Gv. 1905 rifle

The Gewear 1905 (Tipsprek: 𐌲𐌴𐍅𐌴𐌰𐍂 1905), abbreviated officially as the '''Gw. 1905 and sometimes colloquially referred to as the Wexford 1905''', is a chambered in .264 Wexford (6.5x55mm) that was adopted as the standard service rifle by the Tiperyn Realm Defence in 1905. The platform experienced several upgrades and specialist variation through its service lifetime. It served as Tiperyn's primary service rifle during the Grand Campaigns and as a reserve and rear-echelon rifle during the Great Kesh War and the early years of the Nasiri Civil War following the adoption of the semi-automatic Gewear 47. Its specialist variants, including the Skerpskutersgewear 1905/32 sniper rifle, served far longer with the Gewear 1905 being completely phased out as a specialist and ceremonial weapon by 1983.

The rifle was developed by Maryland Wexford of Wexford Gunworks as the bookend to Tiperyn's families, replacing the Hawtrey Gewear 88 still chambered in a, large calibre cartridge. The Gewear 1905 was Tiperyn's first service rifle, chambering the .264 Song—a Koryese cartridge that was originally created for use in the Song Model 1899. In 1909, the Gewear 1905 was improved to the Gewear 1905/09 standard, chambering the new .264 Wexford, which implemented a  design over the round-nosed, flat-based .264 Song. All later variants would be chambered in .264 Wexford, which remains the standard full-power rifle cartridge of Tiperyn and several North-South Concordant member states as of 2020.

The final mainline variant of the Gewear 1905 was adopted in 1925 as the Gewear 1905/25. It incorporated some design aspects introduced in earlier marks—including an enlarged magazine of 7 rounds versus the original 5-round magazine—as well as new features—such as aperture sights at the rear of the action, shortened profile and a hooded front sight post. As it was adopted in the last year of the Grand Campaigns, it only saw limited combat with select regiments from the duchies of Tipslan and Idlerein on the Western Artemian Front. Introduced simultaneously with this iteration of the rifle was a conversion kit that allowed for the replacement of the bolt with a blowback-operated, magazine-fed mechanism to convert it into a semi-automatic carbine chambered in a commercially available 6.5mm pistol cartridge.

Approximately 20 million Gewear 1905s of all variants were produced by Tiperyn and on license abroad.

Cartridge
In 1903, when the Tiperyn Realm Defence issued a tender to its national armories for a new repeating rifle design, it specified the use of a small-bore, smokeless powder rifle cartridge in line with cartridges that had begun to be adopted by other major powers of the time. At that time, the standard rifle cartridge of the Tiperyn military was .505 Hawtrey, a large-bore, blackpowder cartridge that by the turn of the 20th century had begun obsolete. As prospective rifle designs were submitted chambering new cartridges chosen by their designers, Maryland Wexford—lead engineer of Wexford Gunworks—selected the Koryese 6.5x55mm. This cartridge had been adopted by the Koryese military in the late 1890s with their new bolt-action Song Model 1899, meaning significant supplies were available for purchase by Wexford to be used in the rifle trials. When adopted, this cartridge was designated .264 Song after its original designer and put in production at all of Tiperyn's major armories.

The Koryese cartridge saw a major update in 1910 in a joint development program between Song Arsenal and Wexford Gunworks. The original .264 Song was a round-nosed, flat-based projectile, and by the time of its adoption in Tiperyn was behind the curve of projectile development. A new cartridge, designated .264 Wexford and what is now known as 6.5x55mm NSC, improved the ballistics of the cartridge by switching to a pointed spitzer (D-projectile), boat tail design. Additionally, the propellant characteristics and case composition was further improved. This upgraded cartridge was adopted by both Tiperyn and Koryeo simultaneously, with both country's service rifles being re-chambered for its use. Almost all original Gewear 1905s were retrofitted for the new ammunition, with "Gewear 1905/10" being stamped over the factory barrel markings.

The updated .264 Wexford is considered to be an accurate, soft-shooting rifle cartridge with a relatively flat trajectory when compared to its contemporaries. It has a bullet diameter of 6.7mm or .264 inches, although the international designation is based on the diameter of the rifles' barrel lands which is 6.5mm or .256 inches. The shape of its 55mm (2.16 inch) long case was, "designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in bolt action rifles and machine guns alike, under extreme conditions." It remains a standard military cartridge in many North-South Concordant countries and clients, although it was largely replaced in the 1950s and 1960s for standard service rifles with intermediate cartridges characteristic of modern assault rifles.

Full-length service rifles
The service rifle variants of the Gewear 1905 built to Tiperyn Realm Defence specifications were the most widely produced and exported variants of the platform. These were variants that were intended to be fielded as full-length service rifles by Tiperyn's infantry, although by the standards of the time they could also be considered short rifles.

Gw. 1905
The Gewear 1905, abbreviated Gw. 1905, was the original variant of the Wexford platform which was adopted by the Tiperyn Realm Defence in 1905. It served as Tiperyn's standard service rifle until the Gw. 1905/10 update in 1910. The Gw. 1905 chambered the round-nose, flat-base .264 Song cartridge and featured sliding ramp rear sights mounted in front of the action. It featured a 5-round fixed internal magazine that was loaded via 5-round stripper clips, being the first Tiperyn service rifle to be adapted for clip-loading. Overall it was 1,170 mm (46 in) long with a barrel length of 650 mm (26 in) and mass of 4.20 kg (9.26 lb).

Gw. 1905/10
The Gewear 1905/10, abbreviated Gw. 1905/10, was a rechambering of the Gw. 1905 in the new .264 Wexford cartridge which featured a spitzer (D-projetile) and boat tail projectile design. Outwardly, the Gw. 1905/10 was identical to the original Gw. 1905 and most of the original rifles procured by the Tiperyn Realm Defence were converted to the new standard before Tiperyn entered the Grand Campaigns in 1919. The Gw. 1905/10 would be the Tiperyn military's standard service rifle through most of the war until the adoption of the Gw. 1905/25 in early 1925.

Gw. 1905/25
The Gewear 1905/25, abbreviated Gw. 1905/25, was the last major update of the Gw. 1905 platform as a standard Tiperyn service rifle, although it would receive alterations in the future as a specialist weapon or carbine. The Gw. 1905/25 was shortened from 1,170 mm to 1,116 mm and lightened by 250 grams when compared to the Gw. 1905/10. The original sliding ramp sights were replaced with an adjustable aperture sight and the sight radius was increased by moving the rear sights to behind the action and the front sights to the barrel. Several changes were made to reduce cost, including the simplification of parts and moving to newer manufacturing practices. Additionally, the original 5-round internal magazine was replaced with a 7-round detachable magazine intended to be loaded with 7-round chargers. While having the benefit of increasing ammunition capacity, this move was partially made so the Tiperyn military could use the same pre-packaged 7-round cardboard chargers that the Koryese military produced for its own Song rifle. As ammunition shipments from Koryeo typically came in these chargers as batches were plucked from production intended for Koryeo, this often lead to Tiperyn soldiers in the field having to remove rifle ammunition from incompatible chargers and then reload them only Tiperyn-designed stripper clips.

The Gw. 1905/25 would be the longest serving variant of the platform, with 22 years as Tiperyn's standard service rifle. It would serve longer in Tiperyn's territorial armies, with Nasiri units fielding the Gw. 1905/25 as a frontline service rifle until the late 1970s.

Carbines
Several variants of the Gewear 1905 were adopted into shortened carbines for specialist and rear echelon troops.

Karabyn 1905/11
Shortly after the rechambering of the Gewear 1905 into .264 Wexford, a carbine variant of the Gewear 1905/10 was introduced for use by troops that would benefit from a lighter, shorter rifle. The Karabyn 1905/11, abbreviated as Kb. 1905/11, was initially issued to dragoons—later redesignated as the Mounted Rifleers—and cavalry, but was also issued to artillerymen, mountain infantry, band personnel, and sailors during the Grand Campaigns. It would be briefly issued to paratroopers in the 1930s before replaced in this capacity by the folding stock Berchirkarabyn 1905/40, or "Mountaineer's Carbine", in 1940. The Kb. 1905/11 was the shortest variant of the Gw. 1905 officially adopted by the Tiperyn military, measuring at just 964 mm (38 inches).

The carbine featured a number of modifications to simplify the production, lighten the load, and reduce the chance of snagging on clothing or equipment. The bayonet lug and complementary cleaning rod were removed, as was the wooded hand guard protecting the top of the barrel. The rear sling swivel was also replaced with a recessed sling bar in the butt of the stock. The Gw. 1905's original fairly high profile sliding ramp rear sights were simplified and made lower profile. Besides the intended benefit of streamlining the profile of the carbine, it was found that lowering the rear sight improved handling with this fact being considered in the Gw. 1905/25 modernization. The bolt handle was also flattened to further streamline the profile.

Sharpshooter variants
As a sturdy platform without the complications an instability of early semi-automatic actions—especially the mechanism that Tiperyn adopted on its first semi-automatic service rifles—the Gw. 1905 platform saw far longer service as a sniping platform than it did a service rifle, acting in this capacity into the early 1980s.

Sks. 1905/32
The Skerpskutersgewear 1905/32, abbreviated as Sks. 1905/32, was a variant of the Gw. 1905/25 designed for the sniping role. It featured a number of changes, including provisions to mount an optic and specialist accessories for sharpshooters. The Sks. 1905/32 was Tiperyn's only standard sniping weapon until the late 1950s when a semi-automatic rifle was adapted for the role, although the bolt-action would be used in tandem with newer designs for decades. Although improved optics were introduced over the course of time, the rifle stayed largely the same.

Holes were drilled into parts of the receiver to enable the mounting of optics. While the mounting system was standard, the optics used were not. In addition to new models of optic being issued over the course of the rifle's service life, the different branches of the Realm Defence typically procured different optics. The infantry of the Realm Guard and Fleet Marine Corps for example both fielded the Sks. 1905/32 as their sniping weapon, but with different optics. The Sks. 1905/32 did away with iron sights completely as telescopic sights had improved to the point where they could be issued to a trained specialist as their only option. This was also done because the rear sight would block any attempt to mount a scope directly over the centre line of the rifle, and the Rifleer branch of the Realm Guard did not believe it was optimal to offset the scope to the side of the rifle (although that would have allowed for clip-loading). The clip bridge was also not included in new purpose-built rifles as it was an unnecessary part, but Sks. 1905/32s that were converted from Gw. 1905/25 service rifles typically retained it. The barrel on the Sks. 1905/32 was also substantially thicker than that of the Gw. 1905/25 to make it more resistant to damage and reduce the effects of barrel warping due to temperature changes.

Self-loading variants
Before the widespread adoption of submachine guns in the 1930s and semi-automatic rifles in the 1940s within the Tiperyn military, a number of experimental and adopted modifications were made to the Gw. 1905 platform to convert it from single-shot bolt-action to semi-automatic fire.

Rkb. 1905/25
The Rinfuorgekarabyn 1905/25, abbreviated as Rkb. 1905/25 and literally translating to "Trench Carbine", was a modification made to standard Gw. 1905 rifles that converted it into a semi-automatic, pistol-calibre carbine. The modification was able to be applied to any Gw. 1905/10 or Gw. 1905/25 rifle with only minimal alterations able to be applied by a company armorer. It involved replacing the bolt of the rifles with a device that operated via and fed from a 50-round detachable magazine inserted into the top right of the rifle. It allowed for reliable semi-automatic fire of, known internationally as 6.5x22mm, which was a small, semi-rimmed automatic pistol cartridge available commercially, but not previously adopted by the Tiperyn military. The cartridge was chosen because its bullet diameter match the 6.7mm of .264 Wexford, meaning it could be fired safely through pre-existing Gw. 1905 barrels without modification.

The Rkb. 1905/25 modification was pressed into service in tandem with the new Gw. 1905/25, intended to be issued to units that were taking part in the 1925 offensives on the Western Artemian Front during the Grand Campaigns. It became the first semi-automatic carbine to be issued to Tiperyn troops, supplementing the limited quantities of Koryese submachine guns that had been procured in late 1924. The modification was issued extensively by five regiments of infantry taking part in high-paced offensive operations against Teutonia that year and was generally well-regarded. They were largely sent to storage after the war, however. They would ultimately be replaced in role by the Koryese-produced Masinekarabyn 1931 submachine gun chambered in .275 Song by 1931.

Pojan service rifles
Wexford Gunworks produced and licensed a handful of Gewear 1905 variants made for the fledgling Pojan military in the 1910s and 1920s.

A variant of the original Gewear 1905 was adopted as Poja's standard rifle in 1908 as the P01 Puška, which translates to "Rifle" in Liari. The rifle was rechambered in 7.62x54mmR and largely resembled the Tiperyn-pattern Gw. 1905 cosmetically. This rifle was later replaced by the P01A, which was essentially a Gewear 1905/25 with minor alterations. Among these was the replacement of the 7-round detachable magazine to a 10-round fixed magazine and being rechambered from .264 Wexford to 7.62x54mmR like the P01. The P01A remained the standard rifle of the Pojan Army until 1944, when the SKS began to be license produced in Poja as the P15 Carbine. The P01A Puška remained in limited use as a sniper weapon until 1963 when it was largely replaced by the P34 Dragunov. Today, the P01A remains a ceremonial weapon for drill teams and honour guards while a large stockpile remains in war reserve.

Although a number of experimental rifles were made chambered in 7.62x54mmR prior to the adoption of the Gewear 1905 before Tiperyn had decided which rifle cartridge it would adopt, these rifles were unrelated to the Pojan models and more closely resembled early prototypes of the platform circa 1904 than the P01 or the accepted Gewear 1905. Only 2 examples of these early trial Gewear 1905s were known to have been chambered in 7.62x54mmR.

Users

 * Arroyo-Abeille: Produced domestically on license.
 *  Asharistan: Provided by Tiperyn as military aid to Yazidi groups prior to the Great Kesh War and exported as surplus following Asharistan's founding.
 *  Chezzetcook: Imported from 1910 as standard service rifle. Phased out of front line service starting in 1916.
 *  Guurdalai: Provided by Tiperyn as military aid during the Grand Campaigns and Great Kesh War and produced domestically after the former.
 *  Kodeshia: Provided by Tiperyn as military aid to the republican rebels during the Kodeshian Civil War.
 *  Koryeo: Used as a substitute and rear echelon rifle with these rifles placed into storage at the end of the Grand Campaigns in 1926 and never issued after. Also produced on contract for Tiperyn service.
 *  New Valentina
 *  Poja: Adopted a derivative of the Gewear 1905 chambered in as the country's first standard rifle in 1908 as the P01 Puška.  The P01A derived from the Gewear 1905/25 replaced the P01 and remained the standard rifle of the Pojan Army until 1944 when replaced by the .  The P01A Puška remained in limited use as a sniper weapon until 1963, when it was largely replaced by the .  The P01A remains a ceremonial weapon for drill teams and honour guards while a large stockpile remains in war reserve.
 *  Ringerike: Adopted as standard service rifle in 1911 replacing a trap-door bolt-action rifle. Based off of the Gewear 1905/10 chambering .264 Wexford.
 *  SiWallqanqa: Provided by Tiperyn as military aid supplementing other rifles.
 *  Teutonia: Provided by Tiperyn as military aid to communist militants during the Grand Campaigns and used thereafter as reserve weapons.
 *  Tiperyn: Used by all branches of the Tiperyn Realm Defence, Holy Guard, and civil police forces. Phased out of frontline service rifle service by the early 1950s, but continued service as a sharpshooter and ceremonial weapon until 1983.

Comparable role and era

 * Song Model 1899