Spiegelkolben, or trench periscope rifle, from WW1
Posted on 12/01/2015 8:30:50 AM PST by Jed Eckert
Spiegelkolben, or trench periscope rifle, from WW1
When fighting stagnates and enemy lines dug into trenches, snipers target anyone whose head pops up above the edge of the trench. Solution: Keep your head down, but your rifle up. The Germans called it Spiegelkolben.
The arrow points to the center of the rear sight, as seen in the almost-century-old original mirrors.
Although not unique to Germany, this represents one of their solutions. A pair of mirrors provide sighting while a cable connects the bottom stock's trigger to the trigger of the rifle.
Bottom trigger (left) connects to a cable that passes over a roller (center) and connects to rifle trigger (right).
You'd have to drag the gun back into the trench in order to cycle the bolt, although some versions of trench rifles did have articulated mechanisms that allowed soldiers to operate the bolt from below.
The rifle featured in the video also has some other "trench" modifications–like the 20-round fixed box magazine you can see protruding from the bottom of the receiver.
It also had night sights, although the stuff that used to make them glow in the dark ceased to do so long ago.
Although this one is one of the more primitive versions of a periscope gun or Spiegelkolben, it sold in October 2015 for a whopping $16,000 PLUS the buyer's premium.
Although the video refers to some unnamed "cool piece of trench modification that comes with this, that wasn't installed" that is supposedly described on the auction page, I was unable to find any mention of that on the auction page.
Even without it, this is one nifty shootin' iron.
Ingenious.
Check out youtube channel ForgottenWeapons...he does great vintage gun reviews and recently did this weapon.
PING!!!
Saw Pawn Stars buy a 1903 with a simalar setup.
IIRC they bought it for $25,000
The Germans, they make great stuff
Indeed, necessity is the mother of invention.
Periscope weapons were (weapons dev was) derided as cowardly by Allies through WWII.
Meanwhile, the Germans got pissed during WWI when our guys started using 12 Ga. pump shotguns loaded with buckshot as "trench sweepers". I believe they even threatened to execute any Allied soldier captured with one.
some heavy jing...
And somewhere there must be a photo of the US Springfield 03 with a similar apparatus.
SWEET !!! That would have been handy in the deer blind this past weekend during the ice storm here in Texas panhandle........:o)
An Australian on the front line can build a working model with a bit of wood and a piece of string.
http://www.warwickdailynews.com.au/news/history-of-a-weapon-warwick/1843078/
Check this out.
5.56mm
Hell yeah .....:o)
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