Some Guns From My Collection (bandwidth warning)

[Nyles]

Couple of new ones I picked up at a gunshow in Brandon.

Bottom is a Japanese Arisaka T-38, made by Kokura. Has all the early features, but is missing the dust cover on the bolt and has a ground mum - judging from that and the lack of series markings, it was made in the early 30s at the latest.

Top is a German Gewehr 88/05, made in 1890 by Amberg. This was one of the ones supplied to the Turks in 1914 when they entered World War One - has the Turkish crescent on several small parts and the rear sight is marked in arabic. Before it left German service, it was converted to load with Mauser-style stripper clips instead of the original Mannlicher enbloc clips.

Not pictured is a WW2 British Webley .38 Mk.IV, used as a substitute standard for the Enfield No.2 Mk.I - which was actually a knock-off of the Webley (the British War Department was successfully sued for copyright infringement over it). When the war broke out the Brits needed all the revolvers they could get and bought the Webley in large numbers. Webley, understandably upset, nevertheless agreed to sell it - marking the military contract ones "War Finish" so it wouldn't be thought their "rough" (still better than the Enfields) finish was typical of Webley's product. I bought this at the same time as the others, but I'm still waiting for the paperwork to go through on it.