This is one of the rarest of the German WW1 issued Mauser rifles, We have an M1907 Chinese Contract Mauser Rifle that was Issued to the Germany Army at the onset of WW1. There were 12,000 of these rifles un-shipped and on hand at Mauser at the outbreak of war in 1914. They were immediately re-chambered from the Chinese 6.8mm cartridge into the standard 8×57 German Military round and issued to the Prussian 4 1/2 Reserve Corps in 1914 (some sources say Wurrtemburg) They were heavily used in combat by these units as they were called up to the front line in 1915. Few survived the war. In fact so little was known about the rifle that several were shipped home to Springfield Armory for testing after the war.
The M1907 is basically an export economy version of the Gewehr 98 Service rifle. They are slightly more simply built and weigh about a pound less. These rifles were re-chambered to the German service round by the firm of Oscar Will located near Suhl. They are proofed and also imperial accepted. Our example is matching and has a inventory plate attached to the bottom of the buttstock indicating that is was in a large collection at one time. The most notable features of these rifles is the very short nose cap and the short bayonet lug. You will also notice the standard type of sight as opposed to the Lange Vizier sight. If you are a serious advanced Mauser collector you know what an important find this rifle is and I do not expect it to stick around for very long.
