For its day, the Gew 98 was a strong and reliable infantry weapon that is remembered today as the ultimate military bolt-action rifle. A scant-grip wooden stock, extended bayonet lug and a threaded half-length cleaning rod finished out the 49.2” long rifle. Introduction of a shorter Lange Visier “roller coaster” and reduction of the height of the front-sight blade provided a solution that would carry the Mauser through to the Armistice of 1918. With the change to a spitzer bullet, the 200 meter sight setting was actually more like 400 meters, and that introduced an engineering challenge that had to be addressed.Ī German soldier takes a look through a pericope across no-man's-land while a comrade takes aim with a Gew 98. From the start, the 98 Mauser used the visually distinctive Lange Visier “roller coaster” rear sight with graduations from 200 to 2,000 meters. The change to the flatter trajectory bullet also brought-on a change to the rifle’s adjustable rear sight. German soldier posing for a photograph with their Gew 98 rifles visible. The Gew 98’s 29.1” barrel was capable of accelerating that lighter spitzer bullet to 2,881 f.p.s., a significantly higher muzzle velocity than the old round-nosed bullet could achieve. 0.323" Spitzgeschoss pointed projectile replaced it.
For the first five years, the Gew 98 was paired with a 226 gr. In addition to that, two gas-escape holes on the bottom of the bolt and a gas shield at the cocking piece made this Mauser the safest rifle action in service anywhere. The Gew 98’s bolt was designed to engage the receiver with two forward locking lugs as well as a third “safety lug” that was intended to provide added support in the event of a ruptured cartridge case.Īn Imperial German soldier posing in the field with bayonet fixed to his Gew 98. The design incorporated a cock-on-open bolt and a long claw-type extractor renowned for being strong and reliable. This new Mauser chambered the 7.92×57 mm (or 8 mm Mauser) cartridge and employed a clip-fed internal, staggered-row box magazine with a five-shot capacity. or “Rifle Testing Commission”) replaced its obsolescent Model 1888 Commission Rifle with an improved design that Paul Mauser patented in September 1895.Īn older Imperial German soldier posing with his Gew 98 tucked under his arm. In April 1898, the German government’s Gewehr-Prüfungskommission (G.P.K. The origins of this weapon go all the way back to Mauser’s first model in 1871 and the design evolved quickly during the next 25 years.
REBARRELING SERVICES FOR MAUSER GEWEHR 98 FULL
In response to these changes, Imperial Germany developed a specially trained force of assault troops known as Stoßtruppen and even gave them the perfect weapon for trench raiding, the MP-18 submachine gun.Īn Imperial German soldier in full uniform, along with his Gewehr 98 with bayonet fixed.ĭespite this shifting paradigm of technology and tactics, and even as the MP-18 began to enter service, the backbone of German infantry firepower remained Paul Mauser’s Gewehr 1898. By the final year of World War I, new weapons and tactics had changed the nature of ground combat, making 1918 look quite a bit different than 1914 had.