Comments by "Kevin Oliver" (@kevinoliver3083) on "Germany's First Smokeless Carbines: the Kar 88 and Gewehr 91" video.

  1. After WW1 there were literally millions of surplus rifles in Europe. They weren't rare collectibles or historic artifacts, they were implements for sport or pot hunting. So why not modify them to better suit their new role? Also in Weimar Germany there were legal restrictions of civilian ownership of military calibre weapons. So the surplused rifles had to be re-barrelled or re-chambered anyway.
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  2. By 1905 Mauser was already developing a short rifle, the Kar 98AZ, to replace all of the carbines in service (Kar 88, Gew 91, Kar 98, Kar 98A). So it was not worth the cost of converting the Kar 88 and Gew 91 to stripper clips. And in WW1 the carbines were used by second line units, so it was not necessary to standardise their ammunition supply with frontline infantry.
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  3. The kind of idiot who couldn't foresee that in a century's time his obsolete military surplus gun would be worth vastly more than he had paid for it. And an idiot who had have it rechambered or rebored anyway: 7.92x57mm 'S' was forbidden to German civilians by the Versailles Treaty.
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