Early 1916 Goerz Semi Turret Gew98 Sniper Rifle

[Absolut]

The excellent thread of @chrisftk reminded me that late last year due to a great fellow from this forum who made me aware of a rifle for sale I was able to purchase an all matching Gew98 rifle with bases for the Goerz Semi Turret mount. Actually that rifle even came with a mismatching scope, which came with a scope can that matches to the scope. Even better, the scope was carefully stuffed into the can by period newspapers. When I finally had it I decided I would not use the scope it came with but to put on it another scope of mine, since I had a scope with a rifle number in the same dd letter block as the rifle. That is the one visible in the attached pictures.

I'm not this much of an Imperial collector to be able to tell which manufacturer the rifle is, but I'd assume it is a Danzig - maybe someone can confirm this. What IMHO is very interesting is the fact that it has a 1916 receiver date, this would make it very early, compared to the others that we have posted on this forum (--> Danzig 1918: https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/g98-semi-turret-mount.39258/ and Danzig 1917: https://www.k98kforum.com/threads/1917-danzig-goerz-model-m-semi-turret.46581/ ).

Looking at these two and on my rifle it appears as if the bases on my rifle are sitting more forward on the receiver. As a result to this, the 1916 receiver date is almost fully visible on my rifle. Furthermore, this results in the scope sitting more forward - and therefore requiring the safety to be milled down a little bit at the rear to clear the scope. When I noticed this on my rifle, I looked very close at both above linked rifles and did notice that the Semi Turret sniper rifle from user @JACKDANIELS does have a very lightly milled safety to clear the scope. So this to me means it was kind of individual fitting of the safetey to clear the scope. Just a small detail that though becomes obvious when we have platforms such as this forum which allows us to compare samples from this period.

 

[biggymu]

Excellent example of a very rare rifle. Thank you for posting it.

 

[chrisftk]

Great rifle Georg! A real screamer with that walnut stock..The base rifle is actually a Spandau 1916 based on the fireproof, font and acceptance patterns. It would have been initially made in the later part of 1916, but hard to say when the optics company actually converted it to a sniper configuration.

 

[Fal Grunt]

The stock is amazingly crisp, very nice!

 

[joryfreeburg]

Very nice rifle…. Congrats

 

[PrayingMantis]

Textbook Spandau, i'll only add that the wrist c/Z moves around but shows up in Spandau by this time.

I added it to the reference. The safety looks like it was shaved to accommodate the scope, that's pretty cool, i've not noticed that before.

 

[SVW1945]

That's a Nice rifle, Congrat's

 

[AN-94]

Man, where do you even find WWI snipers? I can't imagine very many of them made it here to the states but congrats on a very rare rifle! Love the walnut stock on this one, super nice acceptance stamps on it.

 

[chrisftk]

Man, where do you even find WWI snipers? I can't imagine very many of them made it here to the states but congrats on a very rare rifle! Love the walnut stock on this one, super nice acceptance stamps on it.

I gave a more detailed response in the other thread, but the bottom line is that these don't grow on trees. There are many more fakes or bad restorations than real ones. The fakes range from absolutely laughable to professional grade, so caution is always warranted. A decent number of them made it back to the US, and there are still a good bit in Europe, though I don't follow that market as closely (OP is in Europe btw, so maybe he will opine as well)

The large auctions tend to get very competitive for the legitimate snipers that pop up. I know several people who have had luck finding them in the wild, but that does not appear to be as common these days.

 

[Absolut]

I gave a more detailed response in the other thread, but the bottom line is that these don't grow on trees. There are many more fakes or bad restorations than real ones. The fakes range from absolutely laughable to professional grade, so caution is always warranted. A decent number of them made it back to the US, and there are still a good bit in Europe, though I don't follow that market as closely (OP is in Europe btw, so maybe he will opine as well)

The large auctions tend to get very competitive for the legitimate snipers that pop up. I know several people who have had luck finding them in the wild, but that does not appear to be as common these days.

Usually I keep this for myself because that detail information helping identifying fakes can also help fakers to get stuff correct, but yes, there were copies of the Semi Turret rifles being made. And actually another thread in here is on such a fake. Bear in mind, the Semi Turret bases are pretty simple when comparing them with other mount bases. Especially the front base is of a rather simple geometry, the rear base is a bit more complicated with the dovetailed part, but still nothing impossible. One person once told me he did make reproduction Semi Turret bases. Those however were different in that this person made the bases higher. This due to the fact that with original sniper rifles the cone from the rear scope ring protrudes through the base right into the receiver bridge, meaning originally there is a hole drilled through including the receiver bridge. By making them higher these fakes make the hole through the receiver bridge obsolete. So when looking at a Semi Turret sniper rifle the first view should always be the height of the bases (easiest height at top/middle of the front base; originals are pretty thin in that area) and if looks good then check if the receiver bridge has a hole through it too. If this is good, then you can do detail checks of bolt handle cutout, bolt handle curve, acceptance, etc.

 

[Amberg]

With the rear base removed, the receiver bridge should look like this one.
Danzig 1917, bolt m/m with both bases removed. but still existing.

BTW:
great rifles! Congratulations!

 

[JACKDANIELS]

Hello Georg
I'm very happy that you like this rifle, the scope you already had actually looks much better on it.
Late response to your subject but I was on holydays and answering on a samrtphone is not practical especially when, like me, you have a poor command of English.
You saying that the other CP GOERZ scope were wrapped in period newspapers, French or German? were you able to read a date? photos would be nice
The last time Isee that a rifle had been found wrapped in vintage newspapers it was on a farm not far from my home on the Hindenburg line, it was a tankgewher wrapped just before the invasion of 1940 in French newspapers of 1939 (rifle stored hidden in a pile of wood until the 70s-80s and unfortunately poorly preserved but only the handle was missing).
By reading the 3 recent topics on semi-turrets I realize how lucky I am to own one, presented on this forum.