A Gew 88 and a Gew 98

[Josh]

One day I was at the range with a few rifles, I was shooting both the 300 BLK's I had. One a Rem 700 AAC-SD and the other a Weatherby vanguard. While shooting my favorite load of 5.5 gr titegroup with a Lee 155-2R a guy a few tables down started to talking to me.

He got to shooting the Weatherby and asked about buying it, I said no thanks I kinda like this rifle. He then asked if I was a fan of milsurps because I had the Finn M39 and another yugo K98 with me. Well of course I like milsurps, they are some of my favorite rifles. He says he has some mausers he "could let go" and asked if I could stay for 20 minutes while he ran home (I was planning to stay for a few more hours).

So, here he comes back, with a Steyr 1888 Gew 88 and a Danzig 1917 Gew 98, at once my curiosity was up as I really like the older stuff and I was expecting to see a yugo mauser or a spanish 7mm. He brought 200 rounds of ammo and had me shoot them, the Gew 88 was amazing, very smooth and amazingly accurate. The Gew 98 is converted to the K98k and needs a new extractor and follower. Both rifles have a great bore and I asked what he was thinking. He offered both rifles, the ammo, and $250 on the spot. So now I am the proud owner of these 2 rifles.

I believe I did well in the trade, once I get the Gew 98 up and running it will come back out to play.

Gew 98:



Gew 88:

 

[JWFilips]

Josh,
I love my Gew98 just can,t beat the 29 inch barrel sight radius!Great cast bullet shooters
Jim

 

[Josh]

This Gew 98 has unfortunately been modernized to the K98k length, it is identical to my Yugo K98. Now that Gew 88 with it's 30ish inch barrel has a helluva long sight radius! I believe the Gew 88 the most interesting, because when that rifle was being produced, America was still fielding the trapdoor Springfield. The technical leap is astounding in my opinion, I do believe it is time to break out the 323471's and stretch their legs.

 

[fiver]

I think you done rather well.

 

[Josh]

I think I did pretty good, the Weatherby was a custom build that I got for a good deal, it had an 18" shilen barrel and a good older Redfield on top. We figured the 8mm's to be valued at $300, and I was basically looking for replacement cost on the Blk build.

The Gew 88 was surprising, it will put Winchester 170 gr in a 1.5-2" group at 100 yds, the Gew 98 is the more typical 2-3"

 

[oscarflytyer]

$250 w/ ammo? Heck of a deal!

edit - reread - did you trade the Vanguard for the two rifles/ammo/$250? If so, still pretty good

 

[Josh]

$250 w/ ammo? Heck of a deal!

edit - reread - did you trade the Vanguard for the two rifles/ammo/$250? If so, still pretty good

Yes, I traded the Vanguard for 2 mausers and 200 rounds of ammo and $250 cash. The Weatherby was a snag I got in trade for a S&W M&P 45, so if we go back to the original trade I for all of the above for one M&P pistol.

I am pretty happy, I can always build another 300 Blackout but I can't build more mausers.

 

[fiver]

you could for about 1200$ each,,,,,, if you built about 400,000 of them.

 

[Josh]

you could for about 1200$ each,,,,,, if you built about 400,000 of them.

That may be slightly outside my monetary ability, want to go in for a few hundred thousand units?

 

[fiver]

I naively thought at one time that I would just go ahead and collect mauser rifles.
I gave that thought up pretty quickly after about 5 minutes of research [pre-internet day's]
you could still pick them up for 60-90 bucks back then, but even that was getting out of my price range real quick like.

 

[Josh]

I don't collect on a "professional" level, but if 2 milsurps are in my price range and one is a mauser... well... I'll almost always pick the mauser.

I still need an 1891 Argentine, Swede 96, VZ 24, Columbian mountain carbine... ect ect

 

[freebullet]

Nice trade, Josh.

You can always replace a 700 but, they ain't making those anymore.

Hope they shoot well for ya.

 

[oscarflytyer]

LOL! OK. I knew I didn't have things straight! Love Mausers, but gave up trying to 'collect.' Instead of milsurps, I have taken up with lever actions. Hunt and shoot those a lot. And also understand the M&P trade. I recently did the same - with the end result being a lever action!