You Will Shoot Your Eye Out

Introduction

In 2021 I grew a fascination with military surplus, leading me to travel all over South East Pennsylvania looking for small little treasures of surplus in gun stores, usually being turned off by the outrageous prices you see for a good surplus rifle nowadays.

During my travels I came upon a shotgun that had a tag stating “12 Gauge Shotgun, Geha, $100”, the firearm in question being of very strange design with a Mauser-type action. The owner of the gun store was very dismissive of the shotgun, and sold it without discussing much about it. Little did I know I was purchasing a relic of the interwar period from the 20th century.

After taking it home, I sat down in front of my computer to do some research on the shotgun, only to find very small bits and pieces of info regarding it spread across the internet, mainly comprised of an old Cabela’s listing, a couple of decrepit forum posts, and functionality of the shotgun being displayed in ancient YouTube videos.

It quickly became one of my personal favorites, something I always bring out to show firearm enthusiastic guests when they come over. It became a great conversation piece for guests and soon I found myself very knowledgeable on the shotgun. I intend to compile as much relevant info as possible, and expand upon the history of this 1920s curiosity. Although there are technically three names for this shotgun, I will refer to it as the “Geha” as that is the most common usage, and for simplicity’s sake.

History And Background

After the events of World War I, what is now Germany had signed the Treaty of Versailles, which consisted of many articles intending to limit the German military and prevent another war on that scale to happen again. These events, along with a revolution, led to the formation of what we call the Weimar Republic, which is the interwar name for Germany coined after the city the constituent assembly first took place. In the Treaty of Versailles there was a limit on how many troops and weapons the country could field, leading to destruction or sale of countless equipment.

During this period there was an excessive amount of Mauser Gewehr 98s in stockpile that had to be disposed of, especially ones of lesser quality that were damaged in wartime, so the Weimar government came up with a plan to reignite the failing Germany economy and offload their excess rifles. This would lead to the conversion of the Mauser rifle into the Geha (although they were also sold as Hard Hit Heart or Remo) shotgun, which would be sold on the civilian market as a hunting shotgun. This did not last nor did it stimulate the German economy enough to prevent financial ruin through hyperinflation. There is no official record at this time of when conversions began and when they ceased converting. The conversion process involved maintaining whatever parts of the Mauser they could, and manufacturing the shotgun components to be attached and welded where needed.

General Design and Parts

To understand the Geha’s design it is best to compare what is considered to be Mauser-like and what is uniquely designed for the shotgun itself.  Starting with the Mauser like components, we have the three point safety selector at the rear of the receiver, which has a switch that if sent all the way to the right prevents the trigger from activating the firing pin, and the bolt locks into place, preventing you from opening the chamber.

The middle setting allows operating the bolt, and finally turning the switch all the way to the left allows for the firing pin to be activated by the trigger. Speaking of the bolt, the Geha line of shotguns uses the original Mauser bolt, albeit with an additional coin-like bolt-head piece added to the bolt-face to grip the shotgun shell (an issue some users experience is that the bolt-head sometimes ejects with the shell). The rear end of the receiver even includes the original feed rail for the 8MM Mauser clips, indicating how much of the original rifle they saved to cut costs.

All serial numbers from the original rifle remain, along with import markings. To square off all the Mauser parts, we have the receiver it-self, which has a the forward locking portion of the receiver removed to allow for the larger sized barrels to be fitted on, making it so only the third locking lock, and the bolt handle going into the receiver, to be the primary locking mechanism.

Without my personal experience, I have found in my research that the 16 and 20 gauge variants often will have sections of the forward locking lugs remaining, but not on all individual models and nor do I have any form of photographic evidence to back this up. With this in mind, lower power loads should be used as the gun has less safety precautions, to the point that I even found an online forum post from 2006 discussing someone’s allegation that the bolt launched out from a high load shotgun round and killed the user. There is however no evidence to support this claim.

Now to draw attention to the shotgun conversion components. The glaring change is the alternate stock, the Geha’s stock being something more of a light weight, typical sporting stock, which would make sense for an commercial rifle to be focused on being lighter and less focus on long-term field use.

The sights for the Gewehr 98 have been replaced with a small divot made in the exterior above the chamber, and a small bead placed above the muzzle in the front for sighting and lining up. Obviously, this is a more typical set up for pellet based rounds over a slug, as precise accuracy is not the main focus, indicating that the shotgun’s main intent was sport shooting of clays and bird hunting. The barrel itself has been replaced, of course, to a smoothbore barrel of reportedly differing lengths, my personal model being 27 inches, but there is the possibility of home-modifications done to achieve this as I have found no official photo evidence.

Looking at the magazine we can observe that the magazine has been modified to hold one shotgun shell in place, and then one in the chamber. Due to the nature of this converted magazine, you can even see the shell in the magazine when the gun is loaded and the bolt all the way forward. Even with all these changes in mind, the gun is entirely serviceable, and has historically shot without much issue.

So How’s It Shoot?

This section is going to be entirely based on my personal experience with the Geha, having put at least 200 shells of various kinds through the gun for extensive reasons. The bolt moves just like you’d expect it: like a Gewehr 98. Smooth and high quality, with the original trigger in place too. I’ve heard complaints that it “Feels too much like a rifle” which to me just sounds like people finding reasons to complain.

The gun has excessive recoil, to the point that it’s painful to shoot with higher power loads and people I know are afraid to fire it. There is also the issue regarding high brass shells. Although this is mainly a holdover from how shotgun shells used to be designed, it’s commonly accepted among Geha owners to use low brass shells only, due to the age and design of the gun.

With this in mind, as long as you use lighter pressure shells you should be relatively fine with either as high brass are not typically higher power than low brass anymore. Accuracy is to be expected with a shotgun, although I abnormally struggled to hit clays at a further distance. The bolt in mine has roughly a 5% chance to NOT feed a round from the magazine into the bolt face, which I have not investigated enough to determine why.

The ejection works flawlessly, and overall is a satisfying and fun gun to shoot. I highly recommend it more as a novelty piece over a hunting shotgun any day due to the low capacity, poor accuracy, and awkward design with the bolt.

In Conclusion

The Geha line of shotguns is a historical relic from a turbulent time in European history, showing Germany’s desperation to kick-start their post-war economy by any means. The result of this is a shotgun that’s loved by anyone who has one, and sought after by collectors whenever they show up at gun shows or in local gun stores. For an average price of roughly $200 it is a must have for anyone who likes weird military surplus conversion, just don’t expect the quality from other shotguns.

(A Waffen-SS soldier wields the StG 44)

During the Second World War, the German Wehrmacht primarily relied on bolt action rifles such as the Karabiner 98k as their main infantry weapon. These were augmented by light and submachine guns such as the MP40. By 1944 the German army had suffered devastating losses across Europe. On the Eastern front, the Soviets had countered the German invasion and had steadily been advancing towards Berlin. On the Western front, the Allies had made amphibious landings at Normandy. Germany’s defeat was inevitable. It was at this point that the Wehrmacht introduced the StG 44 Assault Rifle. Its introduction did not serve to change the course of the war but it had a resounding impact on the evolution of small-arms developments after the war. During my time at the RCMI, I’ve been lucky enough to handle such weapons and I’ve learned a great deal about their significance in military history.

Development

The bolt action rifles combined with the submachine guns were effective during the First World War when the rifles could be used to fire across no mans land while the SMG’s could be used to clear the trenches. With the advent of Blitzkrieg and the lightning pace of mechanized warfare during the Second World War, these needs became outdated. The infantrymen required a weapon which would allow them to lay down long waves of fire, especially on the Eastern front where the Soviets heavily outnumbered the Germans.

By 1942, Hugo Schmeisser developed the prototype for the assault rifle, dubbing it the MP-43. In April 1944, it was renamed the MP-44 and distributed to soldiers in small numbers. In late 1944 it was finally dubbed the StG 44 or the Sturmgewehr (Storm Gun) 44. The German industry pumped out 425,977 StG’s for the Wehrmacht until the end of the war.

Breakdown

(The StG 44 Assault Rifle)

It utilized the intermediate 7.92×33 round, which fell squarely in between the 7.92×57 Mauser round used by the Kar 98 and the 9×19-millimeter round used by the MP series. This made it a weapon that fell in between the bolt action rifles and the SMGs. It also meant that while it was not as lethal and did not have as much range as the Kar 98, it was capable of fully automatic fire which is what made it significant. It was gas-operated through a piston working in a gas cylinder above the barrel and had a pistol grip, a wooden stock, a 30-round magazine and weighed just over 11 pounds.

Operational History

(A German soldier with an StG 44)

Its effectiveness is difficult to measure largely because it came at a time when the war was arguably already lost. It could also not be produced in larger quantities because the Allies had already bombed and destroyed German factories and industries and had encroached on German territory. The StG arrived on the Eastern Front and was used to counter the Soviet’s SMGs. It was very effective in close combat and allowed soldiers to lay down suppressing and covering fire effectively. It was also utilized in the Ardennes Offensive where an analysis of two paratrooper division’s casualties highlights its effectiveness. In comparing the 3^rd and the 5^th Fallschirmjaeger divisions, the 5^th division lost almost 9000 men during the offensive while the 3^rd division lost around 2500. Why the difference? Both had been in combat together facing the same elements of the US army. The 3^rd division had been allocated more StG’s than the 5^th. What makes these numbers even more stunning is the fact that the 5^th division had more artillery support and was numerically a larger unit.

(A German soldier aims down a modified sight on the StG 44)

Significance

As the world’s first assault rifle the StG 44 stands as a superior and technologically advanced firearm. It has also had a significant effect on the development of modern firearms. Its development inspired the creation of the Soviet AK-47, one of the most mass-produced and replicated assault rifles in our modern world. The AK-47 has had a dramatic impact all across the world, utilized by various countries and terrorist groups. The Germans can be credited (for good or bad) with the revolutionary development of the world’s first assault rifle which has radically altered the shape of modern warfare.

(A brief history of the StG on the Youtube channel ‘Forgotten Weapons’)