Rifles Mauser-Norris Model 67/69 rifle Between 1867 and 1869, the Mauser brothers and Samuel Norris developed a single-shot bolt-action rifle. The caliber and number produced are not known. Ludwig Olson wrote that an example had at one time been on display at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The rifle was patented in Austria by Samuel Norris on 24 December 1867. The bolt head did not rotate, a feature chosen by Paul Mauser to "protect the heads of paper cartridges from friction and possible damage while locking the bolt, and to provide a non-rotary seat for the extractor when metallic cartridges were used." An improved version of the rifle used a coil spring wrapped around the firing pin and a
safety and a cocking piece attached to the rear of the firing pin. This rifle was shown to the Prussian government, and after some design changes to the safety, was accepted for service as the Infantry Rifle Model 71 on 14 February 1872. Although it is sometimes considered a close relative of the Chassepot rifle, and borrowing Dreyse's turning-bolt action lock, the most innovative features of the new weapon were the work of Peter Paul Mauser.
Model 1871 and derivatives The Mauser Model 1871 was the Mauser brothers' first rifle. It was adopted by the
German Empire (except for the
Kingdom of Bavaria) as the Gewehr 71 or Infanterie-Gewehr 71 (I.G.Mod.71 was engraved on the rifles). Production began at the Oberndorf factory for the infantry version, which fired a
black powder 11×60mm round from a long barrel. Shorter versions were introduced with the barreled Jäger and cavalry carbine. Slightly modified versions were widely sold to other countries, firing bullets that would today be considered very large, typically 9.5mm to 11.5mm. Such large bullets were necessary due to the limitations of black powder, which hindered velocities.
Serbia designed an improved version of the Model 71 in 10.15mm, made in Germany and called the
Mauser-Milovanović M1878/80. In 1884 an 8-shot tubular magazine was added by Mauser to the
Model 71/84. The
Turkish model 1887 rifle was the first of a series of rifles produced for the Turkish Army. Its design echoed that of the German Gewehr 71/84 service rifle: a bolt-action weapon with a tubular magazine beneath the barrel. The Turkish contract specified that if any other nation ordered Mauser rifles with more advanced technology, that design would be used in the Model 1887 to fill the remainder of the Turkish order. This clause was utilized after Belgium adopted the Model 1889 rifle.
Models 1889/90/91 and Experimental Model 92 After the Mauser brothers finished work on the Model 71/84 in 1880, the design team set out to create a small caliber repeater that used smokeless powder. Because of setbacks brought on by Wilhelm Mauser's death, they failed to have the design completed by 1882, and the German Rifle Test Commission (
Gewehr-Prüfungskommission) was formed. The commission preferred to create their own design. Paul Mauser created two different variations of the same rifle, one with a stock strengthened with a barrel shroud and a traditional design following the layout of the 71 series in hope he might be able to overturn the commission's decision, or at least sell his design to the Kingdom of Bavaria, which adopted its own arms. The two rifles became known as the 89 Belgian (with a barrel shroud) and the 91 Argentine (with a 71 layout) Mausers, identical in their function and feed system. The main features were the ability to use
stripper clips to feed the magazine (a revolution in rate of fire), and its rimless
7.65×53mm Mauser ammunition, advanced for the time. The system proved impressive at the 1884 Bavarian Arms Trials. Both firearms were a success, but decision-makers were not convinced that the stripper feed was superior to the en-bloc system employed by
Mannlicher. In response, Mauser started small-scale production of the design in an effort to interest foreign nations, but failed to convince any of the European major powers. The Belgian attache, however, urged his government to contact Mauser, hoping the design might give them a chance to found a domestic arms industry. The heavy-barreled Mauser with the barrel shroud resulted in the founding of arms manufacturer
FN Herstal. FN could not keep up with orders, so they outsourced production to the
Birmingham Small Arms Company in England. The Belgians' talks with Mauser prompted the Ottoman Empire to consider the design. In the end they ordered their own simpler variation of the 89 Belgian Mauser known as the 90 Turkish. While this was taking place, the Argentine Small Arms Commission contacted Mauser in 1886 to replace their Model 71s; since they wished to keep retraining of their armed forces to a minimum, they chose the Mauser 91. As with other early Mausers, most such arms were made by the
Ludwig Loewe company, which in 1896 joined with other manufacturers to form Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken. All variations used the same 7.65 mm round-nosed cartridge. Many parts were interchangeable, with the exception of the bayonets of the 89 and 90/91; the barrel shroud made the
bayonet ring too wide. The 89 Mauser was used by the second-line units of Belgium during the Second World War. A non-rotating Mauser claw extractor was introduced in the Model 92. Several variations of this model were entered in rifle trials for the
U.S. Army of that year; the Norwegian
Krag–Jørgensen rifle was ultimately chosen.
Spanish M93 The Mauser Model 1893 is a
bolt-action rifle commonly referred to as the "Spanish Mauser", though the model was adopted by other countries in other calibers, most notably the Ottoman Empire. The M93 introduced a short staggered-column box magazine as standard, holding five smokeless 7×57mm Mauser rounds flush with the bottom of the rifle, which could be reloaded quickly by pushing a
strip of rounds from the top of the open bolt. It still had only two locking lugs.
Swedish M1894 rifle The Swedish army was issued the Model 94. The similar Model 1895 was sold to Mexico, Chile, Uruguay,
China,
Persia, and the South African states of
Transvaal and the
Orange Free State (
Boers). A safety feature offered by the Model 1895 was a low shoulder at the rear of the receiver, just behind the base of the bolt handle, which would contain the bolt in the unlikely event that the front locking lugs sheared off due to excessive pressure. South African Mausers were highly effective against the British during the
Second Boer War; these proved deadly at long ranges, prompting the British to design their own Mauser-inspired high-velocity cartridge and rifle. These rare Mauser carbines and rifles—especially the Model 1895—can be easily identified by the letters "OVS" signifying "Oranje-Vrystaat" (
Afrikaans for "Orange Free State") either marked on the weapons' receiver ring and the stock directly below, or otherwise carved into the right side of the buttstock. The British
Pattern 1914 Enfield with a Mauser-style lug might have replaced the Lee–Enfield, but the exigencies of World War I prevented this from happening. The Lee–Enfield continued to see service until it was replaced by a
semi-automatic L1A1 after World War II. The Germans had faced the
U.S. M1917 rifle during World War I, which was the Pattern 14 rifle adapted to fire the U.S. .30-06 cartridge of the American M1903 Springfield rifle.
Chilean Mauser Model 1895 The Mauser Model 1895 adopted as Fusil Mauser Chileno Mo 1895 by
Chilean forces, is a bolt operated magazine fed rifle using the 7×57mm Mauser cartridge. It is the first major modification of the Mauser Model 1893 and was produced by Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken, known as DWM, and Ludwig Loewe Company from 1895 to 1900.
Model 1896 On 3 November 1893, the
United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway adopted the
6.5×55 mm cartridge. As a result, the Swedes chambered their new service weapons, the m/94 carbine and m/96 rifle, in this round. The rifle action was manufactured relatively unchanged from 1896 to 1944, and the m/94 Carbine, m/96 Rifle, m/38 Short Rifle, and m/41 Sharpshooter models are known by collectors as "Swedish Mausers". They are still sought after by military service rifle shooters and hunters. Initial production of the weapons was in Germany by Waffenfabrik Mauser, with the remainder being manufactured under license by Sweden's state-operated Bofors Carl Gustaf factory. The m/38 short rifle was produced by
Husqvarna; additional m/38s were converted from Model 96 rifles. "Swedish steel" is a term for the steel used by the German Mauser, and later by Swedish manufacturing facilities, to make the m/96 rifles. Swedish iron ore contains the proper percentages of trace elements to make good alloy steel. Thus, though lacking the industrial base necessary for mass-producing steel and iron, the Swedish steel industry developed a niche market for specialty high-strength steel alloys containing
nickel,
copper, and
vanadium. Swedish steels were noted for their strength and corrosion resistance and were especially suited for use in toolmaking, cutlery, and firearms. When Mauser was contracted to fabricate the initial production runs of Swedish Mausers in Germany due to production delays, Sweden required the use of Swedish steel in the manufacturing process. The Swedish Ordnance Office continued to specify the same Swedish steel alloy in Swedish-made Mausers until the last new-production m/38 barrelled actions were completed in 1944.
Model 1898 In 1898, the German Army purchased a Mauser design, the Model 98, which incorporated improvements introduced in earlier models. The weapon was originally chambered for the
Patrone 88 and officially entered German service as the Gew. 98 on April 5, 1898. This remains by far the most successful of the Mauser designs, helped by the onset of two world wars that demanded vast numbers of rifles. Noticeable changes from previous Mauser rifle models included better ruptured case gas venting, better receiver metallurgy, and a larger diameter receiver ring compared to previous Mauser "small ring" bolt-action designs that had diameter receiver rings for additional strength and safety. Mauser incorporated a third "safety" lug on the bolt body to protect the shooter in the event that one or more of the forward locking lugs failed. In 1903 the improved
7.92×57mm Mauser S Patrone "spitzer" (pointed) round was introduced. Mauser had nothing to do with the development of this round. The
S Patrone provided the accuracy and barrel life improvements the German military was looking for and it was in response to the French adoption of a pointed boat-tail bullet, which offered better external ballistic performance. The bullet diameter was increased from to . Pointed or
spitzer bullets give bullets a lower
drag coefficient (Cd) making them decelerate less rapidly and also markedly decreases the lateral drift caused by crosswinds, improving the effective range of the cartridge. Most existing early Model 98s and many Model 88s were modified before World War I to take the new round, designated "7,9mm" or "
S Patrone" by the German military. Modified Model 88s can be identified by an "S" on the receiver. Due to the possibility for overpressure from the undersize barrel, the spitzer round cannot safely be used in unmodified guns, particularly with Model 88 rifles. Paul Mauser died on 29 May 1914, before the start of World War I that August. The war caused a spike in demand for the company's rifles. The 98 carbines were sold, as well as an experimental version with a twenty-rather than five-round box magazine. The extended magazine was not well received, however. A number of carbine versions known as Karabiner 98s were introduced and used in World War I, some even shorter than the later K.98k. These carbines were originally only distributed to cavalry troops, but later in the war to the special storm troop units as well.
G98 derivatives Many military rifles derive from the M98 design. Some of these were German-made by various contractors other than Mauser: •
M1902 &
M1936 Mexican in 7×57mm Mauser •
M1903 & M1905 Turkish in
7.65×53mm Argentine •
M1907 Chinese in 6.8×57mm •
M1904 Portuguese in
6.5×58mm Vergueiro, 7×57mm Mauser and 7.92×57mm Mauser • M1907 and
M1908 Brazilian in 7×57mm Mauser • M1908 Uruguayan in 7×57mm produced by the Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken •
M1910 Serbian in 7×57mm Mauser •
M1909 Argentine in 7.65×53mm •
Steyr Model 1912 Mauser for Mexico, Chile and Colombia, in 7×57mm Mauser •
Type 24 Chinese in 7.92×57mm •
Belgian Mauser Model 1935 • M1943 Spanish short (not to be confused with the M93 Spanish Mauser) in 7.92×57mm manufactured in the Spanish arsenals. Will have "La Coruna" or the Spanish Air Force Eagle stamped on the top of the receiver. Virtually identical to the K98k. •
vz. 98/22 Often made from G98 parts, rebuilt in the BRNO factory in Czechoslovakia. • Kırıkkale M1938 - made by Turkish
MKEK. The
Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr was the world's first
anti-tank rifle—the first rifle designed for the sole purpose of destroying armored targets. The weapon, essentially an enlarged G98, fired 13×92mm (.525-caliber) TuF (
Tank und Flieger, "tanks and aeroplanes") semi-rimmed cartridges. In May 1918, the Mauser Company began mass-producing the Mauser 13mm Tank Abwehr Gewehr Mod. 18 in Oberndorf am Neckar. Following the collapse of the German Empire after World War I, many countries that were using Mauser models chose to develop, assemble, or modify their own G98-action rifle designs. The most prolific of them were the Czechoslovak M1922 CZ 98 and
M1924 CZ and the Belgian Fabrique Nationale
M1924 and M1930. The Belgians and Czechs produced and widely exported their "Mausers" in various calibers throughout the 1920s and 1930s, before their production facilities were absorbed by
Nazi Germany to make parts or whole rifles for the German Army. Strictly speaking, these were not "Mauser" rifles, as they were not engineered or produced by the German company. To take advantage of the widespread and popular German single-shot 8.15×46mmR cartridge for use in a military firearm, a modified Gewehr 98 referred to as a "
Wehrmannsgewehr" was designed. These were made primarily as single shots; some only had a wood block in the magazine space. These became the 1936 Olympic team rifles for the Germans. File:M61411451.jpg|An
8.15×46R Mauser
Wehrmannsgewehr File:M61411306.jpg|The top of the receiver on an 8.15x46r
Wehrmannsgewehr As the
restrictions on production were increasingly ignored by the Germans in the 1930s, a new Mauser, the
Mauser standard model, was developed from the rifle-length Karabiner 98b. It was nominally intended for export and civilian sales. While many standard model rifles were indeed exported, it was meant primarily for use by the revived German military. It rapidly evolved into the
Karabiner 98 Kurz, which was adopted by Nazi Germany as the standard infantry rifle in 1935 and saw service until the end of World War II.
Mauser M1902 Long recoil semi-automatic rifle, lacked in ejecting cartridges.
Type A, Model B, Model K, Armee-Model C, Africa Model A series of very successful hunting rifles were developed in the first decades of the 20th century. The Special Rifle Type A was the top-of-the-line sporting rifle of the early 20th century. The Model B (B for Büchse) and Model K were sport rifles offered in many configurations. The Model C, made from 1903 to 1930, was a cheap rifle made to accommodate a range of cartridges for hunting. The Mauser Africa Model, introduced around 1904 or 1905, was used mainly by settlers in Africa.
Model M1913 Selbstladegewehr Sporter Semi-automatic rifle adapted by the German military for aircraft use. It was produced in 9mm caliber and with a scope rail.
Model M and model S The Model M was introduced in 1914. A Model S (S for
stutzen or short) was also offered.
Mauser M1916 The Mauser M1916, or Mauser
selbstladekarabiner (self-loading carbine), was a semi-automatic rifle that used a delayed
blowback mechanism and fed from 25-round detachable magazine. The process of developing a semi-automatic rifle cost Paul Mauser an eye when a prototype suffered an out-of-battery detonation. The mechanism was quite delicate, working reliably only when completely clean, which made the rifle unsuitable for infantry use. However, the
Imperial German Flying Corps adopted the rifle for its aircraft crews in 1915, and more generally in 1916. Aerial combat provided the clean environment the rifle required, and its semi-automatic capability was an advancement over bolt-action rifles. However, the rifle was expensive to make. The air service turned to the Swiss-produced
Mondragón rifle, which was tested by the army; though less accurate than Mauser's design, it cost about a third as much. The widespread adoption of machine guns then made all self-loading rifles obsolete in the air service.
Mauser 1925 Special range rifle The 1925 Special range rifle was a commercial product introduced in 1925 and sold in the United States. It was intended for high accuracy range shooting. The company also produced a .22 caliber training rifle during this time frame.
Karabiner 98k . The Karabiner 98k "Mauser" (often abbreviated "K98k" or "Kar98k"), adopted in the mid- 1930s, became the most common infantry rifle in service in the German Army during World War II. The design was developed from the Karabiner 98b, one of the carbines developed from the Model 1898. The K98k was first adopted by the
Wehrmacht in 1935 as their standard-issue rifle, with many older versions being converted and shortened.
Mauser KKW cadet rifle The
Mauser KKW cadet rifle is a single shot, .22 caliber rifle that was introduced in 1938. It is virtually identical to the Karabiner 98k. These
cadet rifles were used by all German military, paramilitary and police organizations, especially the
Hitler Youth.
Gewehr 41 The Gewehr 41 rifles, commonly known as the "G41(W)" or "G41(M)", were
semi-automatic rifles used by Nazi Germany during
World War II. By 1940 the
Wehrmacht issued a specification to various manufacturers, and Mauser and
Walther submitted
prototypes that were very similar. Both Gewehr 41 models used a mechanism known as the "Bang" system (named after the designer of the
M1922 Bang rifle). In this system, gases from the bullet were trapped near the muzzle in a ring-shaped cone, which in turn pulled on a long piston rod that opened the breech and re-loaded the gun. Both models also included inbuilt 10-round magazines that were loaded using two of the stripper clips from the Karabiner 98k, utilizing 7.92×57mm Mauser rounds, which made reloading relatively slow. The Mauser design, the G41(M), failed as it, along with its G41(W) counterpart, suffered from gas system fouling problems. Only 6,673 G41(M) rifles were produced before production was halted, and of these, 1,673 were returned as unusable.
Handguns Mauser C78 "zig-zag" Revolver The Mauser C78 zig-zag was a revolver manufactured by Mauser during the late 19th century. It was Paul Mauser's first handgun design.
C1896 Pistol Mauser branched out into
pistol design in 1896, producing the
C96, commonly known as "broomhandle," designed by the three brothers Fidel, Friedrich, and Josef Feederle (often erroneously spelled "Federle"). All versions used detachable shoulder stock holsters. Over a million C96s were produced between 1896 and the late 1930s.
Mauser 1910 and 1914 pocket pistols The Mauser Model 1910 was a small self-loading pistol chambered for
.25 ACP (6.35 mm). It was introduced in 1910; an updated model chambered for
.32 ACP (7.65 mm), the
Mauser Model 1914, came out in 1914. Most of these were used by the
Wehrmacht and the
Kriegsmarine. They were also sold commercially.
Mauser Model 1934 pocket pistol This was a small pocket pistol chambered for .32 ACP (7.65 mm) based on the earlier Model 1910/14. The
Mauser Model 1934 is virtually identical to the 1914 except for the grip, which has a more curved back. It was used by the
Kriegsmarine and was also sold commercially.
Mauser HSc The Mauser HSc was a self-loading handgun introduced in the 1940s. It was a compact
double-action blowback design in .32 ACP. Production ran from 1940 until the end of World War II, and into the 1960s and early 1970s. The post-war models were also available in
.380 ACP.
After 1940 In 1940, the Mauser Company was invited to take part in a competition to re-equip the
German Army with a semi-automatic rifle, the Gewehr 41. A number of impractical requirements were specified, including that the design should not use holes drilled into the barrel to take off gas for the operating mechanism, thereby requiring mechanisms that proved unreliable. Two designs were submitted, and the Mauser version, the G 41(M), failed miserably in testing. It was canceled after a short production run. The resulting design did not see real success before it was switched to a simpler
gas-operated system in the
Gewehr 43. During World War II, the Mauser factory in Oberndorf, a major source of German arms production for the Reich, was strategically bombed by the Allies, resulting in the deaths of 26 workers and the destruction of the company's power plant. French forces entered Oberndorf (which they subsequently occupied for some time) on 20 April 1945 when the town's
mayor and
planning committee surrendered. with 8×57mm rounds After the war in Europe, the factory was briefly put back in order to produce weapons for the now under-equipped French military. The plant was dismantled by the occupying forces for the purpose of
war reparations, most factory buildings (approximately 60% in total) were demolished and the records destroyed on orders of the local French Army commander. For a number of years, Mauser Werke manufactured precision measurement instruments and tools, such as
micrometers.
Edmund Heckler,
Theodor Koch, and
Alex Seidel, former Mauser engineers, saved what they could and founded
Heckler & Koch, which has since become Germany's main small-arms manufacturer. Mauser continued to make hunting and sporting rifles. In 1994, it became a subsidiary of Rheinmetall, a manufacturer of
autocannons such as the
Mauser BK-27 and other munitions until 2004, when it was merged into Rheinmetall Waffe Munition GmbH. In 1999 the civilian manufacture of hunting, defense, and sporting rifles were split off from Rheinmetall. == Mauser ammunition ==