![ww1 mauser gewehr 98 for sale ww1 mauser gewehr 98 for sale](https://www.shootingillustrated.com/media/d2kmxhzy/cew.jpg)
He retrieved a rolled up oil-skin bundle out from up in the attic. I was content examining this miracle of measure and harmony, but my grandfather had something truly special in store for me. I remember well one day when I was still shy of my teens and after he had retired from the force, my grandfather treated me to a little show and tell, starring his all time, favorite pistol, a Colt revolver (and a truly spectacular specimen if my memory serves me right). He was the sheriff for Newport County in Rhode Island many, many years ago, and I can remember his advice to me when I first became a police officer: “Always keep your prisoner in front of you and maintain control of his movements.” That was awfully good advice back then, and I’ve never forgotten his words.
#Ww1 mauser gewehr 98 for sale professional
My grandfather taught me a lot, both in my private and professional life. The MAB 1938A was adopted in December 1941, although thanks to the already well-established design deliveries to the army could be started almost immediately.John Elliott tells us how his grandfather inspired his love of shooting: as a boy his granddad took him to King’s Beach to shoot a WWI German Mauser Gewehr 1898 rifle over the water, a rifle believed to be the very first battle-proven firearm to be used as an effective anti-tank weapon.ĭad mistakenly managed to shoot an owl out of the low-lying branches of a tree while on a leopard hunt in Africa in the dead of night during World War II, and his brother, Uncle Wayne, somehow shot the little finger off his left hand while experimenting with a homemade pistol way down in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1955.Įven despite those mishaps, my dad and uncle Wayne proved pivotal in inspiring an interest in firearms, but no one informed my life long love affair with shooting more than my grandfather. If we compare Japan to Italy, another country with a relatively weak industry, it took the Italian Royal Army almost 18 months to adopt the Beretta 38A after Mussolini’s ill-advised decision to join the war in July 1940 on the Axis side. US bombing was also hurting their production efforts a lot in 1944, so it made sense to concentrate on producing tried and true weapons for the infantry. It seems to me that they simply could not prioritize SMG production. They also had lower industrial capacity than other major powers except Italy. So why didn’t the Japanese army adopt the SMG in significant numbers even later? Most of the early jungle fighting took place in 1942 and the Japanese did not have a good SMG design ready. In other words,the short effective range of the SMG was thought to be too much of a shortcoming that arming large number of soldiers with them would be useful. While they had experience with SMG from WW1, it was thought to be applicable only to those spesific circumstances (that is, prolonged trench warfare), which they intended to avoid in any case. Italians had SMGs for the carabinieri, but not for regular army units.Įven the Germans considered the SMG useful primarily for applications like guard duty by military police rather than a real frontline combat weapon. The UK had none, France was just introducing them and the Soviet Union had a few, but really just a few. From the major participants of the war only Germany had SMGs in any kind of numbers. Japanese attitude towards SMGs was not that different from European attitudes prior to the start of WW2. An effective design finally appeared in 1917, but only small numbers appear to have made it to the front lines before the end of the war, in part because of endemic material shortages. The first metal version developed was judged inadequate by the testing commission (probably because it was clumsy to remove and had to be removed to actually cycle the bolt). The German military took longer to develop a suitable dust cover, having started with a cloth model that was too good at retaining moisture and caused rusting on guns. However, it was dropped from use for some reason, leaving only the enlarged bolt head screw as evidence of its passing. In fact, the cover (called a couvre culasse in French) was originally incorporated as part of the M1916 upgrades to the Berthier, along with the 5-round magazine and upper handguard. Introduced in mid 1915, versions were made for both the Lebel and Berthier rifles. The French model was a very simple contoured sheet metal shield attached to the rifle by the bolt head screw. Given the prevalence of muddy horrible trenches in World War 1, why didn’t anybody design dust covers to protect the actions of their combat rifles? Well, they actually did… and today we are looking at both French and German examples.