The word 'Mauser' can refer either to the German weapons manufacturer, the Mauser-Werke Oberndorf Waffensysteme GmbH, or to the series of bolt-action rifles the Mauser-Werke manufacturered for the German armed forces. Mauser exported their design to several nations, so identification of the nationality of a Mauser rifle is important for collectors. Mauser also manufactured a series of pistols and semi-automatic rifles which are much easier to identify than the ubiquitous m-93 and m-98 series rifles.
Weapon Identification
Turkish Mauser rifle serial number survey results. The survey form is available to input your serial numbers. The survey is necessarily focused on reworked models that have years and serial numbers in modern script. If you find your Mauser code here it's the first way to identify your Mauser factory or where it was tested. It should give you approximately year of production or other basic info. Most founded code is four digit serial number like (2938), sometimes with letters (2938S). If you find your Mauser code here it's the first way to identify your Mauser factory or where it was tested. It should give you approximately year of production or other basic info. Most founded code is four digit serial number like (2938), sometimes with letters (2938S).
Examine the rifle for an import stamp located along the barrel; this stamp should state the weapon's caliber, model and country of origin. Many imported rifles are stamped according to federal regulations and that stamp will settle your identification process quickly.
Examine the rifle for any other identifying markings on the receiver and on the stock; the original armorer may have stamped the rifle with markings identifying the factory of manufacture. These markings are often used to identify surplus rifles.
Match the cartridge the rifle fires with a likely country of origin and model. Mauser-pattern bolt-actions were manufactured in countries including Germany, Turkey, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Belgium, Argentina and Chile, so the round the rifle fires can help you identify the rifle's origins and model, like the 1891 Argentine, 1909 Argentine, Spanish 1893, Chilean 1895 and the Swedish 1896. Mausers fire 7.65x53mm Argentine/Belgian, the 7x57mm Spanish/Chilean, the 6.5x55mm Swedish and the 7.92x57mm German.
Determine whether your rifle is a Gewehr 98k or Karabiner 98k if your rifle fires 7.92x57mm, as these rifles fired 8 mm Mauser. These rifles were the famed standard-issue rifles of the German army through the first and second World Wars; should the rifle have a two- or three-alphanumeric code on the top of the receiver, the rifle is most likely a Gewehr 98k or Karabiner 98k. These numbers are the ordinance codes of German manufacturers.
- If the rifle is not of German manufacture, but clearly uses the Mauser action, use a combination of rifle caliber and receiver markings to determine the country of origin. You may need to use a Mauser rifle identification guide, as the number of Mauser rifle variants is too great to list here.
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VZ98, VZ98/22, VZ23, VZ23a, and early VZ24 Rifle Production
(My Best Guess June 7, 2013)
no prefix block: 10,000 VZ98 long rifles (with Lange sight), produced in 1923, VZ23 Short bayonet (250mm blade).
A, B, C, D blocks: 40,000 VZ98/22 long rifles produced in 1923, VZ23 Short bayonet.
E block: 10,000 VZ98/22 long rifles made for Turkey in 1927, VZ23 Short bayonet
D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L blocks: 80,000 VZ23 short rifles produced in 1923, VZ23 Long bayonet (400mm blade). Both D block VZ98/22 and VZ23 rifles are reported, suggesting the changeover between models may have occurred midway through the D block. I block was skipped.
M block: 10,000 VZ23a short rifles produced in 1924 with removable rear sight bed, VZ24 bayonet (300mm blade). My M block VZ23a rifle has a removable rear sight bed. The type bayonet information comes from the three Czech websites but I have a VZ24 bayonet marked E(lion)24. Made in 1924, the lion is in a circle like the 1923 rifles and bayonets.
N, O, P, R blocks: 40,000 VZ24 short rifles produced in 1924. VZ24 bayonet (300mm blade). Q block was skipped. First VZ24 rifles.
S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z blocks: 70,000 VZ24 short rifles produced in 1924-1925. W block was skipped. S block VZ24 rifle reported marked E(lion)24. My X block VZ24 rifle is marked E(lion)25.
Somewhere around here the change occurred to interchangeable parts with few numbered parts. Andy said 'I believe in late 1925 was changed to 90% of changeability'.
The Q and W blocks were skipped because those letters do not exist in the Czech alphabet. The I block was skipped, possibly because of the similarity to the number 1.
The second series of VZ24 serial numbers were xxxxA, xxxxB, xxxxC, xxxxD1, xxxxE1, etc. If it were xxxxA through xxxxZ and xxxxA1 through xxxxZ1, that would be a lot of rifles for 1926. Andy reports a D1 suffix rifle. We know from the website that both 5005A and 1140K1 are marked E(lion)26. 3966U1 is marked E(lion)27. That would mean if 1926 production were 5005A-9999Z and 0001A1-1140K1 would be at least 335,136 rifles.
After the initial letter prefix batch was completed, serial numbers ran:
Brno:
xxxxA through xxxxC
xxxxD1 through xxxxZ1
xxxxA2 through xxxxZ2
xxxxA3 through xxxxZ3
xxxxA4 through xxxxZ4
Považská Bysterica:
A5xxxx through H5xxxx
In January 1926 Yugoslavia bought 42,000 VZ24 rifles. In 1929 Yugoslavia bought 50,000 more VZ24 for an overall total of 92,000 VZ24 rifles.
In 1937-38 there was also a no prefix series, a C prefix, D, E, and P. I have a Japanese VZ24 P61600 and a Chinese VZ24 P49939 (bolt P17616). Of this grouping, the P series was by far the largest. A P67008 has been reported. These were intended for export but some were taken for the Czech Army and so marked. They were later sold to Romania along with other unused VZ24 rifles in the Czech Army inventory. Japanese rifles have been reported with a C prefix.
from:http://www.fronta.cz/fotogalerie/cs-opa ... uska-vz-23
hranicari.webgarden.cz/cz-vz-24
http://www.guns-info.cz/modules.php?nam ... e&sid=1336
http://rml1708.com/MyCzechWebpage/czmaim.htm
Mauser Rifle Serial Number Lookup
Serbian and Yugoslav Mauser Rifles by Branko Bogdanovic
John Wall (Sada and Franek)
AndyB in Slovakia (Sada and Franek)
Romanian contract, 1940. ARxxxx, BRxxxx, CRxxxx . . . YRxxxx. 25,000 per block. No QR or WR blocks. It seems that most, if not all, of the AR-YR Romanian contract rifles were made in 1940.
A. I have a BR bayonet in a CR scabbard, both dated Slovak 1940. There are far too many Slovak marked bayonets mixed in with Romanian contract bayonets for them to have been Romanian bayonets taken for Slovak use. They have to have first been Slovak accepted in 1940 and later taken for use with Romanian contract rifles - and serial matched with those rifles.
B. King Michael replaced King Carol on September 6, 1940. The King Michael crest replaced the King Carol crest on the rifles late in the AR-YR series. My King Michael crest VZ24 is a TR block. The crests would not have changed before King Michael took over.
Facts A and B bracket the Romanian contract within 1940 or nearly so. A small number may have overlapped into 1939 and/or 1941.
It seems that a large quantity of unused Czechoslovak Army VZ24 rifles were sold to Romania at the beginning of the Romanian contract. Used Czechoslovak Army VZ24 rifles (or mostly used and some unused) went to Germany.
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