doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion German & Austrian Sporting Guns @ doublegunshop.com New commercial Mauser made in 1942

Is it unusual to find a really nice engraved double square bridge, mannlicher stocked Mauser with a butter knife bolt handle which by its number appears to have been made in 1942.
Talking to a friend in England on the phone who collects Mausers a couple of days ago and he was over the moon with his find.
All civilian production of firearms stopped in Britain at the beginning of the war and you would have thought the same would have applied in Germany unless this rifle was especially made for some Nazi big wig.

Nero, I believe I have read that there was still some sporting rifle construction in Germany during the war. Perhaps exactly the kind you described, politically motivated. It will take Axel, Mike or Raimey to confirm or deny that.

Hitler never reduced the production of civilian goods to the extent that the US and Britain did, ostensibly because he was afraid of the kind of reaction among the civilian population which occurred at the end of World War I.

I have more than one Mauser sporting rifle manufactured during the war, and not too long ago sold a Mauser action rifle in caliber 9.3X57, clearly intended for the Scandinavian market, which was made during the War by Germaniawerke (Anschuetz).

My assumption is that sale of civilian goods to Sweden would help offset the outflow of hard currency involved in the purchase of badly needed Swedish iron ore.

In 1942, before the battle of Stalingrad, the Nazis still felt to be future winners of WW2. Mauser, Oberndorf never stopped making civilian sporters. According to Jon Speed's "Mauser-Original Oberndorf Sporting Rifles" they made about 1300 sporters in 1940, 1000 in 1941, 250 in 1942, 350 in 1943, 155 in 1944 and 135 from 1945 to 1950 under French occupation. Later, Walter R�ll, until 1946 head of the Mauser commercial shop, made at least another 1600 R�ll-Mausers from leftover and new-made parts until 1965.

Yesterday, I had the chance to examine a Meffert Hubertus Dural framed drilling in 16x16-8x57IR( nicht fur S)that was in almost new condition.This drilling was proofed in 1941(May, if I remember correctly), so they were still producing pretty nice guns for the civilian market throughout the war.While we didn't enter the war until almost 42, the Germans were in it full force since 39.
Mike