This month’s 2-gun match was a special WWI themed event, with three long stages instead of the usual four shorter ones. The design included bayonetting, climbing ladders, crawling under wire, and throwing grenades. I shot as a British soldier, and Karl actually ran the course twice – once as a 1918 elite Sturmtruppen and ones as a rear-line reservist. This week, we published a video of Karl versus himself, showing the differences between running a Kar98AZ, trench mag, and Luger and a Gewehr 88 and C96 Broomhandle.

Lessons learned?

The Gewehr 88 is really not as bad of a weapon as you might think. As retrofitted by WWI (ie, stripper clips), it pretty much handled like a G98 unless its safety issues came to light (ie, you had a ruptured case). That said, the zero on it was horrendous – Karl was having to aim at the base of the target stands (not the bottom of the target but actually at the ground below) in order to make hits.

The Luger was also a far more effective handgun than the C96. The Broomhandle is a great weapon when used as a carbine with its stock, but it’s a pretty mediocre handgun.

Overall, there is of course good reason why bolt action rifles are obsolete. Until you run a course of fire like this with one, it’s not obvious just how strenuous the simple action of running the bolt between shots really is. Heck, the same goes for just crawling under stuff with guns and gear. We were pretty well wiped out by the end of the match.

I will have video of my own run in the match next week…