Unusual 1871 Mauser

[Dutchman]

This rifle came out of a private collection in Iowa about 25 years ago. I didn't know the details of this rifle until I got it. What makes it unusual?

Its a rebuild with all the parts being stamped with the number 5. On the receiver sidewall where it would normally be stamped IG71 it was carefully removed and polished over. Not roughly ground off but polished. What really gets the curiosity going is that brass thumbtack with the number 10.

The late Mauser expert John Wall suggested this rifle was a sample piece where prospective buyers could view and handle items for sale. Northern Ireland was one such customer of these early Mauser rifles. The facts of this sample are lost to history.

Information

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[Patrick Chadwick]

My cynical view of this one: "Buy the gun, not the story".

Forget the fanciful interpretation. It's just a bitsa with a host of different numbers on the various parts. My '71 looks like a wreck, but every last screw has a matching number. Imperial Germany was very pernickety about numbering. And 5 is just the number of a donor rifle. Numbers went from 1 to 9999 and then repeated with a letter added. An arsenal rebuild would have had the old numbers lined out, but the replacement bits would have been renumbered to match the barrelled receiver, not the other way around!

Whoever did this forced matching found stamping everything with a 5 was simpler!

[LTPayton88]

Beautiful gun. Looking for one for myself one day.