Oh, the horrors of it! Sawed, whacked, sanded and wire wheeled

Guns Magazine, Dec, 2007 by Holt Bodinson

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Something about a molested milsurp gets my adrenalin flowing and my wallet out. The poor little devils just get picked up by the wrong hands. The abuses exacted on them are, well, unkind to say the least. So give these forlorn artifacts some attention when you come across them. There just may be a hidden, historical gem lurking beneath that hideous facade we can restore and pass on to a future owner.

And so it was. Walking into Murphy's Gun Shop in Tucson, Arizona, I spied two pitiful Model 1891 Argentine Mausers awaiting their new owners over in the milsurp rack--a rifle and a carbine. The rifle had its stock cut back to the middle barrel band and was partially sporterized. The Argentine crest had been ground off, but the bore was pristine, and the bluing and metal finish was gorgeous, 19th century quality.

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The cute, little carbine, on the other hand, had been unceremoniously dumped by its previous owner in the middle of a facelift. Someone had decided that it needed a dermaabrasion and stroked it up and down with a pack of sandpaper. The bluing was mostly sanded or wire wheeled away. There were signs of black paint inside the receiver and cold blue patches here and there. The bore was fair, but the Argentine crest was still intact as were the clasping hands of the Argentine acceptance marks on each part of the petite thing.

Price wasn't a factor. The carbine sported a price tag of $129 and the rifle a few dollars more.

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The skeleton of the rifle was in much better condition plus there are a whale of a lot more surplus rifle parts out there for restoration work than for carbines. I knew I could find a used rifle stock, but the ground-off crest was a bummer. Yet, as the shooter I am, that pristine bore was inviting now that 7.65 Argentine sporting ammunition is being loaded by Hornady and Prvi Partisan.

The carbine was the rarer of the two since many more infantry rifles are produced than cavalry carbines. The crisp Argentine crest, the acceptance marks and matching serial numbers on the carbine were real pluses in spite of the dermaabrasion given the woodwork and metal. The condition of the bore didn't compare to the rifle's, but I suspected it would shoot. It would just be a miserable elbow-bending mess to clean. Horse soldiers don't take good care of their arms. Their horses get the attention, not their carbines stuck down there in those wet, sweat soaked, saddle boots.

Hmm. The decision could have gone either way. Yet there is a handiness to a carbine no rifle can approach. Holding the light, little carbine in my hands, I could fantasize pussyfooting through the woods with that 1891 carbine, jumping big, whitetail bucks out of their beds, although I probably never would. Yet, if I could, I would. There's a lot of fantasy attached to gun buying, and I'm as big a dreamer as the next guy.

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I bought the 1891 carbine. The 1891 Mauser and its stablemates, the 1889 Belgium and 1890 Turkish Mausers are a trio essentially sharing the same basic design elements. Taken together, they are a watershed in Mauser design. They were nothing short of being revolutionary when compared to Mauser's ponderous 1871/84 black powder model and the 1888 Commission rifle. In short, they were a clean break with the past and a harbinger of Mauser creativity to come.

Here's why. They were Mauser's first smokeless powder models, chambered for the modern looking, Mauser designed, 7.65x53mm cartridge, also referred to as the 7.65x54 and 7.65 Argentine. They eliminated the cumbersome and expensive Mannlicher-type packet charging system of the 1888 Commission rifle and replaced it with cheap, disposable, 5-round stripper clips and a true, in-line, box magazine readily recharged at any time.

They were built around a one-piece bolt with opposed dual locking lugs, thus eliminating the removable bolt head of the 1871/84 Mauser and 1888 Commission rifle. The rear receiver bridge was solid, not split like that of the M71/84 and M1888, and even the early elements of a Mauser bolt sleeve are first seen in these models. Historically speaking, the 1889/1890/1891 trio may be the most important of all Mauser's designs. If you don't own one, you should!

The impetus for the new design was Belgium's call for a rifle recharged at any time. That one requirement eliminated any design based on the Mannlicher clip. Mauser stepped into the breach with the invention of the stripper clip and a new box magazine and secured the Belgium 1889 contract. At the time, Mauser's production facilities were tied up with satisfying the 1887 Turkish contract for an M71/84-type rifle firing the 9.5mm Turkish cartridge, so production of the M1889 was largely carried out in Belgium at FN, which made 275,000 until production ceased in 1925.

When the Turks caught wind of the new M1889 design, they immediately exercised a clause in their 1887 contract requiring Mauser to provide them with any improved designs if they occurred during the life of their contract. The result was production of the M1887 was halted and work began on the M1890 Turkish Mauser, which differed primarily from the M1889 Belgium by the elimination of the 1888 Commission-type barrel jacket and the addition of a wooden handguard.