As every great journey begins with but a single step, perhaps the present listing of Gew88s arranged by arsenal, year, and serial numbers suggested by forum member Ferguss may have some utility in establishing the baseline information needed to better estimate the total production of these rifles. As I understand, aside from each year’s production being independently dated serial numbers appearing early in the year began with 1 and progressed to 9999 at which point the numerical sequence was replicated with a letter suffix (e.g., “6484a”). Thus, rifle “9999a” would be the 20,000th rifle in a given year’s production. Each subsequent letter represents a weapon produced somewhere in the next series of ten thousand rifles.

As a matter of clarification, this list does not include carbines simply due to a lack of information regarding them. Merely as a point of departure, this compilation draws upon rifles I have rebuilt or stripped receivers I have added to my parts inventory. In total, this listing reflects an inordinately small sample (50 rifles) and such a project cannot be adequately expanded by any single individual. Input to this data base would be greatly appreciated.

[In this list, missing year’s or arsenals indicates that no information was available to me.]

Arsenal Year Low No. High No. (Sample size)
Danzig 1890 2274 8840t (2)
Erfurt 1890 6253 8722e (2)
Loewe Berlin 1890 7258 3429e (2)
1891 6664 473v (2)
Spandau 1889 1180 -- (1)
1890 2204 5137n (17)
1891 4358b -- (1)
1893 6256 6887a (2)
1895 7607a 851o (4)
1896 1474d -- (1)
Steyr 1889 50 -- (1)
1890 9385d -- (1)
1894 8189c 8310e (14)