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Originally Posted by Seahawk
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As for Mauser's as of late I am partial to the GEW 98 and 98 Kar AZ's. finding one wt matching no's is the trick...most likely if you find one it is a WW1 or maybe a WW2 bring back.. 1916 is the magic date for a WW1 bring back...dam now that I gave away a secret I am going to have to....
The other thing that is interesting about them is the possible German Freikorps association.. a stock stamp of "EWB" stands for the Bavarian Freikorps, of which Ernest Rohm was a major supplier of arms to..(Rohm was Hitler's buddy and right hand man in the party until he wasn't). Hitler got his start in Munich (Bavaria in the early 20's). The Freikorp is pre Nazi Party, composed of returning WW1 vets who were violently opposed to the communists. There was in essence a civil war in Germany after WW1 where the monarchists and right wing battled it out with the communists (Spartacus movement) in the streets.
If I were to collect German it would be WW1 into the Freikorp Weimar era stuff. The Nazi era stuff is very popular and has been collected to death and that does nothing for me. Finding Freikorp's or Spartacus stuff would be a real challenge, as they were ad hoc movements in a time of real turmoil.
Close to 20 years agoI saw a collection of WW1 German Air Korp memorabilia come up for sale at Julia's auctions. In the collection there was one of Von Richthofen's first 60 aerial victory (after #60 he stopped having them made) sterling silver trophy cups... with the name and date of the plane engraved on it...it went for 15K. The only one ever saw. Another interesting piece that I saw auctioned much later was a Pre WW1 US Army Pilots wings that went for 1500. That is another rarity.
For years I looked for a post WW1 Springfield 03 that was not rebuilt nor molested. Those are real tough to find as most were rebuilt by the military either before WW2, during or after. Most likely it would have to have been a civilian sale in the pre WW2 era. I found a couple that did not measure up and were sixed. In 12/16 I saw a
real clean looking one at Cordiers auctions in PA. I called on it...The configuration was a bit strange in that the bolt was in the white and not SNed with an elctropencil. the only 03's wt bolts in the white are National Matches and they after 1924 were Sned wt electro pencil, the crown of the barrel was not star gauged as it should be on a NM. It did have the rear NM sight...Hmmm. I decided to go for it and got it for the cost of a clean standard pre WW2 03.
I get it and it is star gauged with the star gauge no on top of the barrel under the hand guard. BINGO it is a 1922 style 03 NM. It was consigned by the family along with other WW1 vets memorabilia.. Apparently the family connection to the vet had lost all meaning, maybe it was one of his children or even grandchildren who knew him that had passed on and the family decide to get rid of the stuff. I kept a copy of the other consigned stuff along with his name to go with the rifle.
After WW1 a lot of vets joined veterans organizations that held meetings, and then there are the shooting matches at Camp Perry which remain popular today. Also WW1 popularized the BA rifle where as before American preferred LA rifles. This vet was a member and a shooter so he apparently bought what he carried during the Great War from the DCM. It was well cared for and remained in the closet for nearly 100 years as it is nearly pristine.
American commercial rifle makers before the 1930's didn't mfg BA sporting rifles, to fill that gap the Springfield arsenal in MA built 03 Sporters to fill the demand for BA hunting rifles. They were sold through the DCM. the fit and finish on them is of really good commercial quality...in that era there were customs being made by the likes of Griffin Howe, Ownes, Niedner, Hoffman and Sedgley among others. those 03 Sporters come up for sale every so often. G&H is still in biz today..