page_title: Mauser
section_title: Models 1889/90/91 and Experimental Model 92
hierarchical_section_title: Mauser / Mauser firearms pre-1945 / Rifles / Models 1889/90/91 and Experimental Model 92
caption_attribution_description: English: Sweden. Experimental rifle m/1892 tested in the rifle trials that led to the Swedish Mauser. Made by Mauser, Oberndorf a/N, Germany. Caliber 8x58mmR Danish Krag (the Swedish standard rifle caliber prior to the 6.5x55mm; the 8x58mmR rounds tested had a steel jacketed 14.5 gr bullet over smokeless powder, with a muzzle velocity of 605 m/s), fixed external magazine, capacity 4 rounds. Length 1235 mm, barrel length 735 mm, weight 3.84 kg. From the collections of Armémuseum (Swedish Army Museum), Stockholm.
context_page_description: Mauser, originally Königliche Waffen Schmieden, is a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols has been produced since the 1870s for the German armed forces. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mauser designs were also exported and licensed to many countries which adopted them as military and civilian sporting firearms. The Mauser Model 98 in particular was widely adopted and copied, and is the foundation of many of today's sporting bolt action rifles.
context_section_description: After the Mauser brothers finished work on the Model 71/84 in 1880, the design team set out to create a small caliber repeater that used smokeless powder. Because of setbacks brought on by Wilhelm Mauser's death, they failed to have the design completed by 1882, and the German Rifle Test Commission (Gewehr-Prüfungskommission) was formed. The commission preferred to create their own design. Paul Mauser created two different variations of the same rifle, one with a stock strengthened with a barrel shroud and a traditional design following the layout of the 71 series in hope he might be able to overturn the commission's decision, or at least sell his design to the Kingdom of Bavaria, which adopted its own arms. The two rifles became known as the 89 Belgian (with a barrel shroud) and the 91 Argentine (with a 71 layout) Mausers, identical in their function and feed system. The main features were the ability to use stripper clips to feed the magazine (a revolution in rate of fire), and its rimless 7.65×53mm Mauser ammunition, advanced for the time.
  The system proved impressive at the 1884 Bavarian Arms Trials. Both firearms were a success, but decision-makers were not convinced that the stripper feed was superior to the en-bloc system employed by Mannlicher. In response, Mauser started small-scale production of the design in an effort to interest foreign nations, but failed to convince any of the European major powers.
  The Belgian attache, however, urged his government to contact Mauser, hoping the design might give them a chance to found a domestic arms industry. The heavy-barreled Mauser with the barrel shroud resulted in the founding of arms manufacturer FN Herstal. FN could not keep up with orders, so they outsourced production to the Birmingham Small Arms Company in England.
  The Belgians' talks with Mauser prompted the Ottoman Empire to consider the design. In the end they ordered their own simpler variation of the 91 Argentine Mauser known as the 90 Turkish. While this was taking place, the Argentine Small Arms Commission contacted Mauser in 1886 to replace their Model 71s; since they wished to keep retraining of their armed forces to a minimum, they went for the Mauser 91. As with other early Mausers, most such arms were made by the Ludwig Loewe company, who in 1896 joined with other manufactures to form Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken.
  All variations used the same 7.65 mm round-nosed cartridge. Many parts were interchangeable, with the exception of the bayonets of the 89 and 90/91; the barrel shroud made the bayonet ring too wide. The 89 Mauser rejected by Germany in 1884 entered service in 1940 with the second-line units of Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
  A non-rotating Mauser claw extractor was introduced in the Model 92. Several variations of this model participated in rifle trials for the U.S. Army of that year; the Norwegian Krag–Jørgensen rifle was ultimately chosen.
caption: Mauser Experimental Model 92 in caliber 8x58R. This rifle took part in the rifle trials that led to the Swedish Mauser.
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