Among Us Gaming's Special Guide to Sussy Companies and Guns
No. 2: The Gewehr 88 Commision Rifle
The Gewehr 88 Commision Rifle is a german bolt action full length service rifle with a mannlicher style magazine developed in 1888 in response to the french Lebel 1887 and its associated smokeless powder. Germany was France's primary rival at the time, mostly due to upsets from teh Franco Prussian war. As such, an immediate response to smokeless powder was neccesary. An important aspect to understand of this rifle's history is in it's name "The Commission rifle". Instead of traditional rifle development, where the government will create a list of features and specs, and let companies produce something to meet that, the commision rifle was developed by a german commision, hence the name, picking parts, pieces, and deseigns to create the rifle we know today. Of note, though not pertinent to this post, a large part of the inital controversey around the rifle was patent violations, especially that of the mannlicher magazine, a patent owned by OEWG Steyr of Austria. From that issue, a deal was struck that OEWG would manufacture a certain number of Gew 88s for Germany, and get exclusive export rights for the rifle. This is why many Steyr rifles that are not straight pulls or mausers have a bolt that is nearly identical to the Gew 88.
Variants
There are not too many variants, so in chronoligcal order
Gewehr 88: The standard rifle. Mannlicher magazine, mannlicher clip feeding.
Gewehr 88/05: A 1905 update by the Germans, with several notable changes. The sights were updated to reflect the ballistics of the new S Patrone. The receiver had a notch cut in the front, and ears rivited onto the back, so that it could feed from standard mauser stripper clips. the magazine had the open hole for the mannlicher covered up with some sheet metal. A notch was cut into the receiver for a cartridge interruppeter for magazine feeding of loose ammo. The idea was to convert the Gew 88 to the same manual of arms as the Gew 98 mauser
Gewehr 88/16. A very rare conversion, also done by the Germans. My understanding is that it is identical to the 88/05, but with a slightly different sight, and less markings applied.
Gewehr 88/05/35: A Turkish conversion. A great many Gew 88s were given to the turks (then ottomans) as wartime aid, and after the war when Germany was required to shrink their military arms. Skip forward to 1935, and the Turks have Gew 88s, mauser 1890s, mauser 1893s, and mauser 1903s. As these are all fairly different rifles, the Turks begin a conversion program to convert all their arms to 1 universal pattern. The Gew 88/05/35 saw such changes, primarily a brand new barrelt that did away with the barrel shroud entirely, and added a handguard over top of it.
The Barrel Debacle
The issue surrounding the modern Gew 88 barrel concerns is poorly understood by 90% of the firearms community, and this post seeks to resolve that. Upon development in 1888, the Patrone (cartidge) 88 was also developed. This is of course, 8x57J mauser aka 8mm mauser J. Importantly, there is one distinct difference here: The bottlenose bullet had a diameter of .318". Thus, the grooves in the early barrels, were of a .318 diamater was well. Later on in 1895/96 to imrove accuracy, this was increased to .323, though the effects on accuracy did not seem to be notable. in 1905, the spitzer variant of 8mm mauser we all know and love today was developed. Dubbed the "S Patrone." This new S patrone also had a slightly different case profile than the Patrone 88, so many gew 88s had their chambers reamed so that the new cartidge would fit, so that in an emergency, it could use that new cartidge. It possesed a spitzer bullet with a .323 diameter, hence it being used in Gew 88s in emergencies only. The czechs and south americans had some differing sizes as well, which will be discussed later.
The Barrel Debacle: Markings
So theres all these funny barrels, and the Germans being the autists that they were, well documented and covered it. I will only cover here the ones that are pertinant.
When the rifles had their barrels updated to the new .323 size, a "Z" was stamped into the receiver. Rifles made after that date will not have that stamp, and generally can be assumed to have that groove size (though not in all cases)
When the chambers were reamed to accomodate the new S patrone, a large "S" was stamped on the receiver. NOTE: this DOES NOT mean that the barrel was in any way shape or form changed to the size of the new .323 bullet. This is where all the controversey, "s marked receiver" stuff, and popping of barrels in modern times occurs. Many barrels had that this "S" update, were never changed from their origianl .318 groove size. Shooting a .323 bullet in a .318 barrel is unsafe and can injure the shooter. Again, the "S" mark indicated a change to the chamber and not the barrel itself
Gew 88 Sources, Users, and ID: What You Need to Know
Up front, it is important to know: the vast majority of Gew 88s are posess a barrel unsafe for modern 8mm mauser, commercial and surplus
As far as I know, you essentially have 4 sources/user of Gew 88s that are available now
1. German. German Gew 88s can generally be assumed to have a .318 groove diameter unless marked with a "Z", and even then due to tolerances (some barrels can be as tight as .321), you should always slug the barrel to be sure of its size. These guns are generally in very nice condition, and are also somewhat uncommon, as most Gew 88s were gotten rid of due to the treaty of Versailles.
2. Turkish. These are the most common Gew 88s on the market. You can find regular Gew 88s, Gew 88/05s, and of course Gew 88/05/35s. The 88s and 88/05s should be slugged to confirm groove diameter, though if your barrel is also turkish, there is a good chance that it is a .323. The 88/05/35 is guranteed to be a .323 and is fine with modern spitzer ammo.
3. Ethiopian. Ethiopian Gew 88s are as far as I have seen, all the original Gew 88 pattern. All of them are a .318 groove diameter, though typically this doesn't matter since the rifling is all but gone annyway.
4. South America. South American Gew 88s are prevalent, and in awful condition most of the time. These rifles tend to be vary hard up, often broken and missing parts. Important to note: in the 20s, the south american nation that had these, contracted with the czechs to get new barrels and ammo. What the czechs gave them, was the commercial sporting varitant of 8mm mauser, and barrels to match. This variant is 8mm mauser has a .316 size bullet, and of course cannot be used with modern 8mm mauser, or the patrone 88. All Gew 88 rifles in poor condition, should be assumed to be south american, and posses a .316 groove diamater, regardless of markings.
Conclusion
Hopefully this is helpful in understanding how and what you can shoot in a Gew 88, as well as which Gew 88 you have. I may have forgotten a few things but this should be the essentials. There is a lot of fuddlore surrounding these rifles, but rest assured this should be definitive and factual. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try my best to help out.
