production cost

[Khaki]

What was the more expensive Great War rifle to manufacture, was it the SMLE No1 MkIII* or was it the Mauser G98 ?

khaki

[TonyE]

I don't have the cost of a Gew 98 to hand but will look in Dieter Storz's superb book later.

The average cost of an SMLE was £4 plus or minus about 2 shillings depending on the manufacturer and time in the war.

REgards

TonyE

[4thGordons]

I do not know the answer to this but I would make a guess that the M1903 Springfield had a higher unit cost than either.

Chris

[centurion]

Don't forget to allow for the differences between the German Mark and Sterling when comparing costs. Whilst, for obvious reasons, there was no direct exchange rate, by comparing both currencies against the US Dollar one can see that in 1914 £1 = 19.9 GM, by 1917 this had changed to £1 = 23 GM so that £4 = 79.6 GM in 1914 but 92 GM in 1917

[MikB]

I found one source that suggests about £5-17s-7d for the Mauser 98 using the currency conversion provided, but that's working straight from USD to GBP, and there's no detail of date.

Nevertheless, considering what I know of the level of machining required for the Mauser action, and the relative difficulty of some of the operations as compared to the Enfield, it looks roughly right to me - again, relatively.

Regards,

MikB