“When it all comes down, the last man standing is going to be standing there in shorts and sneakers with a ’98 Mauser, and all the ninja-looking guys belly up at his feet – with all their cool gear.” I recommend his book Defensive Shotgun Techniques. Awerbuck wrote several books and produced videos on various techniques. A native of South Africa, he was the first Rangemaster of what became Col Jeff Cooper’s Gunsite Academy. To this day, after over one hundred-twenty years, the Mauser rifle is still one of the world’s most popular bolt action rifles.Louis Awerbuck was a firearms author and instructor.

Among those are the M1903 Springfield, Winchester Model 70, M1917 Enfield, Savage Model 110, Remington Model 700, and the Ruger Model 77. The Mauser rifle design has inspired some of the most popular firearms in the world.

By 1944, the number of employees at Oberndorf had skyrocketed to an amazing 12,000 people with production being concentrated on the Models 98K, Luger, P-38 and HSC. This may have been the end of the Mauser legacy, if not for the rearmament of Germany in the 1930’s. The Mauser plant at Oberndorf, which had produced so many of the military weapons used in WW1, was greatly scaled down after the war to approximately 750 workers who were engaged in the production of sporting rifles and pistols. Turkey, China, Serbia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and numerous South American countries ordered rifles of the Mauser design. This would also prove to be a highly successful design and just one of many models to follow.įollowing the development of the Model 98, the Mauser name began to receive worldwide recognition. It was twenty some years later that the Mauser Military Model 1896, commonly referred to as the Broomhandle Mauser pistol, was introduced. The long and fascinating history of Mauser rifles began with the acceptance of the Model 1871 by the Prussian War department.

Paul and Wilhelm Mauser couldn’t possibly have known the impact their simple yet effective turn bolt design would have on the future of firearms.

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