chamber dimensioning combinations found on the Gewehr 88 rifle. High performance and hence high pressure or military ammunition designated for machine gun use cannot be fired safely in a Gewehr 88 commission rifle. Defects Although the packet loading system proved to be a design shortcoming, it is not uncommon to encounter a Gewehr 88 today which still retains it. Some of them were modified to use the stripper clips used with the Gewehr 98 by milling a slot into the left side of the action and adding stripper clip guides on the top of the receiver. Through this slot projects a bar which retains the cartridges in place against the magazine spring's pressure. The hole in the bottom of the rifle is often covered with a small piece of sheet metal. Unlike many rifles designed later, the bolt head of this rifle is able to be removed from the bolt body. This piece could be removed during disassembly, and was frequently lost. Additionally, both the ejector and the extractor that are attached to the bolt head are prone to falling out if care is not taken during disassembly and reassembly. Users : obtained after 1896 from German and Belgian arms dealers : captured carbines were issued to second-line soldiers, such as car drivers : Used by Volkssturm Haganah Irish Republic Malayan National Liberation Army: Karabiner 88 variant, supplied by Soviet Union only in small numbers Republic of China: Nationalists, warlords and anti-Japanese guerillas used the Hanyang 88, a copy of the Gewehr 1888 About 5,500 rifles and carbines from 1919–1940 : Acquired approximately 2,000 through Poland during the Spanish Civil War : received during World War I, leftover Ottoman stock used in Turkish War of Independence : Used by Home Guard Ulster Volunteers Conflicts First Sino-Japanese War Revolta da Armada Federalist revolution War of Canudos Second Boer War Boxer Rebellion Herero Wars Constitutionalist Revolution Maji Maji Rebellion Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910) Xinhai Revolution World War I Easter Rising Warlord Era Russian Civil War German Revolution of 1918–19 Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–20) Greater Poland Uprising (1918–19) Polish–Soviet War Irish War of Independence Silesian Uprisings Turkish War of Independence Lithuanian Wars of Independence Sheikh Said rebellion Ararat rebellion Chinese Civil War Second Italo-Ethiopian War Spanish Civil War Dersim rebellion Second Sino-Japanese War Sudeten German uprising 1938 World War II 1948 Palestine war Malayan Emergency Korean War Gallery See also