Try posting a WTB in the trader. You might get lucky and find someone willing to part with a few at a more reasonable price.

That said, the real price might just be that much. That's the thing with old, antique, collectible stuff: it's not made any more and eventually the market price rises . I remember people complaining on collector message boards about price gougers charging too much for matching K98ks . . . . when they were $1000.
 
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