Gew 88 Stock Question

[Viper_486]

I just picked up a Gew 88 from my local mom & pop gunshop.
It was made by Ludwig Loewe in 1890.
It was apparently in storage for a *long* time, and while the wood is sound, with no rot, the smell of mildew *reeks* so bad that its stinking up my gun room.
You guys know me, I don't want to do *anything* that could harm an intact 110 year old gunstock, but are there any suggestions for what I can do to remove the 'stank'???

[Junk Yard Dog]

strong sunlight kills mildue, remove the metal and set the stock on the dash of you car for a few days or as long as it takes. Put some paper down first as it will leech out oil as it heats up, turn it once a day to get all sides. Once you kill the mildue wrap the stock in newspaper tightly bound with string and let it set there some more to leech out the rest of the cosmoline from the wood. Do not put lyesol on the wood, it might harm the finish, Kotton Klenser will also help ( google it just as I spelled it)

[Viper_486]

Thanks, JYD!
I have been giving it a sun bath for the last couple of days, but the 'stank' stil permeates every nook and cranny of the wood.
The mildew actually came to the surface the same afternoon you posted, as a white fuzzy film.
Stock is clear of mildew, but still at a loss for smell.

Am going to hand wash the cotton sling to see if I can clear that out as well.

I don't want my gun room smelling like the inside of an old sticky gym sock.

Took her all apart, and is mechanically in great shape.

Barrel is a Turk, tho it has the original issued shroud. (matching #s)

Was updated in 1914 to accept chargers instead of the Mannlicher style feed system, and the receiver is stamped with the 'S' stamp
Still have to get the barrel diameter measured, so I make sure I put the right diameter boolits thru her.

She has a complete Czech bolt that matches all to itself, but I have found that I am missing the ejector.
No biggie, but I am still having problems tracking one down.

Anyone have any ideas where I can pick one of these up relatively inexpensively?

Also, what is the correct ammo to run thru the old girl?
Last thing I want to do is blow the old girl up, and send myself to Fiddler's Green any earlier than I am scheduled...

[Junk Yard Dog]

I would select a nice mild 8mm loading and reload for it with cast bullets. If Numrich doesn't have it I don't know who would. It can take weeks to bake away the mildew in a bad case, the stink will go away as the wood's pores open up to let it go. Wood can hold smells for century's, wood paneled "smoking rooms" in old clubs and such can let go of smoke smell fifty years after the last smoker died when the humidity levels rise prompting people to think the room is haunted by a phantom smoker
The S indicates that the rifle was adapted to use the 1897 cartridge, it has a nominal bore diameter of .323, and a wider chamber throat. You can't be 100% sure of that bore diameter without slugging the bore as you have a 1890 dated rifle, it could be .318-.325. I would not shoot modern 7.92mm cartridges in this rifle, the mild loads I use in my Lebel should work well for it, the design of the rifling was ripped off from the French along with the smokeless powder and bullet design. At the moment I am using a .323 170 grain jacketed soft point with 28 grains of IMR 3031, this exact load will also work in a 7.92mm case. I have found it to be mild, low recoil, and reasonably accurate in Lebel, and Berthier rifles as old as 1887. The GEW 88 was built to take advantage of what the Germans had stolen from the French who invented smokeless powder a short while earlier in 1886, they later "borrowed" the spitzer bullet as well. At the time German firearms designers didn't fully understand the power of the smokeless powder they were working with, the later GEW98 Mauser was built much stronger and the cartridge got hotter, the GEW88 has done what it was needed to do and that was give the German army something of equal power to the French Lebel. The French and German states had a real hate-hate thing going on for a couple of hundred years or more, and what one invented the other would rip off sooner or later.

[bunkysdad]

My brother picked up one of these Gew 88's that came through the shop. I have admired it several times, but not knowing anything about the early rifle have not yet pursued it. It seems I remember that fact that people often mistakenly call these a Mauser, although not really a Mauser? The example he has is quite nice, and all original from what I can tell. I hate to promise pictures that I don't yet have, but maybe I can take some soon and see what we can find out about it. They are very long rifles aren't they?

[Burrhead51]

Most of the original smokeless powder rifles were as the powder was still a bit on the slow burning side. From what I have read about the origin powder used by the British in the Enfield SMLe it was extruded in a case length strand. How they loaded this stuff it beats me. I would assume that the Germanys had something similar thou they stole the technology from France as I have heard the story anyway. I have an 1891 Argentine and she is as long as my 1889 Schmidt Rubin. I'd love an original Mosin Nagant 1891 in shooting condition but would wonder about the cost.

[Junk Yard Dog]

That is Cord powder, or cordite as it was called, it's not gunpowder but a replacement for it that the British used for almost all of the 20th century in everything from rifle rounds to artilery shells. It looks like spaghetti strands in the case.
58% nitroglycerine, by weight, 37% guncotton and 5% vaseline.

[bunkysdad]

Hey guys, thanks for that info. Jim, I looked up cordite and all I can say is I never knew that before, and when I have heard the word cordite it went right over my head.
Here is the info, and especially some interesting pictures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordite

[Junk Yard Dog]

The British didn't like to copy others so they came up with their own ideas, the SMLE, cordite, that nasty shite they put on toast made from yeast.

[millman]

The British didn't like to copy others so they came up with their own ideas, the SMLE, cordite, that nasty shite they put on toast made from yeast.

Marmite. The Aussies eat vegemite. Same shite different name. Thank god we don't have to worry about it here. http://blog.theavclub.tv/post/vegimite

[Junk Yard Dog]

I can only assume that this stuff as well as the disgusting fish pastes and such they eat over there resulted from the wartime shortages of food forcing people to eat whatever could be had. I caught a sniff of the stuff just once, and my stomach did a little flip in warning, you feed me that and you will wear it sort of warning.

I knew a Vietmanese kid who used to smother his food with a sauce made from cabbage and fish heads fermented in the ground, I forget what he called it, found it-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_sauce

If I had a vomiting smiley it would be here.

[Longcolt44]

The company I worked for had a Korean bookkeeper and she introduced me to kimchee. It's a fermented cabbage she made at home. It is very spicy and you better have a dog around to blame for the aroma that your body will omit. I loved to put it on hot dogs.
LC44