Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Back in the 60's, my brother picked up this nice little '95 Chilean Mauser.
He sporterized the (original) stock and its been a light, good handling little gun ever since.
Shot my first deer with it when I was 14.
Anyway, I've always been curious as to how old this gun actually is.
So far, I've determined that the gun was made before Jan., 1, 1897, since the manufacturer is listed as Loewe of Berlin.
There is no serial number, as none of these guns had one, but all of the parts have a "C 621" printed on them.
I realize this is probably some kind of stock number, made to show that all of these pieces are orignal to the gun itself (as a replacement part would have a different number on it).
Nothing special there, but I started to wonder if that couldn't be used to help date the gun.
I suppose "C 621" could be defined as "Parts to be assembled for the 621st gun made for the Chilean Government".

Experts,

Would that be a correct assumption?
Would it also be a correct assumption that any '95 Mauser would not pre-date Jan., 1, 1895?

Just trying to pinpoint this gun's date of manufacture, as close as possible.



Dean

As far as year of manufacture goes it just may have been built anywhere from 1895 to 1897 as they didn't put dates on some of them like they did the on the German 98s. It would depend how many they made in a year. That one would be in the 4th 10,000 set of rifles with the C prefix. First would be no letter then A then B and so forth.

The C 621is the serial number and if it is all matching it will have that number or the last 2 digits of it on all parts.

Rad

_________________


NRA Benefactor Member
AMA Life Member
Tri-State Gun Collectors Life Member

Thanks Rad,

It was my understanding that none of the Chilean Mausers had a serial number printed on them, but that entire number, "C621", actually appears on many parts of the gun, thus my assumption that it may have been a stock number.
Thanks for defining the code for me.
So would the "621" mean that it was the 621st gun of that set of 10,000?
I do know it was made before 1897, as "Loewe" became "DWM" on 1/1/97.
I was also wondering if the "1895" Mauser existed before the actual year of 1895.
You'd think it wouldn't, but you never know.
If that is true, then that would narrow the gun's year of manufacture to between 1895 and 1896.
4th set of 10000 would more than likely land it in the year 1896, but that's assuming the '95 Mauser's do not predate 1/1/95.



Dean

_________________

It's 5 o'clock and it's watermelon time.....................
because you can't drink beer & load rockets - TXPete

1895 was the year it was accepted and production may not have started till late 95 or 1896.

A book that will also give some info is: "Mauser Military Rifles of the World" by Robert W D Ball. The 4th edition is still available from Amazon.

Rad

_________________


NRA Benefactor Member
AMA Life Member
Tri-State Gun Collectors Life Member

HerrMesser,

Thanks for the further info. I do appreciate your help with this.
Thank you, very much.

So, it looks like its most likely that 1896 was the year this gun was manufactured.
Cool. I'll let my brother know.
-------------------------------------------------------

Et2ss,

I was wondering when someone was going to post something like that.
I almost started my initial post off with something similar, but then figured that it may be better to just post the matter at hand.


Dean