Mauser picked up from German trench in Argonne Campaign of 1918

[Fred]

My wife gave me this rifle along with four (long) Lee Enfields, a Colt 1911 45 made in 1918, a S&W 1917, several Browning over/unders, a Remington 870 and several other shotguns and rifles. The mauser was picked up in a German trench in the Argonne by my wifes father in law. She married very young to her late husband who left her the guns. Well except for the enfields which she gave me for my birthday. Anyway, it's bolt, reciever, barrel, trigger guard, stock and floorplate are matching. The rest is not. THe rifle wasn't picked up from a pile of surrendered, torn down and reassembled guns, so the rifle is still as the unit armorer left it. With it's matching bolt to insure propper head space. Here are some pictures. Oh yes, she got me several thousand rounds of surplus 8mm ammo still in the unopened cases too.
What a gal, huh?!
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/GEW1.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/GEW3.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c72/Whitedog333/GEW2.jpg

[AZ ED]

it has a 1944 year????? marked.

[Fred]

it has a 1944 year????? marked.

No. That's a 1914, there is just some slight corrosion that fuddles the picture.

[fjruple]

Does the metal disk in the stock have any markings on it? It could possibly identify the unit the rifle was assigned to. I have also seen the disk reused with markings on the underside from possibly from the previous unit. I understand that the unit markings on the disk was discontinued sometime during the later part of the war.

--fjruple

[madsenshooter]

Ha, I almost jumped on the 1914 as 1944 too, but I looked a bit closer!

[Fred]

Yea, with the corrosion on there, if you look really hard you could probably see the face of Elvis. Actually, the receiver isn't pitted, it just has discoloration on it. The rifle is in remarkable condition. I'm going to take the stock disk off after this post to see if there's any marking on the back. I don't think it's ever been off of the rifle since it was picked up from the trench. I'll let you know what I find.

[Fred]

Wow, the disk sure was thick. I thought it would've been thinner, but it must've been 3/16" thick. Nothing was on the back side. It was clean and without corrosion. The front side only has an inspectors stamp. A very tiny crown with something underneath. The back side had a beveled hole just like the front to accept a screw head.

[thommygun]

Hi Fred !

It is very likely that the 'something underneath' is the letter 'I' for 'Imperial' (= Kaiser) in old German script.

[RogerFoxDog]

Wow Fred! You married well! :icon_salut:

[Fred]

Thanks! On top of that she's the best cook I've ever known.

[jon_norstog]

Fred,

There's an old Rosemary Clooney song, Lucky in Love It goes, "nothin else matters if you're lucky in love"

You done good. The gun is nice too.


jn

[Fred]

Thanks Jon, I think I did too! I hear of a lot of guys who's wives don't like them having or enjoying their firearms. Sad. The Memsaab encouraged me the other day to go look at the collection of a local fellow who collects Enfields. Looking at the two Long Lee's that he was culling from his collection, I was trying to decide which to buy. When the collector asked me which one I'd be getting, my wife asked him how much he'd take for both of them. Following a suggestion made by Enfield ca, she agreed that the two I allready had of that type needed a third to be able to stack together while I fired the fourth. She didn't have to twist my arm to agree. She's allways been into shooting and such. She used to go hunting from horseback with a shotgun. Said it was much more exciting than just Fox Hunting. Now I didn't know anything about horses, tractors or ranching until I married her, but now I'm operating a tractor on her horse ranch. Horses are still unpredictable as far as I'm concerned, but the Memsaab handles them just fine. She makes her own bread, jams, ice cream etc. on top of being proficient with a pistol and a whip (for the horses). Yea, I gotta say it's fun being her man. OK, no more bragging!