Willkommen zu Vergessenenwaffen, I'm Johan, Ian's Prussian cousin. OK, I'm not,
but who could resist the chance to play with a Pickelhaube like this.
And at the same time we're taking a look at an interesting
German Imperial rifle. I'm Ian, I'm here today at the Rock Island
Auction House, I'm taking a look at some of the guns
that are coming up for sale in their February of 2016
Regional Auction, and one of them is this Gewehr 71.
And I thought this would be a really cool opportunity to take
a look at one of the rifles that was really instrumental
as a developmental base for a whole slew of German rifles,
and worldwide rifles. The entire family of Mauser rifles
began here with this 1871 pattern gun.
So, it's important to remember that in 1870 there was not a nation of Germany.
There were a whole bunch of Germanic states like Prussia and Bavaria and Württemberg and Saxony.
And after they won the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and 1871, they got together and
(they actually chose the French Palace of Versailles as the location, which is kind of a thumb in the eye to the French),
but they got together and they formed the German Empire,
an amalgamation of those four primary states and some other smaller principalities as well.
And turned themselves in one fell swoop into a major European power to be reckoned with.
Now this nation needed a new rifle. They had finished fighting the Franco-Prussian War still armed with Dreyse
needle guns, which dated originally back to the 1840s, and were definitely becoming outmoded.
The centrefire metallic self-contained cartridge had been invented and was in significant use all around the world,
and it was time to upgrade from paper cartridges to the metallic cartridge.
In 1870 and 1871 there were a series of trials held.
The 1869 Werder rifle was one of the other major competitors, but ultimately the winner was this,
the Mauser Model of 1871. This was the first rifle to come from Paul and Wilhelm Mauser.
By the way, two of six brothers in a family well known for being prominent gunsmiths.
They would take this Mauser 71 and it would be the basis for the entire Mauser empire that would form around it.
So technologically, in a practical user sense, this was very similar to a number of the other guns
being used by militaries at the time. Very similar to the American Trapdoor Springfield.
Single-shot, large calibre, black powder projectile. This is an 11mm bore.
It used a 77 grain charge of black powder, the case was ... 11x60mm.
And also very similar to the French Gras which comes out about this same time. That's the French update from the needle rifle.
And many others. There are only a few countries that were actually using repeating rifles at the time.
The most significant example that comes to mind is Switzerland with their bolt action Vetterli.
Why don't I bring the camera back here and let's take a bit of a closer look at the details and the features of the Gewehr 71.
So I mentioned this is of course a single-shot bolt action rifle. And in 1871 there were plenty of repeating rifles out there.
The American designers, for example, had more than a few different lever-action rifles available at this point.
And militaries around the world really ... predominantly stuck with single-shot rifles.
For a couple reasons: they felt that a single-shot bolt action like this was a more durable and soldier-proof rifle.
It would last better out in the field, and there may be some legitimacy to that.
They also felt that these rifles could be reloaded and fired plenty fast enough,
and having a magazine didn't convey a substantial advantage.
Now that is clearly not correct, the Turkish forces kind of demonstrated that fighting against the Russians.
The Turks had lever actions, the Russians had single-shot Krnka and Berdan rifles and got trounced.
But it would take some time before ... major militaries worldwide really came to grips with that fact.
So for a long time single-shots were the predominant military rifle.
In addition to being used by Germany, the Gewehr 71 was also used in reasonably large numbers by Serbia,
they were sold to Japan, Uruguay, ... China and some sold to South Africa as well, so they kind of spread all over the world.
Now one of the important developmental factors that came out of this, beyond just the
Mauser bolt action concept, was this wing safety. Which is a safety that we see used
all the way up through the Mauser 98 without really any substantial change.
It first appeared here on the Gewehr 71.
And this is one of the elements of the Mauser design that is particularly effective and popular.
So on this side it's ready to fire, on this side it ... disengages the trigger and renders the gun completely safe.
There are a ton of markings on these rifles. So we can start with the manufacture date here, 1883.
That would put this just shortly before these were updated to magazine rifles in 1884.
Now if we look around what's called the Nocks Form here, we can see a whole slew of German proof marks here.
At this period ... first of all you would proof the receiver and proof the barrel separately, so you've got repetition there.
... So looking at the top of the receiver, or the top of the barrel Nocks Form here,
we have the arsenal marking. This particular example was made at the Erfurt Arsenal. There were four main
German Imperial arsenals, one in each of the main states, those being Spandau, Erfurt, Danzig and Amberg.
They were also actually manufactured in England, in Birmingham, for contract,
there are actually some German rifles out there manufactured by the
National Arms and Ammunition Company of Birmingham, you'll find that as well.
Then flipping down to the left side here we have a number of additional markings.
This is the serial number, 6596, here.
We have a couple military acceptance marks, the crown over FW, that FW stands for Friedrich Wilhelm.
So this will indicate which state the rifle was sent to, based on who the ruler of that particular state was.
Moving back on the receiver we'll have the serial number again,
and you're going to see this serial number all over the place on these rifles.
Everything down to the screw heads is serialised on these.
And then at the back of the receiver we have the actual model designation, this is a cool Gothic German script,
it is IG Model 71, that stands for Infanteriegewehr, or infantry rifle, Model of 71.
Here's an example: the rear action screw is serialised and proofed. 96, the last two digits of the serial number and a crown proof mark.
Really kind of over the top, but hey, that's Germany for you.
Another cool element you will find on Gewehr 71s and later rifles as well, is this, which is actually a unit marking.
Rifles were often marked by the specific units that they were issued out to.
So you'll find that a little bit of research can dig up exactly what
that marking stands for, and where this rifle actually was initially sent.
When it comes to locking, the Mauser 71 is a single locking lug design,
which really is all that was necessary in the era of single-shot, large bore, black powder cartridges.
The bolt handle itself is the locking lug and it locks up against the receiver right here.
There is a cutout in the front of the receiver. That is to allow for gas venting, so that if
you have a cartridge rupture the gas will vent through this channel and come out here,
rather than go straight back along the bolt and potentially into the eye or face of the shooter.
So that's a nice safety element.
In order to retain the bolt in the action, you've got this big washer here which runs into the receiver bridge.
We can take this screw out,
take off that washer, and then the bolt will come back,
pull the trigger back and pull the bolt out of the action.
This is a very simple bolt and you can clearly see the beginnings of the Mauser system in it.
So when you fire, this drops.
Typically when the bolt is locked back the ... striker is held backwards.
The sear holds on to it right here, when you pull the trigger,
the sear drops, which releases this, and under spring tension it snaps forward and fires.
Here is our ... early version of the extractor. This is something that would be improved substantially on later rifles.
And of course there are no locking lugs up here at the front,
because the only locking lug necessary was the handle itself. So that obviously would change on the 98 Model.
But that's about all there is to it on this one.
Danke, mein herren. Thank you for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video.
I've got to have a little bit of fun with this one, ... the helmet and some moustache wax, I hope you guys enjoyed that.
If you would like to enjoy this rifle yourself, it is of course coming up for sale here at Rock Island.
If you take a look at the description text below you'll find a link to Rock Island's catalogue page on it,
where you can see their high-res pictures. And if it looks good to you,
you can place a bit right there on-line and do your best to make it yours.
Thanks for watching. Auf wiedersehen.