What is Reddit's opinion of History of the Mauser Rifle in Chile: Mauser Chileno Modelo 1895, 1912, and 1935?

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I've never seen that before.

What specific type of 1912 is it? Is it a 1912 long rifle or short rifle? Was it converted to 7.62 Nato?

I'll check my reference book later to double check, but I don't recall seeing anything about that in there. For what it's worth David Nielsen's History of the Mauser Rifle in Chile: Mauser Chileno Modelo 1895, 1912, and 1935 is one of the best books I've seen on any given rifle, especially for the price of 34 dollars. Tons of original information and details you don't normally see in the typical "gun books".

None of what I've got is particularly excellent condition. I've never wanted to drop the coin for nearly mint stuff and always been happy getting guns that are in generally "good shape". What you posted here is by far in better shape than really any Mauser I own.

Careful with how you word those requests on reddit, they don't take kindly to sales of boomsticks. Easy way to get a sub banned. Probably best to edit that comment to reflect your interest in finding one elsewhere.

With regard to number of short rifle production, not off the top of my head, but it's referenced in my imgur album: 5600 short rifles and 37,500 long rifles based on numbers in Nielsen's book on Chilean Mausers. For this reason they're quite uncommon. I was lucky to find this one for sale on Century Arms website for very little money several years back.

Its an excellent book, especially for the price. I highly recommend it.

Very cool! You've got a fairly uncommon Mauser, only about 6000 of these ever made. I made a post on these several years ago.

David Nielson's book on the Chilean Mausers is a must have resource on these.

Original Steyr 1912 bayonets are also pretty easy to find and pretty cheap.

Also the Steyr 1912-61 is pretty neat too.

I made a couple posts not too long ago about these rifles, the Chilean Steyr Model 1912-61. I also have a 1912 Short rifle, one that is rare in the grand scheme of Mausers, but reasonably easy to find on the open market as most that were ever made eventually got imported into the US.

If you or anyone else really wants to learn a ton about these, David Nielsen's book History of the Mauser Rifle in Chile: Mauser Chileno Modelo 1895, 1912, and 1935 is an excellent reference book and very inexpensive.

Those are Chillean marks. I've made a couple posts that ID all the marks you'll find on Chilean rifles, including the 1912 Mauser which I assume these photos illustrate. The r/milsurps wiki has these posts along with some online resources and book recommendations. David Nielsen's book on Chilean Mauser rifles in particular is probably the best written resource out there on these rifles.

The receivers on these where in the white originally, so this was refinished at some point. To my knowledge, the Chileans never blued the receivers, except for some of their later 7.62 NATO conversions.

Nice to find one all matching though. Usually something is missmatched on these rifles. Here's a 1912-61 and here's a less common 1912 short rifle. Also, this book is the bible on Chilean Mausers, and its still very cheap and in print.

This is a Chilean Model 1912-61. More detailed photos of parts and details on them are in this imgur album....I'm giving this reddit image hosting a try, but still like having imgur for my own use. I also broke every rule I've ever preached on this one, I bought an incomplete rifle... This was 280 bucks but missing the top hand guard, front and rear barrel bands, and a couple small screws. Fortunately, Numrich had all the parts needed to complete the gun, so all told, I'm about 340 bucks into this rifle, which I'm happy with. Usually, playing the spare parts game never ends well.

The Chileans, having been in a state of conflict and tension with their Bolivian and Peruvian neighbors had been trying to stay competitive with their arms technology and supply. Chile's neighbors had already begun adopting the newer '98 pattern Mauser rifles to replace their '95 pattern rifles. In a very long and complex situation to describe in a paragraph, in 1912, the Chileans managed to acquire from OEWG Steyr some 37,500 long rifles and 5,600 carbines designated as the Model 1912, the year of the contract placement.

Chile would use these rifles throughout the WWI, interwar, and WWII period in conjunction with a new batch of rifles purchased in 1935 for their Carabineros. Ultimately though, after WWII, after Chile's own internal struggles with communism and dictatorship ended with a presidential election, the Chileans would look to align themselves with the US in its effort to prevent the spread of communism in South America. During WWII, the Chileans had been cut off from their European suppliers of arms and had moved towards the use of US service arms, purchasing some 1000 Johnson 1941 rifles chambered in 7mm Mauser. After the war, they would receive a large number of surplus US service rifles and handguns. Eventually, as the 7.62 Nato cartridge began to replace the earlier .30 caliber cartridges the US had previously used, it seemed logical for the Chileans to adopt that cartridge as well. The Chileans would adopt the FAL in the 50s but the question of what to do with previous stocks of Mauser rifles remained. In 1961 it was decided to convert stocks of these rifles to the 7.62 NATO cartridge now in their standard issue FAL rifle. This trend of converting older service rifles to modern cartridges was not unique to the Chileans and was done by quite a few nations that chose to align themselves with NATO member states.

Both rifles and carbines would be converted to the '61 pattern, but typically those conversions all appear slightly different from one another. My specific rifle appears to have been a 1912 long rifle converted to 7.62 Nato by shortening and re-chambering the original barrel to 7.62 NATO, shortening the wood stock to a length between the earlier 1912 carbine and 1912 rifles, and marking the receiver as shown above by adding a -61 after the model year and engraving NATO below the model designation.

There are however still some questions unanswered for me:

• Some claim these guns to have 2 groove and 4 groove barrels. They claim the 2 groove barrels are USGI surplus 1903 Barrels and the 4 groove barrels are re-bored and re-chambered Mauser 1912 rifle barrels. My example has a 4 groove barrel. I saw no reference to this in my book.

• I've read that barrels typically are not matched to the rifle. My particular example's barrel matches the receiver and stock. IT appears to have been stamped on the barrel after the rebuild. I've read in my reference book that the rear bands on the short rifles and long rifles differed, but I've not been able to find any difference between the front band on both short and long rifle other than by the method it is attached.

• For whatever reason, I could not get the Chilean H type front band to fit on my rifle. It appears to have had one at one point as there is wear in that area, but the band will not fit over the barrel. It almost appears that the replaced barrel is too large in diameter to fit. The band slips on the stock alone with ease. I've modified a spare band to fit properly and welded the misplaced hole and re-drilled the hole in the correct position (bad bubba).

• I've still not seen a great serial number chart (and might never) for these guns. Both my long and short rifles are in the A. prefix range. The bolts are both mismatched but the rifle has a proper straight bolt in the C. range and my carbine has a mismatched turned down bolt in the A. range. Is there a good source for info on serial number blocks?

Alluded to above, these rifles were made by OEWG Steyr. The story behind this contract is extremely complicated and pretty interesting. I would encourage you to watch the C&Rsenal video that goes into great detail on this whole chain of events that led to Steyr getting this contract. David Nielson's book on the Chilean Mausers also details this whole debacle pretty well as well as provides a ton of information on Chilean contract Mausers. There isn't a ton of information online about these guns, but the Randy Rick page has a little information. The Carbines for Collectors page also has a blurb about Chilean rifles.

This is a Chilean Model 1912-61. More detailed photos of parts and details on them are in this imgur album....I'm giving this reddit image hosting a try, but still like having imgur for my own use. I also broke every rule I've ever preached on this one, I bought an incomplete rifle... This was 280 bucks but missing the top hand guard, front and rear barrel bands, and a couple small screws. Fortunately, Numrich had all the parts needed to complete the gun, so all told, I'm about 340 bucks into this rifle, which I'm happy with. Usually, playing the spare parts game never ends well.

The Chileans, having been in a state of conflict and tension with their Bolivian and Peruvian neighbors had been trying to stay competitive with their arms technology and supply. Chile's neighbors had already begun adopting the newer '98 pattern Mauser rifles to replace their '95 pattern rifles. In a very long and complex situation to describe in a paragraph, in 1912, the Chileans managed to acquire from OEWG Steyr some 37,500 long rifles and 5,600 carbines designated as the Model 1912, the year of the contract placement.

Chile would use these rifles throughout the WWI, interwar, and WWII period in conjunction with a new batch of rifles purchased in 1935 for their Carabineros. Ultimately though, after WWII, after Chile's own internal struggles with communism and dictatorship ended with a presidential election, the Chileans would look to align themselves with the US in its effort to prevent the spread of communism in South America. During WWII, the Chileans had been cut off from their European suppliers of arms and had moved towards the use of US service arms, purchasing some 1000 Johnson 1941 rifles chambered in 7mm Mauser. After the war, they would receive a large number of surplus US service rifles and handguns. Eventually, as the 7.62 Nato cartridge began to replace the earlier .30 caliber cartridges the US had previously used, it seemed logical for the Chileans to adopt that cartridge as well. The Chileans would adopt the FAL in the 50s but the question of what to do with previous stocks of Mauser rifles remained. In 1961 it was decided to convert stocks of these rifles to the 7.62 NATO cartridge now in their standard issue FAL rifle.

Both rifles and carbines would be converted to the '61 pattern, but typically those conversions all appear slightly different from one another. My specific rifle appears to have been a 1912 long rifle converted to 7.62 Nato by shortening and re-chambering the original barrel to 7.62 NATO, shortening the wood stock to a length between the earlier 1912 carbine and 1912 rifles, and marking the receiver as shown above by adding a -61 after the model year and engraving NATO below the model designation.

There are however still some questions unanswered for me:

• Some claim these guns to have 2 groove and 4 groove barrels. They claim the 2 groove barrels are USGI surplus 1903 Barrels and the 4 groove barrels are re-bored and re-chambered Mauser 1912 rifle barrels. My example has a 4 groove barrel. I saw no reference to this in my book.

• I've read that barrels typically are not matched to the rifle. My particular example's barrel matches the receiver and stock. IT appears to have been stamped on the barrel after the rebuild. I've read in my reference book that the rear bands on the short rifles and long rifles differed, but I've not been able to find any difference between the front band on both short and long rifle other than by the method it is attached.

• For whatever reason, I could not get the Chilean H type front band to fit on my rifle. It appears to have had one at one point as there is wear in that area, but the band will not fit over the barrel. It almost appears that the replaced barrel is too large in diameter to fit. The band slips on the stock alone with ease. I've modified a spare band to fit properly and welded the misplaced hole and re-drilled the hole in the correct position (bad bubba).

• I've still not seen a great serial number chart (and might never) for these guns. Both my long and short rifles are in the A. prefix range. The bolts are both mismatched but the rifle has a proper straight bolt in the C. range and my carbine has a mismatched turned down bolt in the A. range. Is there a good source for info on serial number blocks?

Alluded to above, these rifles were made by OEWG Steyr. The story behind this contract is extremely complicated and pretty interesting. I would encourage you to watch the C&Rsenal video that goes into great detail on this whole chain of events that led to Steyr getting this contract. David Nielson's book on the Chilean Mausers also details this whole debacle pretty well as well as provides a ton of information on Chilean contract Mausers. There isn't a ton of information online about these guns, but the Randy Rick page has a little information. The Carbines for Collectors page also has a blurb about Chilean rifles.