Mauser African Twins
Such a long rifle was really unsuited to most African terrain; consequently sales were not brisk and the African model was not made in large numbers – it is, in fact, quite rare
AROUND 1905, HOPING to increase sales among African settlers and hunters, Ma us er introduced the ‘Original Mauser M agazine Sporting Rifle, Special Afric ant ype’. It had a 28-inch barrel (more correctly, 700mm) and its stock’s fore-end extended three-quarters of the way to the muzzle. Such a long rifle was really unsuited to most African terrain; consequently sales were not brisk and the African model was not made in large numbers – it is, in fact, quite rare. Many examples were modified by their owners who shortened the barrels and stocks. These rifles are especially rare overseas, but fortunately for local Mauser collectors, there are a few in South Africa.
The Mauser factory also listed the African model as the ‘Normal Hunting Rifle Type L’ which stood for ‘Lang’ – a reference to its long barrel and fore-stock. As usual, they could be ordered in most of the Mauser calibres and with various options, including express or tangent rear sights, or one standing and two folding leaves; round or octagonal barrels, or half-octagonal/half-round; single or double set triggers; lever-release magazine floorplate or pushbutton in the trigger guard, etc. Most had chequering at the grip and on the fore-end.
A SUB-VARIANT of the African model was fitted with a wooden handguard enclosing the top of the barrel from the receiver to a special barrel band located about halfway down the barrel. This model is known among Mauser collectors as the ‘African model with Handguard’ and is even rarer than the normal African model. Although the Mauser factory data charts list many options for this rifle, all original examples that I have examined have been fitted with tangent rear sights on 700mm round barrels, floorplates with lever release and have been chequered at the grip only.
This is a tale of two identical, consecutively serial numbered ‘African models with Handguard’.
In 2016, while perusing some rifles for sale on the Classic Arms Auction, I came across a Mauser African model with Handguard in calibre 9x57mm Mauser. The rifle was in very good original condition, but very disappointingly, its bolt had a mismatched serial number. Normally I would never consider buying a Mauser sporter with mismatched numbers, but I noticed that the serial number of the bolt differed from that of the receiver by only one digit, and I therefore decided to buy the rifle if the price was right. At the auction I was fortunate to buy this rifle (I’ll call it “Rifle X”) for about half of what it would normally sell for. This I attributed to the fact that other Mauser collectors had also noticed the bolt’s number and declined to bid on a non-matching-numbers rifle.
After receiving the licence and collecting Rifle X, I eagerly stripped it down for proper cleaning and discovered to my astonishment that some of the other parts were also mismatched by one digit! Rifle X’s components were numbered as follows:
This had me perplexed. Clearly Rifle X had not been assembled from randomly mismatched parts, as its parts collectively reflected just two consecutive sets of numbers. Furthermore, one can accept that the bolt may have been inadvertently swopped, which quite often happened with Mauser rifles when gunshop personnel accidentally swopped the bolts on similar rifles, particularly dealers who followed the practice of storing the bolts separately from the rifles. However, this does not explain why the other parts were also mismatched. In particular, I found it difficult to believe that someone would have swopped the handguard as this is quite difficult to remove and entails punching out a pin in the front barrel band. Similarly, why would someone remove the steel grip-cap (held in with a screw) and swop it with an identical looking grip-cap from another rifle? Although it seemed a long shot, I slowly became convinced that there must be another Mauser rifle (most probably with serial number 104750) with a similar set of mismatched parts.
RIFLE ‘Y’
After much research and countless enquiries and phone calls, I was able to locate the owner of a Mauser rifle in the Northern Cape with serial number 104750 (referred to as Rifle Y). Imagine my delight when I first spoke
To say I was overjoyed would be an understatement, as I had finally found the twin brother to Rifle X! All the mismatched parts of Rifle X were in fact installed in Rifle Y, and precisely vice versa. What an incredible coincidence!
After reassembling the rifles with their correct parts, I now had two very rare original Mauser African models with Handguard, both with fully matching numbers throughout, in the same calibre and with absolutely identical features, and what’s more, they had consecutive serial numbers! Such a set is very hard to find and something very special for a Mauser collector.
Of course I was very happy that my quest had been successful and that both rifles, having gone for 88 years with incorrect parts, were now as they should be. However there remained the nagging question: how had the mismatching come about?
Obviously, the parts-swop must have occurred when the two rifles had been together at some stage. Rifle X shows significantly more surface wear then Rifle Y, and it is therefore easy to distinguish which metal parts lived together. It is clear from the condition of the metal that the parts swop must have happened a very long time ago.
I presume that a South African dealer ordered these two rifles together from Mauser in Germany in the early 1930s (their date of manufacture is given as 1930 in the book Original
Oberndorf Sporting Rifles by Jon Speed et al). The previous owner of Rifle Y assured me it had been in his family’s possession since the 1930s and passed down through the generations. So it is probably safe to assume that these two rifles never came together again after the 1930s, until 2018 when they were re-united by me. Again, I find it improbable that someone would have swapped all four items – bolt, handguard, steel grip-cap and magazine box, even if the rifles were together in the same gun shop. Taking all this into account, and after careful consideration, it is therefore my belief that the parts’ number mix-up took place during assembly at the Mauser factory. This is confirmed by the fact that both handguards are a better fit on their mismatched rifles, aligning perfectly with the stocks as one would expect from rifles assembled at the Mauser factory. When fitted to the rifles which match the handguard serial numbers, a distinct step is left between the handguard and the stock. So both handguards were adjusted to fit the wrong rifles during factory assembly.
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