1915 Mauser Spanish or German?

A

a_thorpe_cvg

Inactive
I got a old 7mm Mauser from my father. He said he looked it up and it was made in 1915, he also thought it was German. I have looked into that and I think it might be Spanish and not German. It has the serial #Q3**, there is also a small cross with a circle around it on the bolt. Can any one verify if its Spanish or German. I would love as much info as I can get on it.
Thank You
ALT
 
7mm was Spanish issue.
It might well have been made on contract in Germany. I don't know that Spain tooled up for Mausers until WW II era when they changed to 8mm like their buddies, the Nazis.
You got pictures?
 
Spain was one of the first nations to buy the whole package from Mauser: rifles, factory, and tooling. In 1894, Spain adopted the 1893 Mauser with the then-new 7X57mm cartridge, and purchased a turnkey operation at the same time, including tooling and machinery and engineering expertise for their armory facility at Oviedo. They began replacing their old rifles and selling rifles to other countries who would or could not pay for German manufactured rifles. At the end of the Spanish Civil War they looked at several options for rearming and modernizing their arsenal. They looked at Mosin-Nagants and M1917 Enfields in the USA, Carcanos in Italy, and Mausers from Germany, as well as for advice and expertise. In 1943, they adopted the M98 system and installed the manufacturing facility at La Coruna in order to keep their armories separate in case of a coup.

Your 7X57 is likely Spanish, and the cross in the circle is a NATO symbol, meaning the bolt and action probably don't match.
 
Hi, Scorch,

I have seen that "cross" or "Maltese cross" in a circle on several Spanish Mausers and doubt it has anything to do with NATO, since the 7mm rifles were never NATO weapons. The marks I have seen differ from the NATO marking (as on ammunition) in that the ends of the cross arms are flared, and don't touch the circle.

I frankly don't know what it does mean (nor do I know what the many other marks on those rifles mean), but I suspect it is just one more inspection marking.

Jim
 
Don't forget that some of the 7mm's were converted later to 7.62 NATO. Double check to be sure that your rifle is, in fact, a 7mm.
 
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