rifles for the Prussian army resulted in the 1898 rifle. From there, and from the 8x57 cartridge, has evolved the modern bolt-action rifle in its myriad forms and chamberings. Soldiers, hunters and target shooters the world over have confirmed its utility. Even now, when gas-operated autoloaders shoot sub-minute groups at long range, sportsmen and snipers remain loyal to the bolt action and its powerful cartridges. Here’s the story, distilled, from the beginning.
Wayne’s 358 Norma Magnum is a rebarreled Mauser with Leupold scope.
Wayne’s 458 has a Mauser action with receiver sight mounted on the bolt release.
The Mauser has taken many forms. This sleek safari rifle in 416 Rigby shows Mauser heritage.
Mauser
A hundred years ago Teddy Roosevelt was spurring his Rough Riders up San Juan Hill, while Alaskan gold tugged prospectors, nose to heel, over Chilkoot Pass. On the other side of the Atlantic, a German inventor finished work on a firearm that would outlast memories of both the Maine and the Klondike. Almost all bolt-action sporting rifles now in use can be traced to Paul Mauser’s Model 1898, a design that capped two decades of invention and refinement.
Peter Paul Mauser was born the youngest of 13 children in 1838 in the Swabian village of Oberndorf in Wuerttemberg. Brother Wil-helm, next oldest and four years his senior, would later work with him as a partner. Wil-helm’s business acumen complemented Paul’s mechanical talent. Unfortunately, the union was to be severed by Wilhelm’s untimely death in 1882.
Unlike manufacturers now, Paul Mauser did not merely fashion a rifle to function with existing cartridges — for several reasons. First, the self-contained metallic cartridge was still relatively new in the 1860s when the young entrepreneur began his work in earnest. Secondly, blackpowder would soon be supplanted by smokeless, which radically altered the requisites and opportunities in rifle and cartridge design. And finally, the standardization we take for granted did not then exist. At the turn of the century, many sportsmen had more ammunition options than their counterparts have today!
The Mauser cartridge line began with the 11.15x60R, a 43-caliber blackpowder round designed for the Model 71 single-shot Mauser rifle that became a repeater as the 71/84. Loaded for a time by Remington and Winchester, the 11mm Mauser fared poorly against the 45-70 in the States, though it had an enthusiastic following of sportsmen in Europe. In 1887, just 16 years after the German military establishment adopted the 11mm, Turkey equipped its army with the last Mauser-designed blackpowder cartridge: the 9.5x60R. Chambered in the 71/84, which soon gave way to the Model 1889-pattern Mauser rifle and the smokeless 7.65x53 Mauser cartridge, the 9.5x60R was also used in Peabody-Martini single-shot rifles.
In 1892 Paul Mauser developed what is still the darling of deer and sheep hunters and for a time became the most popular military round in the world. The 7x57 was first chambered in a limited number of Model 92 Mausers by the Spanish government, which shortly replaced the 92 (a modified 1889) with the improved 1893. This rifle and cartridge soon popped up in arsenals all over South and Central America. The 7x57 Mauser is the only 19th-century military cartridge still commonly chambered in sporting rifles.
Oddly enough, the most famous Mauser cartridge of all, the 8mm, came not out of Paul Mauser’s shop, but from German Infantry Board engineers at Spandau Arsenal. Initially designed for the Gewehr 88 (a modified Mannlicher, not a Mauser), the 8x57 was really a 7.92x57, with a round-nose, 226-grain, .318-inch bullet at about 2100 fps. In 1898 the superior Mauser rifle supplanted the Mannlicher derivation, but Germany did not change cartridges. Seven years later the 7.92x57 became the 8x57 when ordnance people boosted bullet diameter to .323 of an inch. At only 154 grains, the new pointed (spitzer) bullet reached a speed of nearly 2900 fps. Both cartridges are now known as 8x57s, the early version the 8x57J, and the .323-inch round the 8x57S.
Smaller, faster bullets and higher breech pressures relegated most 19th-century rifles to the scrap heap — and gave Paul Mauser a chance to show his genius.
Anybody could have designed a breech mechanism that worked like a door latch. In fact, one of Paul Mauser’s first experimental firearms derived from the turn-bolt action of the Dreyse needle-gun that had served as the primary German infantry weapon in the Franco-Prussian War. No, Mauser’s main contribution to hunting rifles was not in the lock-up, but in cartridge feeding. Even now, no one has improved on the Mauser method for whisking rounds into and out of rifle chambers. Attempts at either bettering this clever German’s accomplishments or making cheaper mechanisms that work as well have been notably unsuccessful. But magazine form and function remains a crucial element of any bolt rifle. Differences in feeding are among the primary ways to distinguish one modern bolt action from another. Only triggers are as disparate; and they’re easy to replace with aftermarket versions.
This 1950s-era Mauser was marketed by Sears.
While Paul Mauser’s redesign of the Dreyse went unappreciated at the Wuerttem-berg, Prussian and Austrian War Ministries, it intrigued Samuel Norris, an American visiting Europe as an agent for E. Remington &Sons. Norris offered to bankroll the Mauser brothers if they agreed to convert the French Chassepot to fire metallic cartridges. In 1867 they moved to Liege, Belgium and began work. But when Norris failed to interest the French government in the effort, he broke the contract. Since they had no money to do anything else, Paul and Wilhelm returned to Oberndorf, where they opened shop in the home of Paul’s father-in-law.
Fortuitously, the Royal Prussian Military Shooting School had been testing a Mauser rifle submitted earlier. Ordnance people asked the Mausers to change a few things before resubmitting the design for consideration by the Prussian infantry. In 1872 the Mauser Model 1871, a single-shot breechloader firing an 11mm blackpowder cartridge, became the o arm.
Even with this coup, Paul and Wilhelm found riches elusive. The Prussian army paid them only about 15 percent of what they’d been led to expect. Furthermore, the new rifles were to be manufactured in government arsenals, not by the Mausers. To keep their shop solvent, the brothers contracted with the army to produce 3000 sights for the Model 1871. Later, a Bavarian order for 100,000 sights financed a new Mauser factory in Oberndorf. Then the Wuerttemberg War Ministry negotiated with Paul and Wilhelm to build 100,000 rifles. To fulfill that contract they bought the Wuerttemberg Royal Armory—with help from the Wuerttemberg Vereinsbank of Stuttgart. The last of the 100,000 Model 71s left the Armory in 1878.
After Wilhelm died, Mauser Bros. & Co. offered stock. Ludwig Loewe & Co. of Berlin gained controlling interest. In 1889 Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre (FN) became established near Liege to produce Model 1889 Mauser rifles for the Belgian government. The 89, Paul’s first successful smokeless-powder rifle, incorporated elements that established him as the dominant firearms designer in Europe. Subsequent improvements included a staggered-column, fixed-box magazine (in 1893). By 1895 the action had evolved into a prototype of the famous Model 1898.
The German Army adopted the 98 Mauser on April 5 of that year. It immediately became the most popular military arm to that point in history. France, Great Britain, Russia and the U.S. designed and produced their own battle rifles, but none surpassed the 98 in function or durability. Many other countries either imported it or obtained license to build it. Among its most endearing features is its magazine. Unobtrusive and commonly taken for granted, this device more than any other shows Paul Mauser’s genius. When
