The Model 1898 infanterie Gewehr
This rifle is the crown jewel of my Mauser collection, a rifle it took me over 25 years to find. All the seemingly hundreds of Bubba rifles I was offered, the poor abused relics dredged out of dank cellars I had to look over and make polite noises about, and then finally I found this rifle that was everything I was looking for in a GEW98. Made at Spandau arsenal in 1906 it has never been so much as looked at by Bubba, all is original as it should be. All of it's serial numbers match, even the little parts have the 00 stamp (last two digits of the serial number). The crown, and bore are in amazingly good condition, nice and clean, the blue is more silver to brown now with age, and the stock has no cracks, or major dents. The stock, and handguard are both serial numbered to the rifle, and have the proper original oil finish. All that would be enough but this rifle goes a step beyond most GEW98's, it's got the EWB stamp of the Einwohnerwehr Bayern on the buttstock. The Einwohnerwehr Bayern was formed just after WW1 in the federal state of Bavaria. The Einwohnerwehr was a loosely organised paramilitary force made up of former soldiers, Police, and ordinary citizens who were nominally controlled by the army. As they were not part of the Army, or the Police they technically got around the Treaty of Versailles limits on German Military, and Police number's. They were formed to help restore order in the chaos left after the war ended by a special order of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in 1918, and they had hundreds of thousands of members until disbanded in 1921 by order of the Allies. The idea was to allow citizens to protect themselves from looters, armed gangs, and red revolutionaries. It was under the command of the local Reichswehr regiments, and the Reichswehr supplied the firearms used. This rifle was used by the Bavarian part of the Einwohnerwehr (as indicated by the EWB stamp ) who should not be confused with the Freikorps. Freikorps units were volunteers, while the Einwohnerwehr did have official sanction. many of it's members went on to the Freikorps, and later to the Brown shirts of the NSDAP.
The sling, and action cover in the pics are reproduction while the butcher bayonet, and Iron Crosses are originals. Needless to say the rifle is an excellent shooter with a dark, but interesting past. I am always amazed at the high level of fit, and finish these rifles posses, just the amount of time alone that they spent to stamp the serial number on virtually every part of the rifle is amazing.
