At the local gun show this morning I saw a truly beautiful M1888 Commission rifle in sporterized form. Or maybe it was originally manufactured as a sporter. It had no stampings of any kind on it that I could see. The seller wanted $300 for it and I very nearly bit just due to its excellent workmanship and finish. The only problem was that there was no front sight blade, only a base on the barrel jacket. I asked him if it was chambered for the 8x57 J (.318")or the 8x57 JS (.323"). He had no idea what I was talking about so I explained that many of the earlier military 8x57 J Commission rifles had their chamber throats enlarged by German arsenals to safely fire the 8x57 JS military ammunition used during WWI (and WWII). And that those rifles usually had an "S" stamped on the top of the front receiver ring to indicate the chamber conversion.

Has anyone else seen such a "sporterized?" Commission rifle? If it is a true sporter, and not a former military rifle, I might buy it if it is still there at the next gun show.

BTW, I am a former owner of a fairly high condition WWI-era M1888 military rifle having the aforementioned chamber conversion and an "S"-stamped receiver ring. I had no problems firing several types of full-power WWII 8mm Mauser military ammunition in it despite its slightly smaller bore diameter. The WWI German engineers apparently saw no safety issues about that either.

Are you sure it wasn't a KAR 88. KAR 88 carbine "Commission" Rifle


Never seen one with the "S" mark.

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Release the Kraken

It is in no way a military rifle or carbine.

I wouldn't doubt it was a sporterized Mod 88 Commision rifle.
It's no great trick to scrub markings in the process and if it still retains the sheet metal bbl jacket, that alone would make me think it was an X-Military.

Not that most anything is possible, but the German & Austrian makers were quite proud of their work and you find most of the Sporters marked with either a maker (Haenel made a great number of them) but there are many other shops and makers. Some are only retailer marked.,,and some not at all of course.

Does it have a Sporterized military stock or a full custom new stock.
DSTriggers?,,any engraving (very common on the sporters), checkering?,,

Go over to NitroExpress.com

scroll down to 'Mannlicher Discussion Forum & Archive'
Then about 12 topics from the top is:
'another M 88 sporter for the archive '

There's 6 pages of nothing but Model 88 sporters and variations of them.
Lots of discussion and back and forth.
Might have some answers in there for you. They do have some nice eye candy pics if nothing else!

Sounds like an interesting rifle.

If it was originally made as a sporter, it should have civilian proof marks and the calibre stamped on the gun, as required by German proof laws since May 19, 1891. If there are no stamps, then a conversion was likely made outside of Germany.

+1 this seems like a surefire way to check with the rifle in question. 1888s are neat old rifles, lots of history from Germany to their far-flung colonies.

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Some Might Say.

It had a beautifully finished checkered wooden stock which had a reddish tinge to it, in no way military style. At least on the metal visible above the stock, I could see no stampings anywhere. It is possible there could have been markings in areas covered by the stock. As I said, I nearly bought it just because it was so strikingly good looking.

Do a search for "German 1888 Hunting Rifle" Very nice!!

I had also searched around on the internet and found nothing pictured which was a sporting rifle with a jacketed barrel.

Back when I had my M1888 military rifle, I once removed the outer jacket. I was surprised at how skinny the barrel was, other than at the chamber.