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!
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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.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.
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.
My recollection was that the royalties were specifically related to the clip and/or how it functioned. And yes, I mean clip, not magazine.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.