GEW 88 AUXILIARY REAR SIGHT LEAF

The early GEW 88s, including the "S" modified rifles, normally had a small, auxiliary rear sight leaf that could be folded up to give a range of 350 meters. Later modifications, including the 88/05 and 88/14, eliminated this feature.

GEW 88 BOLTHEADS

There are two distinct types of boltheads used on the GEW 88 series of longarms. The first, or early type, is shown on the left. Unfortunately, there was a problem with this design: when this type of bolthead is closed over the magazine, it strips the top cartridge out of the clip, but does not allow the extractor to slip into the cartridge's extractor groove until the bolt is closed. As a result, a person could push a loaded cartridge forward into the chamber, and then withdraw the bolt without having first closed it by turning the bolt handle down. At this point, there would be a cartridge in the chamber. If the bolt were then again pushed forward again over a loaded magazine, a second loaded cartidge would be stripped out of the clip and pushed forward into the first loaded cartridge in the magazine. If this were done with enough force, the primer of the first cartridge could be detonated by the bullet of the cartridge behind it -- with disastrous results to the shooter.

To remedy this "double loading" problem, the bolthead was redesigned (shown on the right above) so that the extractor slips into the cartridge's extractor groove as the loaded cartridge is stripped from the clip. This way, if the bolt is withdrawn without having first been closed, the loaded cartridge will be withdrawn along with the bolt -- obviously a much safer arrangement than the first.

For us modern-day targetshooters, however, the earlier (and much more common) style bolthead is more convenient. With the old-style bolthead, it is possible to single-load cartridges while shooting off the bench -- without first having to put the cartridge into a clip, and then inserting he clip into the magazine. If you are using the new-style bolthead, you have to go the full cartridge-clip-magazine route in order to fire the rifle.

One caution, however: the cartridge headspace on these longarms is affected by the bolthead. When you change boltheads, your headspace will change, too. If you are going to shoot your German Commission rifle/carbine, you will need a set of Forster "GO/NO GO" gauges in 8MM Mauser -- available from Midway and others (not a big investment) -- in order to pick the right bolthead for your weapon.