![]() Undergoing military tests at the start of the First World War, the Mauser 10/13 rifle was ultimately rejected by the German Army proper, but found a home in the German Air Corps and the German Ballon-und-Zeppelin-Truppe. A rifle soon appeared with the same mechanism and a shorter half-length stock with a protrusion near the magazine well to aid in shouldering the rifle – this was designated as the Mauser 10/13 Self-loading Rifle. The 06/08 rifle had been tested as an aviation rifle, but its length was unwieldy. The Selbstlader-Karabiner Mauser M 1916 was a further refinement of the 06/08 rifle, and its most notable features was a more ergonomic stock and an overall reduction in length. The same design principle was carried over into the final and most notable model of the Mauser self-loader: The Selbstlader-Karabiner Mauser M 1916. Despite the overwhelming complication of the design, the 06/08 rifle was the longest-lived mechanism of the Mauser self-loaders. Then, the slide catch must be released, so that the weapon is fully in battery. With a hold-open device keeping the slide rearward, the bolt can then be pulled rearward and let go to strip a new round into the magazine. Just to load the weapon fresh, the slide must be pulled back and manually locked into place, so that the locking lugs are retracted. It was an unnecessarily complicated design, and reloading the weapon was a laborious two-handed affair. Thereafter the slide is released, which again locks the lugs behind the breech block and enables the firing pin to be engaged. With the slide locked back in place, the bolt is free to travel forward again, stripping a round from the magazine into the chamber. As the slide moves rearward, it opens the two lugs so they sit flush against the walls of the receiver, which finally allows the impulse of recoil to drive the bolt rearward. When the rifle is fired, recoil instead operates a slide that is positioned atop the receiver that is attached to the two locking lugs via cams cut into it. When the rifle is in battery, two pivoting lugs in a V-shape join together behind the breech block to prevent the block from recoiling rearwards, locking it in place. The method of operation for the 06/08 rifle was by a fixed barrel and a delayed-blowback action. In fact due to the nature of the weapon’s operation, an internal magazine would have been extremely difficult, if not practically impossible to load. Opting not for an internal magazine, the 06/08 rifle introduced a 20-round detachable magazine. The first apparent difference between the Mauser 06/08 Self-loading Rifle and the previous two Mauser self-loaders is the relatively massive magazine size. The magazine was internal and held 5 rounds.Ībandoning both the short- and long-recoil designs, the next iteration of the Mauser Self-loading Rifle came in 1908 with what was essentially an upscaled version of Mauser’s C06/08 pistol. If the pivoting bolt handle was turned down (locked, as in the case of a bolt-action rifle), the rifle would be prevented from operating semi-automatically. The bolt-catch feature of the Model 1898 was absent in this design, but once again Mauser did give the rifle the provision for manual operation. The most identifiable feature of this rifle is the pivoting bolt-handle that appears much like that of a bolt-action rifle, except located near the very front end of the bolt. Unlike the short-recoil action of the Model 1898, the Model 1905 Self-loading Rifle (Sometimes referred to as the Model 1902) used the method of long-recoil, whereby the barrel and breech block, locked together, recoil laterally the entire length of recoil before disengaging. ![]() ![]() In 1905, a new rifle appeared utilizing an entirely different method of operation. Unfortunately for Paul Mauser, the rifle provided an emergency of its own and, during testing of the rifle, a malfunction cost Paul Mauser one of his eyes.ĭespite personal injury, development of Mauser’s self-loading rifles continued. This provision was considered as a way to prevent the waste of ammunition, and the self-loading feature was only to be used in an emergency that required a high rate of fire. ![]() Interestingly, this original rifle had a provision that was to allow for “slow fire” manual firing whereby on the rearward movement of the breech block, it would snag a latch that would need to be depressed for the bolt to be allowed to travel back toward the barrel and strip a new round from the magazine. This original rifle operated by the means of short recoil, where the breech block is cycled by means of a partially-traversing barrel. The line of rifles began in 1897 with Paul Mauser’s development of the Mauser 1898 Recoil-Operated Rifle. The history of the Mauser semi-automatic rifles begins under questionable circumstances. ![]()
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