Fun times with the Gew 1871/84!

[El Gato]

Hello Everyone!

I finally got to shoot my 1871/84 Spandau which served Bavaria. It was my Christmas Present to myself. My wife bought me dies from E-Bay and a Lyman mold from Midsouth.

Here are a couple of shots. I had given up shooting for Lent so this was a real treat!

Anyone else shoot anything cool lately?

[uscra112]

Smokeless or Black?

[El Gato]

70 grains of Goex FFg powder. I used vegetable fiber wads to make up the space.

[uscra112]

Back when I lived in Michigan, the club banned the 71 and 71/84 from blackpowder matches because they were too accurate. Very good rifles, they are. Designed for a dead soft swaged bullet, paper-patched.

[Texas by God]

I’ve never had the chance to shoot one of those and always wanted to. I do have 1 CIL .43 Mauser cartridge in case....
Beautifully made guns.

[El Gato]

How strange that they would ban a rifle for accuracy... I think with a little more load development I will have an extremely accurate Mauser.

[smithnframe]

I had my Webley-Fosbury automatic revolver out last weekend, always a hoot to shoot!

[El Gato]

Nice! I have examined one once...a finely made revolver.

[jaguarxk120]

There was a card wad then beeswax wad and lastly another card wad under the
paper patched swaged bullet.
The standard charge was 77 grains Fg powder.

[El Gato]

Cool! Thanks for the info.

[uscra112]

How strange that they would ban a rifle for accuracy... I think with a little more load development I will have an extremely accurate Mauser.

Not that unusual. 115 years ago the Krag rifle was banned from military matches because the newfangled 1903 Springfield couldn't outshoot it. Today the ASSRA bans bolt actions from their modern-day Schuetzen matches, even though Dr. Hudson did once use one just before WW1. If they allowed bolters on the slim basis that somebody used one once, all the fine Ballard/Stevens/Winchester falling-blocks we prize so much would never come out to play, having no chance to win or even place.

Get yourself into paper-patching. That's what these rifles were designed for. Many of them have throats that are a little too small for a naked, greased bullet,, unless it's cast dead soft, equivalent to the original swaged ammunition. That's how some of the big American single-shots were chambered during the paper-patch era, too.

[namsag]

That is a very interesting rifle and it looks like a fine example you have. I don't think I have ever seen one "in person." Did fouling affect the operation of the bolt mechanism during a combat situation where there wasn't time to be cleaning after each shot?

That appears to be a very advanced arm for the period, at a time when US troops were shooting the Trapdoor Springfield, if I am correct? It would have been quite a difference in fire laid down from similar sized units of riflemen it would seem.

I would love to have the opportunity to shoot one. Looks like a ton of fun.

[uscra112]

As it happened, these Mausers fell between the Franco-Prussian War and WW1, so none were ever used in combat, at least in Europe. It seems that many were never even issued, because after WW2 somebody found a considerable stash still in original grease, and exported them to Canada. Canadians usually cut them down for hunting, and there were enough of them that CIL actually produced a smokeless load for them. How some of those pristine examples made it to the USA I do not know, but mine is one. Somebody sanded the wood down and refinished it, and "jewelled" the receiver, but the bore is immaculate, and there is no sign of wear in the action at all. I would believe that it has never been fired after proofing at the factory. It's on my bucket list to fire it, but so far I haven't. I gave $175 for it. They 'e bringing three times that today.

Yes, they were considerably advanced over anything we had here in the '70s and '80s, no doubt about it.

The chambering with its' tight neck was a way of coping with a fouled barrel. The bullet was small enough to enter the rifling, however much fouled, and would "slug-up" on firing to fill the grooves.

[JoeJames]

A very good short story “The day of the Mauser” by Jeff Cooper in his book: To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth, concerns some German troops, and a couple of German farmers at a small outpost in Africa armed with 71 and 88 Mausers.

[El Gato]

Mine seems to have been carried a great deal and shot very little. If I remember correctly, a lot of Gew 71/84s wound up with the Landwehr Reserves in WW1. In terms of fouling, after 20 shots there was very little on the bolt head.

There is a local black powder rifle shoot that I will try it out in.

Thanks for all the great info!