Favorite Mausers

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Over the past couple years my collection has shifted from US weapons to Mausers. Like the title says which country do you think fielded the finest Mausers? Would love to see some pics of collections!
 
Yes? Sadly a heart attack claimed most of my collection. I preferred the German version. The strongest Mauser action was actually the T99 Arisaka, with a burst pressure of 50,000psi. The Germans rated the Czechoslovakian VZ24 as on par with the K98. They're cheaper at the moment than a K98, but probably not for much longer. The Swedish Mauser was the most accurate open sight version I've ever shot.

My collection in its glory days. WWI/WW2 8mm. All I have now is one Gew98, Gew98M, and 2 K98ks.

t

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Swedes are one of if not the best shooters of the Mausers. The 6.5x55 caliber has essentially identical performance as the 6.5 Creedmoor. I have two but will probably sell the nicer one then restore and rebarrel this beater I bought on the cheap:

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Shot a few 1.6" 100 yard groups with it but LOL have not been able to repeat the nice groups since giving the bore a deep clean. I have a new Walther Lothar barrel for it, and the stock should turn out beautiful once it's restored. I've already installed a higher front sight.
 
Nice. When time allows I'll post some pics of my swede collection. Since I got into mausers 6.5 swede is the only ammo I have found so my M96 is all I've shot. I did find some 8mm but it's corrosive.
 
Depends on how you define "Mauser."

If you're talking about anything designed by Peter and Paul Mauser, that includes the 1871, questionably 1888, 1889, 1891, 1893, 1896, 1898, 1904, and 1907. If you include subsequent variations, you're adding in the interwar and post-WW2 guns. Then there's companies who used the Mauser design but weren't associated with Mauser, like FN (kind of - pre-WW1, FN was a subsidiary of DWM), FB Radom, Zastava, Husqvarna, Steyr, and a bunch of other companies. Or, you can be really strict and limit the definition to only guns with Mauser rollmarks, but that does bring in modern guns made by Mauser, like the M98 hunting lineup, M12, and M18.

I've owned five "Mausers." First was a Geha 12-gauge shotgun that I never shot, second was a vz. 24, and I don't own either of those anymore. Those two didn't really impress me. I now have a FB Radom wz. 29E and a Zastava M98/48 and M70 hunting rifle. Out of all of them, the FB Radom has the best fit and finish and its my favorite of the all the ones I've owned.

There's a few Mauser-action rifles I'm interested in eventually, like a Polish-marked wz. 29, a wz. 31 trainer, a Yugo M24, a Mauser Standardmodell, and a 8.15x46r Wehrmannsgewehr. I'm not super interested in cock-on-close Mausers, like the early Ottoman ones or Spanish or Swedish. They're nice, I've shot a Swedish carbine, but I'm not going to spend the money for the foreseeable future.

The thing about the whole Mauser family is that you really can buy any kind of Mauser to satisfy any interest. Into WW1? Check. WW2? Check. Cold War guns? Check. Antiques? Check. You get the picture - there's a Mauser family for everyone out there. Just depends on how much you want to spend.
 
Depends on how you define "Mauser."

If you're talking about anything designed by Peter and Paul Mauser, that includes the 1871, questionably 1888, 1889, 1891, 1893, 1896, 1898, 1904, and 1907. If you include subsequent variations, you're adding in the interwar and post-WW2 guns. Then there's companies who used the Mauser design but weren't associated with Mauser, like FN (kind of - pre-WW1, FN was a subsidiary of DWM), FB Radom, Zastava, Husqvarna, Steyr, and a bunch of other companies. Or, you can be really strict and limit the definition to only guns with Mauser rollmarks, but that does bring in modern guns made by Mauser, like the M98 hunting lineup, M12, and M18.

I've owned five "Mausers." First was a Geha 12-gauge shotgun that I never shot, second was a vz. 24, and I don't own either of those anymore. Those two didn't really impress me. I now have a FB Radom wz. 29E and a Zastava M98/48 and M70 hunting rifle. Out of all of them, the FB Radom has the best fit and finish and its my favorite of the all the ones I've owned.

There's a few Mauser-action rifles I'm interested in eventually, like a Polish-marked wz. 29, a wz. 31 trainer, a Yugo M24, a Mauser Standardmodell, and a 8.15x46r Wehrmannsgewehr. I'm not super interested in cock-on-close Mausers, like the early Ottoman ones or Spanish or Swedish. They're nice, I've shot a Swedish carbine, but I'm not going to spend the money for the foreseeable future.

The thing about the whole Mauser family is that you really can buy any kind of Mauser to satisfy any interest. Into WW1? Check. WW2? Check. Cold War guns? Check. Antiques? Check. You get the picture - there's a Mauser family for everyone out there. Just depends on how much you want to spend.
We should not forget the Springfield 1903, which was largely a Mauser copy. Enough so that we paid royalties to the Germans even during wartime.
 
We should not forget the Springfield 1903, which was largely a Mauser copy. Enough so that we paid royalties to the Germans even during wartime.

Right, and along with the P13/P14 and M1917, its the question of where do you draw the line of a gun being a "Mauser." Are they descended from Mauser actions? Yup. Do they have Mauser rollmarks? Nope.

I personally define a "Mauser" as either anything with a Mauser rollmark or a gun that uses the 98 action. Like the cock-on-close action Mausers are definitely Mausers, but they're not what immidiately come to mind when people think of Mauser rifles, which would be the 98.
 
Wowzer. I didn't realize the complexity of my question. In my head I was thinking military firearms of the mauser design by any maker.

The beauty of the Mauser 98 action is that its the product of at least twenty years of refinement by the Mauser brothers. Each contract Mauser worked on led to further developments to refine the product. While we think of the Mauser 98 as "the Mauser", there's a bunch of different designs that happened along the way. Some of those earlier designs stuck along for awhile, like the Swedish and Spanish Mauser actions. Others didn't.

Even the 98 wasn't Paul Mauser's ultimate refinement of the bolt action military rifle; he kept working on the design, resulting in the 1904 and 1907 models.
 
We should not forget the Springfield 1903, which was largely a Mauser copy. Enough so that we paid royalties to the Germans even during wartime.
My recollection was that the royalties were specifically related to the clip and/or how it functioned. And yes, I mean clip, not magazine.

It still doesn't mean the rifle itself was not influenced by Mauser.
 
I’ve become a fan of the South American variants. The crest often has a nice design and it’s not hard to find one in very good to excellent condition. My Argentine 1909 looks virtually untouched still with the original finish. The one non SA Mauser that I have is Persian. I may get motivated to post a few photos later this week.
 
Love all the likes, but remember that collection was broken up in ‘17, with 2/3 going to NES members and seeding new collections. I tried getting a couple back, but the new owners wouldn’t. It was a quality collection with nothing less than bolt MM.
t
 
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