Help with 1895 Mauser identification

[howard2]

In the past year I had bought a rifle at a online auction listed as a Brazilian (wasn't) It clearly was a barn find (literally) and paid accordingly. From what I can tell its a 1895 Mauser. Deutsche Waffen-und Munitionfabriken marked. 29 inch barrel, 48 inch overall. Serials are mixed. No letter prefix, just the circle with the squiggly (trade mark?). Bolt 5999. Receiver 8036. Floor plate 5094. Bolt is flat on the bottom. No cutout on the left hand of receiver for feeding stripper clips. When I started to remove the grime and clean up the stock , initials were carved on the left hand side of the buttstock. C CLOUTE (the plot thickens). No other visible stampings or markings. By my understanding this is a Chilean mauser. I don't believe this to be a Boer Mauser, or is it? It shoots quite well too.

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[Potashminer]

You do not mention, but I presume it is chambered for 7x57 Mauser?

So, from table in "Mauser Military Rifles of the World" 5th edition, there were 37,000 Mausers made/sent to South African Republic (ZAR) and Orange Free State. Apparently good documentation exists from shipping manifests. 10,000 rifles were delivered - serial number 1 to 10,000 (must be an over count of one, since only 4 digits used, I think) that did NOT have a letter prefix - from description, no receiver crest, straight bolt handle, used the circular cartouche (probably what you describe as squiggly thing in the circle). 2,000 of them shipped to ZAR in March 1897 and further 8,000 in May through August that same year. Of note. Earlier ones with A prefix and B prefix were stamped as made by Ludwig Loewe & Co., Berlin. In late 1896 that became Deutsche Waffe-und-Munitionsfrabriken - DWM - same company, new name. A set of similar rifles, with prefix "C" - serial number C1 to C4,000 were ordered by the Boer forces, made with turned down bolt handles, but were stopped by the British blockade and returned to Germany in the fall of 1899 - a Chilean crest was applied to the receiver, and these rifles sent to Chile.

I have a number of books by Dave C George with multiple illustrations of the carvings that were done into the rifle wood by the soldiers - almost un-heard of anywhere else, but was apparently an order from Boer General Joubert for each soldier to mark and identify his own rifle. As per the Dave George books, it is extremely unusual to find a Boer rifle with a matching bolt - British, Canadian and Australian captured arms or surrendered arms had the bolts removed and were tossed into barrels; the rifles were stacked like cordwood on pallets - no attempt to match them up again when re-sold.

The "Boer Mauser" that I have is from the "B" serial number series - so a Lud. Leowe marked rifle, not DWM. I also have what is left of an 1895 Chilean mauser - the rear of the receiver is quite different - the 1895 Chilean has a protrusion that the bolt handle slots into as a "third" or safety locking lug - so far as I know, is the only 1893 pattern mauser rifle that had that. The flat bottom bolt face often went along with a rib in the middle of the left receiver rail for that left side bolt lug - instead of the anti-bind ridge at the top of the bolt on the later 98 versions.

Note: "squiggly thing in circle" - I have read them referred to as "fractur" - from an older german script - have not yet read what the various fractur were to mean or represent - found on receivers, sometimes on the wood stocks, sometimes on the bolt handle knobs.