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Battle Damaged Erfurt Gew 91

chrisftk

chrisftk

Moderator²
Staff member
Hi All,

Here's an 1896 Erfurt Gew91 that saw a pretty tough life, but managed to survive the war.

While it is matching and has a unit mark on the siderail, what really turned me onto this one was the significant damage. I would imagine that this unit was hit by an opposing artillery strike or something similar and significant shrapnel damage occurred. I'm not sure what (if any) prescribed repairs were done in these cases, but they appear improvised.

- The comb of the stock has a rather large chunk missing-- it appears and armorer smoothed out any burrs/splinters
- There is a gash in the wrist of the stock
- The forend of the stock and the barrel jacket were also hit. while the barrel jacket was not penetrated, it was dented significantly. It appears this was also smoothed out when it was repaired.

Nothing much to report other than that. Thanks for looking.

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That’s interesting damage. The stock looks charred and the barrel jacket worn away, almost like it was stuck in a piece of machinery.
 
Interesting but, just how can you determine how the damage was done to something this old(not disputing your assessments)?
Steve
 
I would think of several different ways this could of happened? Not say the opinion given is more dramatic?
Steve
 
feldmütze said:
Maybe excessive cleaning, lol. Please share your thoughts on the different ways this could have happened....
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I’m thinking the unlucky soldier holding it was hit by a crashing Sopwith Camel, the comb of the stock clearly shows prop marks and the barrel was in contact for a short time with the spinning nose gear. But this is just conjecture on my part and a result of years of experimentation with Psilocybin mushrooms.

​

 
biggymu said:
I’m thinking the unlucky soldier holding it was hit by a crashing Sopwith Camel, the comb of the stock clearly shows prop marks and the barrel was in contact for a short time with the spinning nose gear. But this is just conjecture on my part and a result of years of experimentation with Psilocybin mushrooms.

​

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Here I was thinking that this poor artilleryman got his carbine buggered up when Wonder Woman stormed his trench. He was clearly distracted by her good looks and dropped it, only to find later it had been run over by a British tank....
 
awsome rifle , never knew they existed , how is that related to the KAR88 , what are the differences that set them apart
 
The differences are the sidewall marking and the stacking hook on the Gew. 91.

I have always wondered why it was called a Gew (rifle) 91 and not Kar 91
 
Sr4440 said:
Very cool...would love to have a 91
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ive wanted a KAR88 since the day i started collecting milsurps , i found an Gew 88 at a yard sale and after researching it i was hooked , i was a AK guy and shotgun/hunting rifle guy up to that point with a couple hand guns
 
I just got a pretty nice Kar 88.. waiting to see how it shoots ...if the weather ever clears for a few days..got 5 inches of snow on my shooting bench right now
 
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