Third Party Press

More Concerns With My GEW 88

I know I'm a bit late myself to comment here, but, you mentioned the Z marking. If it's a Z with a circle around it, that typically is indicative of the Czech barrel. That being said, if it's just a regular Z without the circle, probably not.

Anyways, I'd bet yours has the .321 groove barrel. The vast majority of Gewehr 88's, whether original 88 or 88/05, will have those. If it's a pre-1896 year on the receiver, it almost certainly has the .321 grooves. Those marked with a plain Z (not to be confused with a Z with the circle) near the S on the top of the receiver are .323+ groove barrels.

If it ends up being .321 grooves, I mostly use military surplus light ball (154/155 grain) in mine. The bullets are the same .321 caliber. I'd recommend Romanian because the Turkish surplus shoots pretty hot...

I'm interested to hear what yours comes out to! Let us know!
 
ajczarkowski said:
I know I'm a bit late myself to comment here, but, you mentioned the Z marking. If it's a Z with a circle around it, that typically is indicative of the Czech barrel. That being said, if it's just a regular Z without the circle, probably not.

Anyways, I'd bet yours has the .321 groove barrel. The vast majority of Gewehr 88's, whether original 88 or 88/05, will have those. If it's a pre-1896 year on the receiver, it almost certainly has the .321 grooves. Those marked with a plain Z (not to be confused with a Z with the circle) near the S on the top of the receiver are .323+ groove barrels.

If it ends up being .321 grooves, I mostly use military surplus light ball (154/155 grain) in mine. The bullets are the same .321 caliber. I'd recommend Romanian because the Turkish surplus shoots pretty hot...

I'm interested to hear what yours comes out to! Let us know!
Click to expand...
There is no Z stamped on top of the receiver, but there is a Z stamped on the barrel near the breech that is easily seen with the barrel jacket removed. There is no with with a circle anywhere on it. On top of the receiver is Loewe Berlin 1890. If it does have the .321 barrel I would think it would be safe to shoot .323 bullets with low pressure loads. I will only be shooting my hand loads.
Joe
 
Your slugs are on the way , so you should know for sure soon . You owe my dog $5 postage , which is outrageous for a package the size of a big matchbox . The thing to remember is the S did not mean .323 bullets . The Germans never cleared those rifles for .323 bullets . Will a modern soft .323 bullet hurt the rifle ? Probably not . Several things to look at . Will the .323 chamber ? It should , but not for sure . What .323 bullet are you going to use , how much bearing surface does it have for friction ? You will raise pressure some with .323 in a .321 . Here is a perfect example of raising pressure . A friend called and said he was getting real high pressure , ruined cases , with mid loads in his .358 Win AR-10 . The flash hider hole was only . 350 for a 1/2 inch at the muzzle . That 1/2 inch of .350 at the end of the barrel was enough to really raise the pressure . I milled out to .375 for him and told not to run chokes on his rifle anymore !!!!!! Base line . 321 bullets are cheap , easy to get and shoot great .
 
Thanks Ernie. I will mail you the $5 when the slugs arrive and I have the return address (I hope cash is OK). Yes, the .323 bullets chamber and eject quite easily. I was going to use 150 grain Speer pointed soft point bullets with a mild charge of powder. I have some Speer 170 grain 32 Special bullets I was going to use also. Will let you know soon.
Joe
 
My dog needs his dog bone $ !! Cash is fine . The Speer 150 is soft and not much bearing surface , should be fine . . The Hornady 150 sp does shoot more accurately . I am sure we are all waiting to hear your bore size .
 
Ernie, I was wondering, is the bore size in one of these rifles consistent the whole length of the barrel or does the size change at different points along the way? What I mean is will the bore diameter be smaller at the muzzle than it is when getting close to the chamber area?
 
ernie8 said:
While I am not an expert on the German barrel markings and proofs [ there are others here that are so you may want to ask them about your markings ] , I feel you have a German barrel . The 21 is a match to your serial number . I am sorry you are having such trouble slugging . My favorite slug to use is a Hornady 32 SWC swagged lead pistol bullet . It is very soft and lubed , the small nose enters the barrel easy . They are only .314 dia . BUT if you put one on the cement floor nose down and tap it with a hammer on the base it will bump up to .323 or .330 as needed with easy hits . That bullet does any 8mm , 303 , 7.7mm , 30 cal I need to slug . If I remember and have time I will try and send you a few bumped up to .324 . I keep a whole box as I slug all my rifles , as it is the best way to getting them shooting best by knowing where to start with bullet wise .
Click to expand...
Imma have to get me some if they still make'em.
 
As made the bore size will be the same down the barrel . A few rifles did use taper bores , but the Gew-88 is not one . I have a bunch of the .32 bullets as I did shoot target with a few 32 revolvers . That is when I started using them for slugging my military rifles as .30 to 8mm covers a lot of military rifles . Hornady also made a .453 dia version of that type bullet for cowboy shooting with .45 colt , it does most of the old big bore rifles .
 
TN Time sent me these pictures yesterday. As everyone will see this is a German military barrel, and the Z is a inspection/process mark.
 

Attachments

  • DSC04068 2 resize.jpg
    DSC04068 2 resize.jpg
    191.5 KB · Views: 9
  • DSC04069 resize.jpg
    DSC04069 resize.jpg
    163.7 KB · Views: 9
As several of the people thought it was , now it is for sure . So he should have a .311 - .3208 size barrel . I would shoot it all day long with the .321 bullets and not be too wimpy on the loads . 165 -170 grain at 2400 fps will be fine . Just guessing from the receiver marks [ no Z , no dot , no NM ] that it is the original thin barrel as made .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Military Rifle Journal
Back
Top