Gebert Custom Mauser 71 with all the Bells and Whistles!

Made by Carl Gebert, a master gunsmith in Munich, this custom sporting rifle exhibits all the fancy options available in the 1870s or 1880s! The base action is an 1871 Mauser, which was a single shot rifle. However, this specially made one had been modified to us a fixed box magazine holding 3 or 4 cartridges – and also have a magazine cutoff to allow easy single loading while retaining the loaded magazine. It is chambered for a .50 caliber round (although I’m not sure which one exactly), and also has a pair of double set triggers and a receiver tang sight in addition to barrel-mounted express sights. Clearly a rifle for someone who wanted the best that could be had!

 

47 Comments

  1. Why does it appear to have a ramrod? Is it a cleaning tool, or some sort of inline muzzle loader variation: Cartridge= Charge of an unrelated caliber, bullet much larger.

    Swivel action percussion/flintlocks might make good inline designs, on a separate note.

          • Hippopotamus, GROWL, then proceeds to beat you tartare with feet.

            Historically, hippos killed more people than lions did. Jeff Cooper once observed;

            “I believe the hippopotamus should replace the leopard as part of the African Big Five. For although the spotted cat is undeniably fast and scratchy, the water horse is an ill-tempered brute with muscle to match. If you ever find yourself becoming a bit jaded with life, contrive to position yourself between a hippo and the water along about sunrise. You’ll soon have all the excitement you can handle, and then some.”

            One of my uncles who went on safari and helped bring down a hippo that wandered into their camp one night agreed with Col. Cooper wholeheartedly. Considering it took two rounds from his .375, one from another hunter’s .416, and finally a round from the guide’s .425 to finally convince the bugger to lie down and stop trying to tap-dance on everybody. All in the boiler room, BTW.

            cheers

            eon

          • Ak47 poachers, B’BBBBBBBBBB,ANG!!! But I agree, generally.

            Not surviving though is it, even with a rickety rusty Romanian Akm. It’s proper dead, totally had it.

          • Nothing could take that, it’s just with people they tend to miss. Elephants, Hippos, etc, get the lot.

            Unsustainable they just cut out.

          • Hippos still kill more people in Africa than any other large animal. They are very angry if they feel in any way threatened or think that their young are in danger. The second biggest killer is these days is, I believe, the Nile crocodile. Lions have dropped from the charts completely due to declined population.

    • Express ammunition was all the rage even before smokeless powder. How many rounds did one need to expend on a rabid lion? Hopefully just one.

      • “before smokeless powder”
        According to http://www.shakariconnection.com/giant-bores.html [in Africa for hunting usage]
        four bore was standardised as suitable for elephant, while 8 bore was suitable for all the other big game.
        It terms of bullet diameter 8 bore man .835″, due to limitations of black powder bigger calibers were required for same effect than in case of nitro powder.

        • In “hot and high” conditions, the burning characteristics of both black powder and smokelees powders (especially early types of the latter) can change dramatically, often resulting in higher pressures at firing. When that happened, the ramrod was needed to persuade the resulting stuck case to vacate the chamber.

          Of course, too much verve in using it could cause a case-head separation, deadlining the rifle unless you had a case extractor handy. And yes, most sensible African hunters had one to fit their rifle in their pocket, right next to the little brass oil bottle.

          cheers

          eon

  2. The upper flat of the barrel, that has the makers name on it, appears to be widened, almost like the dovetail for a scope on a .22. Does anyone know why this is?

    • Probably for mounting an express sight setup;

      http://www.jeffsoutfitters.com/Images/Photos//SIT001.jpg

      Each folding V-notch is for a different range, usually 50, 100, 150, and 200 (yards on British rifles, meters on Continental examples).

      While normally mounted on a transverse dovetail like a single v-notch, sometimes they were made to mount on a longer, linear dovetail, ax with this example;

      http://www.e-sarcoinc.com/images/products/detail/msr221b.jpg

      In either case, they were generally sweated or silver-soldered in place after adjustment for windage, to make sure they stayed put even under recoil.

      At least some African type rifles solved the windage adjustment problem by putting that adjustment on the front sight, as with LMGs from WW2 on.

      cheers

      eon

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