MilsurpDan
Ultimate Member
This was a bit of a holy grail find for me since they are so uncommon. It came from the estate of John Wall, who was a well known gun collector.
This M1888/90 has been through the wringer. Similar to the Italian AOI stuff that is coming in from Royal Tiger Imports, this rifle was either captured by the Italians or given to them as war reparations following World War One. This particular rifle did not come in way of RTI though.
This example was captured by British forces during the invasion of the Italian East Africa Colony in 1940/1941.
The British destroyed a lot of the captured Italian items but also sent a lot of captured weapons to Kirkee Arsenal in India to be reworked. This consisted of Steyr M1888/90 rifles as well as Carcano’s. Apparently a large shipment of reworked Carcano’s was destined for Australia, but the ship carrying them never arrived to port.
The reworked M1888/90’s were reportedly used mostly for drill purposes in India. It looks like the rework process consisted of a complete reblue with an ugly dark blue, numbering the bolts to match, and refinishing/repairing the stocks. They also painted “8mm” along with a few other random markings on the stock. The volley sight post was also cut off.
One of the stock stamps is for the Kirkee Arsenal, and below that appears to be a possible commonwealth colonial militia unit marking?
7th Guards Company maybe?
I can’t imagine what this thing has seen.
Austria-Hungary > Italy > East Africa > India > East Africa (again) > ? > U.S.A.
This M1888/90 has been through the wringer. Similar to the Italian AOI stuff that is coming in from Royal Tiger Imports, this rifle was either captured by the Italians or given to them as war reparations following World War One. This particular rifle did not come in way of RTI though.
This example was captured by British forces during the invasion of the Italian East Africa Colony in 1940/1941.
The British destroyed a lot of the captured Italian items but also sent a lot of captured weapons to Kirkee Arsenal in India to be reworked. This consisted of Steyr M1888/90 rifles as well as Carcano’s. Apparently a large shipment of reworked Carcano’s was destined for Australia, but the ship carrying them never arrived to port.
The reworked M1888/90’s were reportedly used mostly for drill purposes in India. It looks like the rework process consisted of a complete reblue with an ugly dark blue, numbering the bolts to match, and refinishing/repairing the stocks. They also painted “8mm” along with a few other random markings on the stock. The volley sight post was also cut off.
One of the stock stamps is for the Kirkee Arsenal, and below that appears to be a possible commonwealth colonial militia unit marking?
7th Guards Company maybe?
I can’t imagine what this thing has seen.
Austria-Hungary > Italy > East Africa > India > East Africa (again) > ? > U.S.A.
