Bolt Action Rifles. Wayne Zwoll

its stem to place the grasping ball within easy reach. Finally, I’d polish and blue the metal parts, jewel the bolt and checker the grip and forend.

      In my search for information about the MAS M36, I came across an item written by a well-known gun authority stating that Manufacture d’Armes had made a sporting rifle on the M36 action. According to him these were made in 7x57mm, 8x60mm Magnum and 10.75x68mm. The last two cartridges are longer than the magazine opening of the military action, therefore, the sporter action must have had a longer box. A safety was also provided in the trigger guard.

German Model 88 Commission Rifle FdH

      (Pictured above) M88 (KAR.88) German Commission carbine.

      THE GERMAN MODEL 88 rifle, adopted in 1888 and correctly known as the German Commission Model 88, was the official German military rifle until succeeded by the famous Model 98 Mauser in 1898. The M71 Mauser single shot and the M71/84 Mauser repeater, both in 11mm caliber, preceded the M88 as the official German military shoulder arms.

      The 88 rifle was developed by a group of men, headquartering in Spandau, Germany, who formed the German Military Rifle Testing Commission, thus its unusual name. Although it has some features taken from earlier and Mannlicher rifles, it is neither a “Mauser” nor a “Mannlicher.” A well-planned and thought out rifle, the main features of the receiver and bolt were used long afterward on the Mannlicher-Schoenauer sporting rifles.

      Developed with the M88 rifle was Germany’s first small-caliber smokeless military cartridge. It was a bottle-necked, rimless cartridge of 8mm caliber, and the forerunner of the world famous 8x57 Mauser cartridge.

      Vast quantities of M88 Commission rifles and carbines were made in various German government arsenals. These rifles were usually marked “GEW.88” stamped on the left side of the receiver. “GEW” is an abbreviation of the German word Gewehr, meaning rifle. The rifles had a 29.1” barrel, the carbines with a 17.62” barrel; the receivers were usually marked “KAR.88.” “KAR.” is an abbreviation for Karabiner, meaning carbine. Both the rifle and carbine were made with a barrel jacket, a thin-walled steel tube covering the entire length of the barrel. The jacket is large enough to leave an air space between the jacket and barrel. The carbine has a turned-down spoon-shaped bolt handle, while the rifle has a straight bolt handle with a round grasping ball. A great many of these arms were also made in plants in Austria, including the great Steyr works.

      As these rifles became obsolete, many of them turned up in the United States. During the 1920s and ’30s, the M88 Carbine was especially common, many of them used “as issued” for hunting big game.

      Action Construction

      The receiver is milled from a one-piece steel forging. The receiver ring is round except for a very small projection underneath which forms the recoil lug. The small recoil lug required that a square-stemmed cross-bolt be used in the stock—the recoil lug engaging a groove milled into the cross-bolt. A longer projection at the bottom rear of the receiver ring forms the cartridge guide. The front of the receiver is threaded on the outside for the barrel jacket collar and on the inside for the barrel shank. The breech end of the barrel abuts against two semi-circular shoulders milled inside the receiver ring; these shoulders partially ring the bolt head. To the rear of these shoulders, the inside of the receiver is milled out to receive the locking lugs of the bolt.

      The rear part of the receiver, commonly called the bridge, is slotted on top so that the bolt handle can pass through it when opening and closing the action. A simple bolt stop is positioned on the left side of the receiver bridge and hinged there by a pin through a stud on the receiver. Tension is provided to the bolt stop by a small coil spring.

      The bolt assembly is comprised of the bolt body with its integral handle, bolt head assembly and firing mechanism. The bolt body is a cylindrical, hollow tube drilled from front to rear. The opposed dual locking lugs are on the extreme forward end of the bolt body and engage matching recesses in the receiver when the bolt is closed.

      The left (or top) locking lug has a narrow slot cut through it. This allows the bolt to pass over a finger on the end of the bolt stop—this finger activates the ejector when the bolt is opened. The right (or bottom) locking lug is solid with its top front corner beveled to match a similar bevel machined on the top shoulder inside the receiver ring. This provides the initial extraction camming power on opening the bolt.

      The separate bolt head is made to fit closely on and inside the front end of the belt body. A small lug on the stem of the bolt head fits in a matching circular recess cut inside the bolt body to hold the two parts together, except when the bolt head is rotated to a certain position. The small spring extractor is mortised into a groove in the right side of the bolt head. The extractor easily snaps over the cartridge rim when the bolt is closed on a cartridge singly loaded into the chamber, or on a cartridge that is chambered from the magazine ahead of the extractor. A lug on the left of the belt bead matches the left locking lug on the bolt and contains the very small ejector. On some bolt heads, the ejector is held in place by a small screw, while on others friction alone holds it in place when the bolt head is disassembled from the bolt body. The end of the ejector protrudes through a hole in the face of the bolt head recess. The face of the bolt head is recessed for the cartridge head. On some bolt heads, the rim of the recess covers about 75 percent of the circumference of the cartridge head. On others, the rim is not cut away at all— except for the extractor cut. The bolt head does not rotate with the bolt. It is prevented from doing so by the flattened end of the firing pin fitted into its slotted stem.

      The rear end of the bolt has a hole that is smaller than the main hole through the bolt body. The mainspring is compressed between the shoulder formed by the smaller hole and the shoulder on the front of the firing pin.

      German M88 (GEW.88) Commission rifle.

      Close-up of the M88 German Commission carbine action.

      The threaded rear end of the firing pin extends through the center of the cocking piece and is retained there by the firing pin nut. A flat spot on the rear of the unthreaded part of the firing pin matches a flat surface inside the cocking piece and prevents the firing pin from turning. A notch in the front of the firing pin nut engages the rear end of the safety when it is turned tight—to prevent the nut from coming loose. The rear, flared part of the firing pin nut has a narrow flange extending into the cocking cam raceway of the receiver and a wide flange, the size of the locking lug raceway, extending to the left. Their purpose is to deflect powder gases away from the shooter’s face—in the event of a ruptured primer or case head.

      The rear end of the bolt body has a deep cam notch to engage the cam on the front of the cocking piece. When the bolt handle is lifted, the cocking piece is cammed back about .370”.the remaining cocking motion is done on closing the bolt. Essentially, the M88 is a “cock-on-opening” action, since the greatest amount of cocking is done when the bolt is opened. This action can be uncocked without snapping by closing the bolt while holding the trigger back. This should only be done on an empty chamber.

      The wing safety fits into a hole bored longitudinally in the top part of the cocking piece. It is held in place by the firing pin nut. A small coil spring around the safety stems holds the safety back against the firing pin nut to prevent the nut from turning, yet allows the safety to be pushed forward so the nut can be unscrewed. It also provides tension to the safety so it will remain in the position to which it is rotated.

      Rotating the safety to the “up” or “right” position, its forward end engages a notch cut into the rear of the bolt body, camming the cocking piece back slightly so it is free of the main sear and, at the same time, locking the bolt so it cannot be opened. Since the safety, safety spring, cocking piece, firing pin nut and firing