Geha build

[Horsefly]

I have 3 junk Geha’s I’m making into one shootable gun. The stock is a 98 rifle stock that’s horrible white and soft but will be ok for a shooter. As you can see in pic I had to destroy the original stock to save the medallions. The cleaning rod hole is going to be a challenge. 

[Dr.Hess]

That's like a M98 shotgun?

[Horsefly]

Yep. 12ga. Made between WW1 and 2 when Germans weren’t allowed to build military arms. Converted 98’s to shotguns for commercial sales. They were made in 20 & 16 guage too but way rarer. 

[AzRednek]

It is my understanding from what I read on the net years ago. On the net so it has to be true!! I believe I also read about it back in the 70s in a book named Small Arms of the 20th Century. The Germans, Brits, Belgium and likely other pre war Europeans I don’t recall. Armed native sentries in their colonies with shotguns or converted shotguns rather than rifles. The native uneducated population didn’t know the difference and likely feared the guns more than the guards. Guess it might be a tactical advantage to bear shotguns that looked the same as the rifles they were conquered with. I know for certain the Brits converted many Enfields to single shot 410 shotguns. I saw a few years ago at a local gun show. The Brits used them in India and likely other colonies. It was a precautionary measure in case of a revolt or a pissed off lone gunman turned against their conquers. Loaded with birdshot the sentries couldn’t put up a fight from long distances. The theory goes as far back as the Romans. The Romans armed their native sentries with deliberately imbalanced spears that were pretty useless to throw. A bit off subject. The Romans also castrated native babies believing they would grow up to be scary looking large in stature guards. No worse I guess than Catholics doing the same to keep boy choir members their boyish voices. 

[ken98k]

If I remember correctly, Don Markey was making bolt parts for these.

[Dr.Hess]

The British did always have a habit of arming their colonists with at best the previous generation of weapons.  I had read that the Soviets sold what their troops referred to as "monkey models" of their weapon systems to their satellite countries.  Tanks that looked like the current one, but didn't have all the good stuff on them, etc.  I mentioned this to a retired Navy lifer friend and he said that we did the same thing.  An air to air missile that we used had much more advanced features than the same model we sold other countries, for example.

[z1r]

Nice, I rebarrled a 16 ga for a customer who wanted a slug gun.  He supplied a nice heavy 16 ga barrel which I fitted and chambered. We stocked it in a Boyd's Laminate if I recall.