The Commission Rifle Part II — Gewehr 88 WoesIn case you missed Part IThe rushed development o

The Commission Rifle Part II — Gewehr 88 WoesIn case you missed Part IThe rushed development of the German Gewehr 88 Commission rifle meant that when it was adopted it was far from a perfect infantry rifle, and there were many problems that needed to be solved and fixed. Fortunately the German Rifle Testing Commission acted quickly and decisively to fix them. First was the function of the action. Jams, double feeding, and failure to extract were common problems, but were easily solved with some simple modifications to the bolt, magazine, and extractor. Then there was the problem of the magazine, a problem common with every Mannlicher type magazine; the port in the bottom through which the en bloc clip dropped was an excellent opening for dirt, dust, and moisture to enter the action. At first Germany didn’t really do anything about this problem, but later a special stamped metal plate was introduced which went over the port, and with the touch of a button the en bloc clip would be ejected out of the top of the action. While the use of the barrel shroud to create a free floating barrel was an interesting idea, it also served as a space in which rust could accumulate. Regardless the Commission decided that he barrel shroud was such a great idea that it had to be kept. Many other users of the Gewehr 88 such as the Turks and the Chinese would do away with this feature.The second biggest problem with the Gewehr 88 was that the rifling tended to wear out very quickly.  This was due to the switch from black powder to smokeless powder. The designers and manufacturers did not take into account what the greatly increased velocity produced by smokeless powder would do to the rifling. After around 5,000 - 6,000 rounds the Gew 88 could become almost completely shot out. This was a problem common to many other new smokeless designs of the period, most notably with Britain’s Lee Metford rifle.  The solution to this problem was actually very simple, manufacturers found that deepening the rifling by a mere half a milimeter made a huge difference in extending the life of the Gew 88′s rifling. By far the biggest problem with the Gewehr 88 were burst chambers. It wasn’t a common occurrence, but every now and then during training a rifle might just explode. This problem was again caused by the switch from black powder to smokeless powder. The chambers were machined to be too narrow and fragile, a problem which was simply fixed by beefing up the chambers a bit. The primary cause of this problem however, was in production, not design. Production of steel for black powder firearms is relatively easy, however production of steel strong enough to contain the pressure of smokeless powder required extra attention and exact standards.  Such standards included the time and temperatures at which the steel was forged and the carbon content. It was not uncommon fo batches of brittle low carbon low quality steel to be used in the manufacture of Gewehr 88 chambers and receivers. Thus new standards were set in the production of steel, ensuring that strength of the steel produced was standardized and uniform. Later in the early 20th century, the Americans would have similar problems in the early production of Model 1903 Springfields, and would institute similar solutions. Finally there was the issue of proof testing. With blackpowder firearms proof testing involving firing a more powerful charge of gunpowder in order to test the strength of the barrel and ensure it is safe. This proves that the firearms can discharge thousands and thousands of round without the risk of failure. With smokeless powder proof testers were unsure of how to adequately test the new rifles. So they would simply load and fire standard loaded cartridges.  This resulted in bad rifles passing the proof testing phase without notice. To solve this Germany instituted new proofing standards using hotter loaded cartridges, then ordered a Gewehr 88′s produced to be re-proofed.Most of the major problems with the Gewehr 88 would be quickly solved and remedied, however the German Rifle Testing Commission made one huge mistake in how they handled the situation.  For the most part, they tried to cover up the many early problems with the rifle and hide them from the German public.  Despite this stories of the Gewehr 88′s failures quickly spread, resulting in rumor of conspiracy in German manufacturing.  These rumors would greatly damage the reputation of one major German arms manufacturer, and would nearly doom the Gewehr 88.TO BE CONTINUED… -- source link

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