Assisting in the identification of this 7x57 Mauser ?

[Patrick Chadwick]

This rifle is a puzzler. It does not seem to match any of the ZAR/OVS variations described by Ball in "Mauser Military Rifles of the World". Or any standard military model of the time.

Military rifles had the factory text (DWM or Ludwig Loewe etc) applied on the left side rail of the receiver. The receiver ring usually had the national crest of the country that placed the order. The (model) year was either in the text on the rail, or below the crest. And the number was always stamped on the left side of the receiver ring - in the position where this rifle has the proof markings. BTW, crown over N is the post-1893 proof mark for a nitro-proof. And military inspection stamps in Germany were a crown over a "fraktur" letter.

But no date at all? Neither as model date nor as manufacturing date? Very strange. I think this is a commercial Mauser made up on an action purchased from DWM (i.e. 1897 or later, DWM being founded in November 1896).

The trigger guard (see photo above) seems to have had a magazine-floorplate release catch at on time - you can see where the slot has been filled in.

The marking "C. 7 mm." on the left side of the backsight base is also a non-military feature. Since the German word for calibre is "Kaliber" with a K, I deduce that this marking was applied after the rifle had left Germany.

BTW. Gert, why did you write "split-bridge" in the first post. This is not a split-bridge Mauser, as was the Portuguese Model 1904.