Argentine 1891

[Jenette Bregantini]

After the Mauser brothers finished work on the Model 71/84 in 1880, the design team set out to create a small caliber repeater that used smokeless powder.[4] Because of setbacks brought on by Wilhelm Mauser's death, they failed to have the design completed by 1882, so the German Rifle Test Commission (German: Gewehr-Prfungskommission) was formed.[citation needed] The commission preferred to create their own design.[5] Paul Mauser, who was not aware of the commission's work until 1888, managed to sell an improved version of his M1871/84 rifles as M1887 to the Ottoman Empire.

Paul Mauser didn't participate in the first two rounds of the Belgian trials, but he was developing a rimless cartridge in early 1888. As soon as he was aware of the Kommissionsgewehr rifle, he started developing a new one.[10] He patented a bolt design somewhat similar to a Lee action in February 1888 and a detachable magazine in April 1888. He sent a test rifle now known as "Mauser-Metford" to Great Britain, which was also adopting a small-bore cartridge (.303 Rubin, yet to become .303 British) rifle at the time. This was to no avail because it was too late (since December 1887 they already started the final troop trials of the future Lee-Metford, the pattern of which was sealed in November 1888 after minor tweaks[11]).[12][10] The same design was sent to the third round of Belgian trials in 7.65mm, one source states it to be rimmed[6] and another states it to be modern 7.65 x 53mm.[10] A faulty cartridge reportedly ruptured, damaging the bolt face and the extractor.[10]

Then there was the last round of trials in Beverloo under General van der Smissen with reportedly 24 participants (including Nagant, Schulhof, Marga, Mannlicher, and Engh), which began in May 1889 and continued into the summer.[13][14] For them, Mauser added charging with stripper clips to the rifle. The idea was not unknown and in fact a similar design was patented by a US inventor in 1878, but it was Mauser who commercialized the idea.[15] The trials finished in August,[16] Mauser won over the Mannlicher-derived design and a Nagant, and the rifle was adopted on October 23, 1889, with some changes to the form of the safety, tweaks to the sights, and lengthening the barrel.[6]

A main feature was the introduction of Mauser's newly developed (at that time) high-performance smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle 7.6553mm Mauser cartridge.[17] Another new feature was the ability to load the single-stack detachable box magazine that extended below the bottom of the stock with individual 7.6553mm Mauser rounds by pushing the cartridges into the receiver top opening or via stripper clips. Each stripper clip can hold 5 rounds to fill the magazine and is inserted into clip guides machined into the rear receiver bridge. After loading, the empty clip is ejected when the bolt is closed. This was a significant improvement in an increase in rate of fire.[18] As a result of opening up the receiver top for more practical stripper clip reloading (compared to the transitional design), Mauser chose to move the locking lugs to the front of the bolt (like on the Komissionsgewehr). This was done in order to prevent it from compressing with firing, and to prevent the receiver from stretching, despite the added cost in manufacturing.[6] The forward receiver ring diameter where the two forward locking lugs achieved lockup is 33 millimetres (1.30 in).

FN's factory was overrun during World War I, so they outsourced production to a facility in Birmingham, England and Hopkins & Allen in the United States. The Birmingham factory was originally set up by the well-known gunmaking firm W. W. Greener, and was subsequently handed over to the Belgian Government later in the war.[19] Many Belgian Model 1889 rifles were captured by the Imperial German Army, and some were modified to fire the 7.9257mm Mauser cartridge.[20] Paraguay purchased 7,000 Belgian Model 1889s in 1930.[21]

The Royal Yugoslav Army received Turkish Mausers as war reparations. Some were used unmodified Puska M90 T and others were shortened as Puska M 03 T.[43] Some of these rifles were captured by Nazi Germany and designated Gewehr 297 (j).[44]

While this was taking place, the Argentine Small Arms Commission contacted Mauser in 1886 to replace their Remington Rolling Block rifles. 180,000 rifles and 30,000 carbines, all chambered in 7.6553mm Mauser, were ordered. As with other early Mausers, the arms, designated Mauser Modelo 1891, were made by the Ludwig Loewe Company and Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken.[45] Mauser 1891 carbines were still in service with the Argentine Police in the 1960s.[46]

Bolivia bought 15,000 Argentine-made Modelo 1891s in the period between 1897 and 1901,[47] and were designated Modelo 1895 (not to be confused with the Mauser Model 1895).[48] They saw combat during the Chaco War.[49] Argentine-made Mauser 1891s were also purchased by Colombia[50] and Ecuador.[51]

The Model 1889 featured a single-piece solid wooden body running most of the length of the weapon, ending just aft of the muzzle. It contained two bands, and iron sights were fitted at the middle of the receiver top and at the muzzle like virtually all other rifles of the time.[citation needed] Overall length of the rifle was just over 50 inches (1,300 millimeters) with the barrel contributing to approximately 30 inches (760 millimeters) of this length.[57] Of course, a fixed bayonet was issued and added another 10 inches (250 millimeters) to the design as doctrine of the period still relied heavily on the bayonet charge for defensive victory.[citation needed]

All variations used the same 7.65mm round-nosed cartridge. Many parts were interchangeable, with the exception of the bayonets of the 1889 and 1890/91 (the barrel shroud made the bayonet ring too wide).[citation needed]

An Argentine collector indicates that his contacts confirmed that the bayonets furnished included both M1871 and M1871/84 types. Some may have been used by the Provincia de Buenos Aires (Province of Buenos Aires). According to Webster, these were never issued to the Army and those remaining in military stores were sold to Peru.

However, the prototype bayonet turned out heavier than the Argentines wanted, so they made a number of design changes to lighten it (thinner blade, slimmer hilt, and others). Aluminum grips were part of the proposed weight-reduction effort. However, the aluminum grips were not ready for production, so brass was substituted, temporarily, so as not to further delay production.

Bayonets and scabbards were serial numbered to the rifle with which they were issued. The scabbard with this example is the early type, with the throat secured in front by a single screw. Later scabbards (pictured below) had the throat secured on the sides by two rivets.

Most M1891 rifles and bayonets were exported to the USA in the 1950s and 1960s, when Argentine export laws required that the national crest be ground away before being sold. This example must have been imported later, as the crest is intact.

The bayonet is a modified M1879 sword bayonet, formerly used with the 11.15 mm. M1879 Remington rolling-block rifle. This example was originally made by the firm of W. R. Kirschbaum of Solingen, Germany.

The modified carbines and bayonets are designated the M1891/31 Engineer's Carbine. Modifications to the bayonet included shortening the blade, cutting off the muzzle-ring, and replacing the muzzle-ring with the strange trapezoidal wedge, which slides into part of the carbine's jury-rigged bayonet mount. The scabbards were shortened by cutting a section out of the middle and crudely brazing the two ends together.

The unusual trapezoidal muzzle ring is unique to this bayonet. Strange and unique mounting systems are a common characteristic of bayonets made for rifles that weren't originally intended to mount a bayonet.

As designed, the M1909 bayonet differed from the M1891 in having the press stud relocated to the opposite side of the pommel, wood grips, a T-O hilt that encircled the rifle's cleaning rod, and a low Mauser 98-style muzzle ring.

When the first 3,000 rifles and bayonets arrived, a logistical problem became evident. While the low muzzle ring provided a stronger mounting, it meant that the new bayonet would not mount to the earlier M1891 rifle nor would the M1891 bayonet mount to the M1909 rifle.

To allow interchange of bayonets between the M1891 and M1909 rifles, the bayonet design was revised to incorporate the higher M1891 muzzle ring on the remaining bayonet production (all but the first 3,000) and the Ricchieri Adapter was developed for installation on M1909 rifles and carbines.

According to Webster, M1909/47 carbines and bayonets were produced under the auspices of the Direccion General de Fabricaciones Militares (Directorate General of Military Production), at the Fabrica Militar de Armas Portailes (Army Portable Weapons Factory) in Santa Fe.

Gen. Ricchieri was responsible for the introduction of Mauser rifles, mandatory military service, and the overall modernization of the Argentine Army in the latter years of the 19th Century. Gen. Ricchieri died in 1936.

The ricasso marking and serial number on the pommel end are diagnostic of Argentine Model1949 bayonets. "ARA" is an abbreviation for Armada de la Repblica Argentina, as the Argentine Navy was the Country's user of the Model 1949 rifle.

According to Argentine collector-researcher Gustavo Pablo Fierro, Argentina began using the FAL in the late 1950s, first purchasing them from FN, then assembling rifles in Argentina. Similarly, bayonets were first purchased and later manufactured in Argentina at the Domingo Matheu Factory in Santa Fe.

The Correaje Argentino de Cuero (Green Leather Belting) was introduced ca. 1970 and served until superseded by the nylon Correaje Tempex (Tempex Belting) by the mid-1980s. Although the change to Tempex equipment was well under way, the Green Leather equipment saw extensive use during the 1982 Falklands War.

c80f0f1006