once in a great while a gun is so successful it redefines its class forever
guns whose engineering is so good they simply become synonymous with the way its supposed to be done
this is the mauser bolt action
its story is one of constant improvement over many decades
its origin goes back a hundred and fifty years
but to this day almost every bolt action rifle you can buy is copying it
lets see why
so two brothers
wilhelm and peter paul mauser
they made guns in what was becoming germany
germany wasnt actually a country until the late 1800s
italy was like that too
kinda weird
so its like 1871 and gun technology is getting a lot of advancements
and germany just kicked the baguettes out of france in the franco prussian war so they need to take advantage of that
so the new germany adopts a new rifle by these mauser guys called the infantry rifle 71
its a single shot bolt action firing black powder metallic cartridges
and its got neat safety features like a big ol wing you flip to the side
why single shot
theyre very durable and militaries are always slow to change
overall it works ok
but pretty quick it becomes apparent that oops we actually need a repeating rifle
the ottomans just kicked the borscht out of russia using winchester lever actions
you may remember this also caused the russians to adopt the mosin rifle lol
so germany is like dang can we get repeaters
well the mauser brothers were very cool
very often in their contracts with these governments they would put a clause allowing for upgrades to newer models
so mauser made a new rifle called the 71/84 which added a magazine
this was actually an 8rd tube magazine if you can believe it lol
so then they made a bunch of those and various countries bought them
small interlude here as wilhem mauser dies after a life of health problems
as a result mauser was unable to compete for the new german contract and they adopt whats called the 1888 commission rifle which is a weird compilation of different designers
heres a diagram
tho i will point out the 1888 carbine is where the iconic rear sling slot came into being
anyway paul keeps on going and makes another design called the belgian 89
it has cool stripper clips and a detachable magazine
which kinda sticks out and gets lost wait dang
so then the spanish are like amigo were interested but can you make that not happen
and give it a muy grande extractor
mosin for comparison
so mauser was like ja wohl and made the 93 with internal magazine that was flush with the bottom of the rifle
it used the new smokeless powder and staggered the rounds internally
the spanish went on to use them in the spanish american war
and while america kicked the paella out of spain
their charger loading mausers were way better than our krag jorgensens that cant use them or handle high pressure
for real guys there are multiple instances of hundreds of spaniards holding off literally thousands of americans
so after we won we flat out illegally copied the mauser with the 1903 springfield lol
the boers in south africa bought tens of thousands of the 1895 pattern rifle and used them in the second boer war
once again although the british kicked the bobotie out of the boers they realized the accuracy of their lee metford rifles kinda sucked tea compared to the mauser and incorporated elements into their new rifles
in fact they were working on a full on copy but wwi broke out before they were finished
tho with further modifications it became the american 1917 enfield
thats right america adopted a mauser copy multiple times lol
are you sensing a pattern
everybody wanted these
meanwhile in germany mauser was approaching the pinnacle of his design with the gewehr 98
the g98 introduced controlled feeding which meant the bolt grabbed the cartridge as soon as it left the magazine
this made everything consistent and very jam resistant
in the 1930s the final major variant was developed
the k98k
this was a gewehr 98 that was 6in shorter
smaller sights than before
and a turned down bolt handle
the 60 years of continuous improvement is a big part of why the germans kept their bolt actions to the last days of the war even when everybody else was big into semiautos
another cool thing is all the safety features
safety vents in the bolt to vent gas
a shield on the back of the bolt to protect against shrapnel
even an extra bolt lug in case of explodey rounds
i cant totally tell you how many were made
clearly tens of millions
its potentially the most produced gun of all time
heres a map of countries that used a mauser derivative
and the blank spots are almost entirely just the british empire or russian empire
hard to top that lol
pew pew
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flaxom ago
Nice post, nice series. I've got one of those spanish mausers in 7mm from 1914, one of my grandfather's rifles, survived the sporterizing era in tact with matching serials everywhere but the magazine plate. Even was able to find an appropriate bayonet for it because 5 feet isn't already long enough and it's got that lovely lug.
I cleaned it up a little and marveled at the condition and quality of the action, but haven't had a chance to fire it yet. I found the stock and hand guard insides were autographed and dated by their mustachioed spaniard crafters, very faintly in pencil, a nice touch. Love the simplicity of the safety, how many millions of other guys must have had that "oh yeah derp" moment when going in to sight it.
Any 100 year old rifle I'd be concerned about exploding in my face, but instead I expect this one to be smooth like squeezing butter.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
dude thats so amazing
over a century old
guns are so amazing because its history you can pick up and experience
mausers are so safe
even if they explode it has like three more safeties helping you
and i wonder how that 7mm is to shoot
is it softer
i bet you could still take a buck with it no problem
have you seen ammo
flaxom ago
It'd absolutely handle a buck, still an enormous round compared to everything else I have. Here's a comparison shot from a while back showing 7mm, .30-30, .300 AAC, .223 from the top down. The chamber was in almost new condition even though the stock has a thousand little dings and scratches from being carried around for decades by servicemen. I believe this was an artilleryman's rifle from my research, would have been used in the spanish civil war among some other events. When you get that effortless cheek weld and your hands automatically find their way into the worn sections of the stock, you can definitely feel the history in the thing, hard to describe.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
wow man
i have a couple mosins and my brother has a k98k
probably never saw each other before we bought them but
theres the slight chance that one of them was used to kill the others operator
so crazy
flaxom ago
Would love to add one of both to my collection. Need a bigger safe!
I picked up this old M7 bayonet at a gun show for real cheap once, the guy was almost giving it away because it had this big bite taken out of the middle of the blade. Maybe his kid fucked it up or something but to me that will always be epic battle damage! Maybe one day in the afterlife we'll get to rewind the tapes and find out the true histories of all these various objects.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
dude
a friend of mine mentioned that as his idea of heaven