Peruvian M1909 Date of Manufacture: Help Needed

[Marksman]

Hi,

Does anyone have any info. linking serial numbers of Peruvian M1909 rifles with date of manufacture? I've just bought an unfired rifle in super condition: serial number 16xxx. If it's mre than 100 years old, it will be easier to import into the UK.

Thanks,

Mark.

Information

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[Badger]

Check the MKL ....

1909 Peruvian Infantry Rifle (Mfg by Mauser-Werke A.G. Oberndorf a/N.)

Regards,
Badger

[Marksman]

Thanks Badger. That's where I went first. However I'd like to narrow the date of manufacture more closely than "50,000 manufactured between 1910 and 1914". Webster's marvellous book on Argentine Mausers enabled me to determine the date (year and month) of my M1891 while the acceptance year date is stamped on my Chilean M1895. I was hoping to get similarly exact info. for my Peruvian M1909. Mark.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Marksman, won't the UK authorities judge the rifle by the caliber? There is a Home Office paper listing obsolete calibers, "for which no ammunition is available on the open market", and I doubt very much that the Belgian/Argentine caliber is on that list. In which case, the exact date of build will probably not help much. I think you should check that aspect first!

Patrick

[Marksman]

Patrick, as you're probably well aware the various aspects of legislation affecting firearms in the UK (and probably in lots of other countries) are not consistent. Her Majesty's Custom & Excise regard anything more than a hundred years old as "Antique" and so importation doesn't require an import licence and a reduced rate of tax is levied. What happens once it's in the UK is another matter: if the rifle's chambering is on the Home Office list of obsolete calibres and if it's going to be held as an "ornament or curio" then a Firearms Certificate is not required (even if it's less than 100 years old). If the calibre isn't on the list (7.65x53, for example) then the rifle isn't an Antique for licensing purposes even though it is more a 100 years old, like my M1891 Argentine Mauser. Despite these inconsistencies, the obsolete calire list approach has worked reasonably well over the last ten years or so. Mark.