German Geco Model 33 Nazi Era .22 Training Rifle

[1srelluc]

I picked this trainer up yesterday, more as a project than anything else, and upon researching it I found that it was a fairly rare single shot training rifle as far as the trainers go.

It was made for just one year (1933) before being discontinued for the much more common Model 34 trainer the following year.

The German trainers mimicked GEW and K98 rifles and were used in training-up boys and young men for future service not only by developing shooting skills but by route marching with a near full-sized rifle of about the same weight. The trainer is the same length as a K98 and only weighs a pound less.

Sadly it's not without it's "warts" as there is a chunk of wood missing behind the bolt and a crack forward of it but I found a french walnut cut-down Mauser stock in my "box-o-wayward stocks" that I can get the replacement wood from. Not a easy fix but a doable one. It's got a great bore and works fine as far as primer strike/ejection/extraction.....Nice crisp two-stage trigger too.

Here's a ad from the era for the Model 33.

 

[odanny]

I wonder if it had any original markings on it that were removed by someone post war, I heard a lot of K98's ended up in service in other countries post war with markings removed.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I picked this trainer up yesterday, more as a project than anything else, and upon researching it I found that it was a fairly rare single shot training rifle as far as the trainers go.

View attachment 729820

It was made for just one year (1933) before being discontinued for the much more common Model 34 trainer the following year.

The German trainers mimicked GEW and K98 rifles and were used in training-up boys and young men for future service not only by developing shooting skills but by route marching with a near full-sized rifle of about the same weight. The trainer is the same length as a K98 and only weighs a pound less.

Sadly it's not without it's "warts" as there is a chunk of wood missing behind the bolt and a crack forward of it but I found a french walnut cut-down Mauser stock in my "box-o-wayward stocks" that I can get the replacement wood from. Not a easy fix but a doable one. It's got a great bore and works fine as far as primer strike/ejection/extraction.....Nice crisp two-stage trigger too.

View attachment 729823

Here's a ad from the era for the Model 33.

Looks like a Mosin Nagant

 

[Canon Shooter]

You certainly do find some deals!

 

[1srelluc]

You certainly do find some deals!

Well I've always said that the fun is in the hunt.

 

[1srelluc]

I wonder if it had any original markings on it that were removed by someone post war, I heard a lot of K98's ended up in service in other countries post war with markings removed.

Nah, most of the trainers found their way home by GI's post-war.

Now it is true that many K98s were used post-war.....Israel used a shit-ton of them in the defense of their "new" homeland.

 

[Canon Shooter]

Well I've always said that the fun is in the hunt.

I used to be like that with guitars and amplifiers.

Back in the 1990's my wife went to a yard sale and found a Klemt Echolette M100 valve amplifier for $5:

She said if it had been $10 she wouldn't have bought it. I had my local amp guy put a power cord on it and just go through it and bring it up to snuff. He charged me $55 for the work. So, we had $60 into it. I played it for about two years and then sold it to Billy Gibbons for $700...

 

[1srelluc]

I used to be like that with guitars and amplifiers.

Back in the 1990's my wife went to a yard sale and found a Klemt Echolette M100 valve amplifier for $5:

She said if it had been $10 she wouldn't have bought it. I had my local amp guy put a power cord on it and just go through it and bring it up to snuff. He charged me $55 for the work. So, we had $60 into it. I played it for about two years and then sold it to Billy Gibbons for $700...

It's amazing sometimes.....Years ago I bought a fixed-blade knife at a yard sale in the DC burbs for $45.00....it looked of excellent quality but the shipping box it was in is what sold me on it....It was addressed to a .gov agency which will go nameless. Come to find out it was a limited run made for the cloak and dagger guys operating in Columbia.

I kept it for around 10 years and sold it for enough to pay for half a new roofing job for my house a few years back.