The First Mauser Rifles to Spain 1891-92 - Jon Speed

Over the last few days Jon Speed came across some documents that he had sent to John Wall, due to John Wall's well known interest and specialization in these early contract rifles. As this is a special interest to John Wall, and to many others, Jon sent me a few pictures to start a thread on the subject so that other collectors and specialists can have access to these original documents:

Paul, Just to show some key Spanish related docs you can put up on site in time order:

1. April 5, 1892 - Mauser firm to Spanish Rep Levei & Kocherthaler letting them know of the first 600 of an ordered 1200 units for Spanish Army, in fact Model 1891 marked caliber 7.65 rifles, then the Total Spanish Marine order for 640 rifles, in fact Model 91 in cal 7.65, are being shipped etc.

2. July 27, 1892. Mauser to Spanish rep Levi telling the total 1200 units, in fact Model 91 rifles cal. 7.65, is for Army being finalized.

3. August 17, 1892 Paul Mauser to Spanish Rep Levi & Kocherthaler letting him know status of the Spanish Marine order of 640 rifles has been processed.

4. Oct. 25 ,1892. Paul Mauser to Spanish Rep Levi & Kocherthaler in a 3 page letter telling then about his work with the new 7X57 round and hopes that Spanish will accept this new caliber, and that he has completed evaluation of testing the 6.5 caliber which he was Not happy about. These 7mm Test rifles used the New Paul Mauser Patented Solid external magazine and new bolt with long extractor in the new Model 92 system.

I have 18 Typed Paul Mauser docs to rep and 8 docs on Spanish deal going to Loewe for the eventual Spanish 93 rifle. Paul goes in to detail in the other docs as he develops the newer model 92 and then 93 system. Then I have about 20 of these docs you see above coming from Mauser Firm Copy Books in which all letters going out of Firm are copied and are Bound in a Copy Book Dated for a 3 month period and with 1000 pages. In these copy books are some fantastic data never seen before that tells the real story on how the new 7X57 come on line and later docs that tell of the 400 Marine Model 92 type carbines in 7X57 etc. You can put all my comments on the site. There has been some confusion about this story in many publications, but with these docs its no longer a mystery. Regards, Jon

*** images load out of order, tried fixing them twice, - look to the date of the letter to match up Jon Speed's text ***

Spanish data

Paul, I am really glad that you and Jon are directly connected as it should be.
Although our base here for early period Mausers is small but growing, I cant think of a
better place for the material (and on GB as well).

Really interesting material.

Number II of VIII:

Bruce, Yes, it is good of Jon Speed to share what information he can on these long lost/forgotten subjects! Had it not been for Jon Speed and Lockhoven, this material would have been destroyed, lost forever.



1. Letter dated 21.10,1892 from Mauser Spain Rep Levi talking about the 400 Carbines that would go to Marines and asks if they will be in 7.65 or the soon to agreed new 7X57 which is how it went down.

2. Original Mauser firm docs showing sales to Spain of 1840 rifles and 400 Carbines.

3. Another Firm doc showing calibers same as above,. note caliber corrections I made!

4. Another hand written shows Spain sales 1840 rifles and in 1893 of the 400 Model 92 carbines 7mm

Number III of VIII:

Paul, one more Paul Mauser doc from Aug. 8, 1892 shows him sending 10 Improved rifles ( Test 92 rifles) in caliber 7mm. to their rep Levi. This is for Jack who I know is interested in these. I have a Mauser firm Reference collection Model 92 SN 951. In this case the SN used on various Test rifles does NOT indicate the total numbers as these are In House SN used for their record keeping etc.

Number IV of VIII:

Paul, here is part of Model 92 rifle Hand book in preliminary form as Mauser did Not know if this would go anywhere etc. Jon

All self explanatory

Number V of VIII:

This is an especially important document series, as it lets us know that JPS (Sauer)supplied the barrels, this is important to research related to the Modell98 series also, it reinforces the conviction that they made mostly barrels in Consortium business.

Paul here are 5 pics showing the 1895 Contract between Loewe/ Mauser/ Sauer for the 30,000 Rifles.
All is self explanatory, but you can see all relevant data also the bayonet maker. I will send one more e mail with signing page. Jon


Paul I am happy I got to you all the rest of the Spanish docs that I wanted to tell this story. Look at the 1895 Contract carefully as I got all the high points marked in yellow. You can see on this deal Sauer was the barrel supplier and Simson got the Bayonet portion. You can also see the plan for time frames etc. Lots of great data in this contract and nice PM (Paul Mauser) signature.

Number VI of VIII:

Paul, last 3 pics shows

1. Contract signing page.

2. Cover of Mauser firm made Spanish 93 rifle Handbook

3. Pic showing hand guard removal

Number VII of VIII:

At least you have all the basic Spanish data even though the Paul Mauser docs that are signed go into detail on every aspect as he tries to convince Spain to move into the new 7mm caliber over the 7.65, his new extractor, new solid external magazine which always looks cool but was dropped after he Patented it and designed the internal box etc.

Also have over 100 letters from Spanish rep going into all the issues with Spain and super doc from the Spanish War Minister and head of arms Procurement on every aspect the proposed last deal for the final model 93 system in 7mm etc.

Here are Last 2 pics out of Paul Mauser's Files of the blueprints of the Spanish 91 and 92 systems. I also have a complete copy set of the Spanish 93 rifle drawings used for production of all parts etc. Jon

Number VIII of VIII: Best for last

Paul, Yes, the Spanish were much easier to deal with than the Turks who had endless money issues and changed specs all the time. The Spanish as you mention had no money issues and after a deal with Spain for 70,000 rifles and 5000 Carbines as well as helping organize the Ovideo Plant the only thing that took extra time was for Paul to convince them to go with the new 7mm round which only happened after Mauser provided the 400 Carbines with 92 system in 7mm as well as Paul sending to Spain extra test rifles in 7mm for more shooting tests etc. The final 93 system was accepted only late in the process when the deal went to Loewe etc. Jon

Paul, so there is no confusion here are all the Entries in the Mauser firm Prima Nota book similar to a running account book that shows exact date arms were paid for and sent out for final shipping.

1. June 26, 1893 Spanish War Ministry make 1st order of 100 Carbines 7mm and 10 Rifles 7mm designated as Model 92.

2. July 4, 1893 Spanish War Ministry orders 2nd group of 100 carbines 7mm

3. August 7, 1893 War Ministry orders 3rd and last lot of 200 Carbines 7mm and 10 more 7mm Rifles designated Mod. 92

4. December 18, 1893 Loewe pays Mauser production license fees for 10,000 for the first Model 93 rifles =20,000 Marks which comes to 2 marks per weapon. From this Paul got a Fixed Percentage. In another nearby entry is the same thing for the First Loewe 10,000 units for Argentina etc etc. One can see the Model 92 was replaced by the Model 93 within a 4 month period.

Also as Jack mentioned the SN found on the carbines seems to have started within a special SN group not 1-400 but 1-400 starting with another base. Same with the Model 92 rifles 7mm of which I have one of the Mauser firm Reference examples with SN 951 when we know less than 30 were ever made. Also Lockhoven had a Spanish 92 rifle in 6.5 caliber SN 115 when less than 15 were made, so we see SN are not always a direct total number figure!! etc. Hope this clarifies a lot of issues only touched on in the known literature !

Regards, Jon