Gewehr 98

Here's an old German Mauser Gewehr 98 variant chambered in .308. This one is pretty old and clunky - I bought it back when old Mausers were less than $100 at local department stores (at least in Delaware). You can follow the link above for Wikipedia information on these rifles.

This also marks the beginning of a departure for this blog - early on I had committed to avoid "modern" guns in my collection, however, I soon discovered that this is somewhat of a slippery slope since I've already posted some "modern" rimfire and centerfire weapons. Since this distinction is really somewhat arbitrary, I've decided to include real modern centerfire and rimfire weapons on this blog (i.e. those weapons that I'm morally obligated to keep in the big gun safe). I've made this decision for three reasons:

1. It's my blog, and I can do whatever I want.
2. These pieces are no less interesting to me than the old flintlocks and such.
3. No one is (to date) reading this anyway!

So, expect some modern pieces mixed in with the other interesing tidbits I post.

What's with the little guns?

There's something about a dinky little small caliber pistol that amuses me greatly. Maybe it's the thought of loading that tiny little ammunition into that tiny little breech with my big ham hands. Maybe its the idea that these low powered rounds are utterly useless for anything other than punching holes in paper or (maybe) killing a wild mouse. Whatever...


Here's another parlor pistol, German makers mark on the right side of the barrel. Like a few others, it's got a funny little breech block mechanism and extractor. The half octagon barrel's about 10" long, and the piece has wooden grips.

Parlor pistol redux

Yet another German made parlor on the same frame as the one I blogged about last week, but with a longer 10" barrel. The action's a little sticky on this one, but it does work. By the way, that's a US quarter down below of scale, but the flash made it hard to see because of reflection.

Another little parlor pistol

Like this post, this little fella is a parlor pistol, designed for indoor and/or gallery shooting. It's got German proof marks on the right side of the barrel, and has an elaborate little breech loading system to keep the itty bitty 6 mm (.22 caliber) CB or BB caps in the chamber. As soon as I get some Flobert cartridges, I'm going to give it a shot. This little guy will also probably be the piece I use to introduce the kid to shooting - low noise, single shot, no recoil, "safe" muzzlle velocities, little cartridges for little hands, and a little frame. This he will appreciate more than a shot with my S&W 625.

Achtung!

This is a German bayonet from World War 2 (at least I think so). There are a variety of resources on the web to track down the arcana of European bayonets, and frankly, I have neither the time nor the inclination to do the research right now. The serial numbers on the steel scabbard and the blade match, which is a good sign for a collector, and overall, the condition is good (appears unused, except for a small dent in the scabbard visible here).

A divergance...

As you may know, I initially intended this blog as a one per day/365 day posting of my personal collection of old, interesting, or unusual weapons or weapon-like items.

Explicit in this aim is that I actually own 365 old, interesting, or unusual weapons or weapon-like items. Ah....no.

Implicit in this aim is that I'm either an idiot or incapable of not only counting, but even estimating, what I had in my armory.

But I want to do the one year thing. The missus insists (probably for cash flow reasons) that I not go on an acquisition bender, so I'm going to broaden scope somewhat to include old, interesting, or unusual militaria and other related artifacts.

To this end, I would like to introduce you to Trench Art. One fact of military life is that when not actually training or fighting, soldiers' lives could sometimes be impossibly dull. This fact coupled with access to unorthodox military ephemera and tools leads to Trench Art - the re-appropriation of military "stuff" for artistic purposes. This kind of stuff decorates the studies and dens of veterans everywhere.

To this end, here are a couple of planters made from the shells of 75 mm (7.5 cm) artillery shells.



They are pre-WW1 in manufacture, but may have been fired during the Great War. The base of one is stamped "POLTE MAGDEBURG VIII 1909" with various other armorers' touch marks (stamped 2 digit numbers). Polte was a German munitions manufacturer and Magdeburg was the town in which this particular factory was located. 1909 was the date of manufacture

The other is stamped "PATRONENFABRIK KARLSRUHE IX 1914"with similar touch marks. Again, Patronenfabrik was the manufacturer, Karlsruhe was the town, and 1914 was the date.

The only embellishments to these pieces comprise the riveted on lion's heads and rings - probably scavenged drawer or door pulls and a generous application of gold paint. Sometimes, these flank the door to Flintlock's Arsenal when I can manage to keep two plants alive long enough to put in them. Now is not such a time.