Mauser history lesson

In a nice surprise my father in law gave me a present last week. An old Mauser that he’s had for many years.

Being a history buff, I’m not sure which was cooler. The rifle or spending last night surfing the net to find out when it was made and where it was likely used.

With Mauser being the iconic German rifle I assumed it was used by the German army at some point. Little did I know that the majority of the first generations of Mausers were made for Argentina. Even more obscure that one of these early companies involving the Mauser brothers eventually became FN today. Did you know in 1890 that Argentina was one of the worlds economic powers?

Here’s the likely notable facts on mine:
Mauser model 1891 (on the rifle it’s in Spanish modelo 1891 manufactura)
Built in 1895
Highly probable it was sent to Argentina
Most likely it came to the states in the 1950’s with large batches of these as they were retired from the Argentinian military
Very small number of these rifles were used in the Spanish American war and used against American forces

From a design point this is really considered the forefather to all bolt action rifles of the last 100+ years. About 1898 they beefed added a third lug on the bolt and beefed up the extractor a little bit. Only minor innovations after that, at least according to the internet

Hoping to get out in a few months to shoot it. Supposedly this is in working condition and is safe. Just been a number of years since it was fired.

Will it be like the artillery and you have to put a 50 yd. lanyard on it the first firing? We had to do that in the army in Germany every 6 mos. when we went to live fire trng.🙉

Argentina was one of the largest arms supplier during the world wars. Additionally, German descendants were one of the largest groups to immigrate to Argentina…..and the new Reality show Hunting for Hitler has been documenting how strong the German communities are still with Argentina. I wonder how many German ran arms manufactures were there during the wars. Had to be huge

Interesting gift, Pat. Even more interesting in that the Mauser 98 actions were very commonly sporterized after the war, but pre-98 actions are relatively few nowadays.

Yes, the Mauser laid the foundation for everything that came afterward in terms of a desirable sporting action. I enjoy reading old hunting magazines and, of course, they are filled with ads for cheap surplus Mauser actions. Oh if only!

The gunsmith my father used to use found a treasure trove of Mauser actions that he bought at an estate sale. The previous owner had bought them in the late 1940s for a few dollars each, being a gun enthusiast, he bought and squirreled away almost 100 of them over time, all of them from the more desirable central European makers, not Soviet bloc junk.

What a terrific find. I’m assuming this is a 7 MM Mauser, ie 5×57?

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

What a terrific find. I’m assuming this is a 7 MM Mauser, ie 5×57?

No, the pre 1898 were different. 7.65×53 aka 7.65 Argentine aka 7.65×53 Argentine. Bullets come in around .311 or .312. Sounds like pressures needed to be a little more moderate for this round on the pre-98 action.

This one has not been sporterized at least as far as my 90 minutes of research goes. Missing the cleaning rod and a seal above the chamber has been ground off, otherwise appears to be original. All serial numbers matching.

This weekend I’m going to strip it down and do a thorough cleaning.