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Neither „put together“ nor shortened, but a stillborn German Karabiner 98. The story may be found in Dieter Storz’s book “Gewehr & Karabiner 98” After the infantry got the new long Gewehr 98, there was still the need to replace the short Karabiner 88 of the cavalry and the same size Gew 91 of artillery and special troops with modern actioned guns. The Erfurt arsenal was ordered to make prototypes and trial runs. At first they made versions without bayonet lugs for the cavalry and others with the hardware for atillry and others. Soon they settled on a universal version, the Einheitskarabiner 98. All these carbines retained the short, 45 cm = 18” barrel and the flat bolt handle of the Karabiner 88, but were fitted with the up-to-date Langevisier. Several thousand were made for troop trials that were to run until 1905. Like the early Gewehr 98, these carbines were meant to use the original Patrone 88 with the long 227 gr round nose, low velocity bullet. But in 1903 the new, high velocity S cartridge with the 154 gr Spitz = pointed bullet was introduced. Rechambering the carbines to take the new standard load was no problem, but the muzzle blast of the new load from the short barrel was unbearable, especially when several soldiers in a line fired them. In 1905 the idea of a short carbine was canceled and development leading to the 24” barreled Karabiner 98 AZ of WW1 started. The remaining trials carbines were sent to the German colonies to arm police forces. In 1913 the South-West African Schutztruppe reported more than 200 such carbines still in stock, but most of them rate “unserviceable”. Here is a photo of such a carbine from Storz’s book:

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