71. The cartridge was a metallic 11 × 60R bottlenecked case, holding a charge of of black powder, capped with a round-tipped bullet. Infanteriegewehr M71/84, Gew. 71/84 The Russo-Turkish War impressed upon European powers the importance of repeating rifles. The Mauser brothers had been improving the Gewehr 71 design while fulfilling contracts with Serbia. In 1881 Kaiser Wilhelm was impressed by a prototype of a Gewehr 71 that featured an eight-round tubular magazine under the barrel, which was loaded while the action was open. The bullet was slightly flattened, to reduce the chance of jamming or the detonation of primers in the tube. There was a lever on the receiver that isolated the magazine, so that the rifle could be fired and loaded one shot at a time, keeping the magazine in reserve. Production ended in 1890 after which time the arsenals had produced nearly 950,000 rifles; however by 1888 the introduction of the French Lebel using smokeless powder and smaller diameter high velocity bullets, made this weapon obsolete. Infanteriegewehr M88, Gewehr 88, Commission Rifle The German Rifle Testing Commission initially tried to find a way to convert the many Gewehr 71/84 rifles into having a viable smokeless powder action; however the decision taken was to design a completely new weapon. The Commission chose not to involve or consult the Mausers. The result was the look of the Lebel, a Mauser-style action, Mannlicher magazine, a jacketed barrel, and a cartridge copied from the Swiss. The Gewehr 88 was designed to use the 7.9mm × 57J cartridge, which is considerably smaller than the 11 mm round of the Gewehr 71. A total of 1,675,000 Gewehr 88s were produced from 1889 to 1897. Infanteriegewehr M98, Gewehr 98 Despite the choice of the Rifle Commission to not consult Paul Mauser in the late 1880s he kept developing better rifles and improved attributes for his firearms, which he sold to other countries. By the 1890s, his improved bolt design, the introduction of a stripper or charger clip loading configuration, and a fixed box magazine impressed Belgium, Turkey, and Argentina, enough for contracts to be signed. Mauser went two steps further in 1892 when he again improved the bolt design by adding an extractor that prevented double feeding from the magazine and changed the single column box magazine to a staggered five cartridge box design. The magazine now fit in the rifle without any part