Bought some new guns

[Nyles]

I just picked up this Chinese Type Zhongzheng Mauser in 8mm Mauser, more commonly known as a Chiang Kai Shek rifle. Chiang Kai Shek changed his name to Zhongzheng around 1920 but it's not widely used in the West or Communist China. The Chiang Kai Shek is essentially a Chinese made copy of the German Standard Modell, which had been supplied to some divisions of the Kuomintang army, and was the predecessor of the 98K. This one was made at the Hanyang arsenal in June 1944 at the tail end of WW2 and would have seen use in the Chinese civil war afterwards. The characters on the butt indicate it was issued to local village militias after the Communist takeover, which partially accounts for it's rough condition. It's generally pretty beat up, and poorly made to the point that I wouldn't shoot it, but it gives me a new respect for the Chinese soldiers that carried weapons like this into battle.



I also picked up a 1943 Ishevsk Mosin-Nagant M38 carbine. The M38 was the first widely produced Mosin carbine, intended mainly to arm the crews of heavy weapons like mortars and machine guns. Unlike alot of refurb M38s, which were put it into M44 stocks with a cutout to accomodate the bayonet, this is in a proper wartime M38 stock, and as a bonus it's the rarer laminated wood stock. It's in pretty typical refurbished Mosin condition, but I was pretty happy to track it down as M38s have become pretty tough to come by in Canada.



Also got a Dutch M1895 Karabijn Marin carbine in 6.5 x 53mm Mannlicher, made at Hembrug in 1940 on a 1917 dated WW1-surplus receiver. The Dutch came out with a bewildering variety of carbines, and I originally purchased it thinking it was a No.5 Anti-Aircraft Troops carbine. A little research turned up that it's actually one of about 2500 carbines made for the Dutch Marines in the East Indies shortly before the German conquest of the Netherlands. Based on the condition, I think it's likely one of the ones which were diverted for the defense of the Netherlands before making it there.



Finally, I also picked up a bayonet for my French Berthier M1892 Artillery Carbine, an early model with the hooked quillon (blade breaker), but with WW1-era replacement wood grips instead of the original black rubber ones.

[Nyles]

Picked up a few interesting additions to the collection in January:

First was a rifle I've been looking for for years, I finally gave up on finding one in Canada and imported it from the US. It's a Mauser Infanterie-Gewehr 1871, the original single shot Mauser in an 11mm blackpowder cartridge that replaced the Prussian Dreyse need rifle after German unification. Call it the German equivlent to the Trapdoor Springfield or Martini-Henry. Interesting rifle, it has an extractor but no ejector, so you have to manually remove the empty from the action. Otherwise it's a thoroughly modern weapon for the era, though it doesn't have much in common with the familiar smokeless powder Mausers of the 20th century.

These were never really used in combat by the German army, but were the most common rifle used by the Chinese in the Boxer rebellion, and about 1200 were smuggled into Ireland for use by the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army in 1913. They're known there as Howth Mausers after the site of the initial landing. They were used in the failed Easter Rising of 1916, which can be looked at as the Irish equivalent of Lexington & Concord. That's really why I'm so interested in this model, I've always has a passion for the history of the Irish struggle for independence.



My other purchase was a Canadian-marked Pattern 1908 Cavalry Sabre, made in February 1918 and issued to the Fort Garry Horse, a cavalry regiment (now "armored" reconnaisance) from my home town of Winnipeg that I've actually done alot of exercises with over the years. In 1918 the Garrys were serving in France as part of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade, and actually made mounted charges during the 100 Days Offensive that ended the war. Although it's well known that most British & empire cavalry units were dismounted and used as infantry in 1916, they were remounted in 1917 and saw alot of action after the breakout from the trenches in 1918.

The Pattern 1908 sabre is actually a very interesting design, much along the same lines as the American M1913 Patton sabre. Rather than being designed for cutting attacks, it's meant entirely to be used as a thrusting weapon from horseback, with a long, straight, narrow blade that was often not even sharpened before battle and a large guard intended to protect the hand during the charge. The whole idea was that the power of a cavalry charge came from the weight and momentum of the animal, and that stabbing attacks were more often fatal than cutting. Interestingly this sword was designed to be carried on the horse, not the man, reflecting it's intended role.

[funkychinaman]

What's the grip of the sabre made of? That's not plastic, is it?

I did a page for Ryan's Daughter and it had the Germans supplying Irish rebels with Mauser 1871s. It looks like David Lean's reputation for being a stickler for details was true.

[commando552]

Originally Posted by funkychinaman

What's the grip of the sabre made of? That's not plastic, is it?

Yes, it is bakelite. I believe the earlier ones used a hard black rubber, but they switched to bakelite for some reason (my guess is that it wears less).

[funkychinaman]

Originally Posted by commando552

Yes, it is bakelite. I believe the earlier ones used a hard black rubber, but they switched to bakelite for some reason (my guess is that it wears less).

I didn't think they used plastic back in 1908.

[Nyles]

Well, bakelite isn't quite the same as modern plastics - it's got more of a glassy texture, and tends to break more easily than modern plastic. Oddly this doesn't have the same texture as other bakelite items I've handled, it's much closer to modern plastic.

I looked at the page for Ryan's Daughter and you're right, those are actual IG71s, not even 71/84s. Nice touch! Michael Collins and Rebel Heart, the only two onscreen depictions of the Rising that I've seen, just went with a mix of short and long Lee-Enfields and Gewehr 98s. They could have gone with relatively common 71/84s, although I suspect there's not alot of 11mm Mauser blanks out there.

Interesting bit of historial trivia, the Howth Mausers were smuggled in by Boer War veteran and novelist Erksine Childers, who wrote a very popular thriller novel called The Riddle Of The Sands (voted one of the best 100 novels of all time), who at the time of the Rising had actually returned to the British military and was serving in London. He later rejoined the Irish nationalist movement and was executed by the Irish Free State government during the Civil War in 1922.

[funkychinaman]

Originally Posted by Nyles

Well, bakelite isn't quite the same as modern plastics - it's got more of a glassy texture, and tends to break more easily than modern plastic. Oddly this doesn't have the same texture as other bakelite items I've handled, it's much closer to modern plastic.

That's why I was surprised they'd use it in something like a sword, especially the grip.

[Nyles]

Well, haven't posted too much here lately, but got some new stuff that may be of interest.



First was a WW1 Ottoman Military Police contract FN Browning 1903 pistol in 9mm Browning Long, with all the original Ottoman markings. The Ottoman Empire never went for handguns in a big way, their only purchases in the era were 1000 Mauser C/96s for the Navy, and 1000 of these Brownings for the Military Police. This one isn't in awesome shape, but few of these are - they were used hard and didn't get a ton of attention from armorers after WW1 when they became obsolete.



Then I got a French issued, Spanish made Cordero revolver. The French purchases of Ruby pistols during WW1 in well known, what's less known is that they were also buying anything the Spanish arms making industry could turn out in their standard 8mm revolver cartridge. There are dozens of different makers, primarily copies of S&W and Colt designs, and quality tends to vary between "I can't believe it's not a real S&W" to "I can't believe it's not a cap gun". This one is a pretty much straight copy of a Colt Police Positive Special, and is definitely one of the best quality examples.



Most recently I won at auction a Savage 1907 in .380, made around late 1914 / early 1915. Very cool gun, very unique design - a double stack striker fired pocket auto with a loaded chamber indicator in 1907! Although the French and Portuguese used these in WW1 they were all in .32 ACP, this one being clearly a commercial example (although it has British import proofs so it could conceivably have been carried as a backup by a British officer during the war), but it definitely fits into my gangster era collection.



In terms of long guns, I picked up a French Tabatiere Mle 1867 rifle, a Mle 1842 musket or Mle 1853 rifle converted to breech loading using the Snider breech system. Basically the French equivalent to a Snider-Enfield or early Springfield-Allin conversion. It fires a huge 17 x 32mm round (basically a short shotgun slug), and was used to arm second line troops during the Franco-Prussian War due to the shortages of Chassepot needle rifles.

[Nyles]

Finally, and least exotic, I picked up a 1945 Ishevsk Mosin-Nagant M44 carbine, to replace the 1953 Polish production one I sold a few years ago. I wanted a wartime example as used during the advance into Germany, and this one fit the bill nicely! The nice thing about this one is unlike most of the WW2 Mosins out there it's not a refurb, and has the original unshellaced stock.

[funkychinaman]

I can't believe the logo for the Savage is an Indian head. Reminds me of the time I saw the emblem for the USS Savage. File it under "Stuff you can't get away with today" I guess.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/386.htm