I have recently come into possession of a 1903 mauser that has Arabic markings and all numbers are Arabic also. I am interested in finding someone who can tell me what cal. it might be and just what it is I have here. As I live in St. Catharines I would like to find someone fairly close to here to have a look at it. The fellow that brought it back was in both ww1 & ww2. He was a medical doctor and ran a hospital in Burma in ww2. He was no hunter/shooter and this has just sat in a basement for at least 60 + years. The barrel is 23" and o/a lenghth is 42. There is no stop in cleaning rod slot and it goes all the way in to about 20". I don`t have a rod with it. I really can`t find out what war this was brought back from as the Dr./army vet is long since deceased. None of his surviving relatives are shooters and just recently came upon this rifle and gave it to me. It is marked in several places with a cresent moon and star.
1903 Turkish Mauser (Arabic Stampings)
- Thread starter TurkJohn
- Start date
Hello and welcome. You're getting a little bit ahead of the pack. This forum is really just for greetings. You'll stand a better chance if you post in the General Firearms Discussion forum or the Military Rifle forum. Best to read the new members section.Enjoy the site.
You mentioned the barrel is 23 " ? That doesn't sound right for a 1903 as the barrel length should be closer to 29".
As for the 1903s, these were made, on contact, by Mauser Oberndorf (owned by DWM in Berlin at the time) for the Ottoman empire and are, more or less, a variant of the very successful Model 98 series of rifles. ~ 200,000 are estimated to have been produced from 1903 to 1905.
The original caliber was 7.62x53mm Mauser.
These rifles soldiered on in a number of wars that the Ottoman empire was brought into with WW1 being one of them. After WW1, they helped form the modern Turkish state under Mustafa Kemal.
During the 1930s, many rifles were modified to accept the 8mm Mauser cartridge and earlier Mauser model examples (1893s especially) were converted to closely resemble the 1903. The Sultan's "tangra" (forgive my spelling) was removed and a Turkish republic stamp applied on the receiver along with a new serial number. The new receiver stamp sometimes varies in visual layout but follows the same pattern:
"T.C. / ASFA / ANKARA / 19**"
T.C. = Republic of Turkey
ASFA= Military Arsenal
ANKARA = Place of conversion
19** = Date of conversion
The 1930s is also when Mustafa Kemal adopted the western style numbering system and you see this on converted rifles. Some still bear the Arabic numerals though.
If you do not see the new style receiver stamp and only a bird like stamp on the top of the receiver and arabic numerals on the left and right side of the receivers, chances may be yours was not converted and is in the original caliber.
Pictures would be a serious help in determining exactly what you have as Turkey had a variety of different rifles in various calibers in it's stores.
As for the 1903s, these were made, on contact, by Mauser Oberndorf (owned by DWM in Berlin at the time) for the Ottoman empire and are, more or less, a variant of the very successful Model 98 series of rifles. ~ 200,000 are estimated to have been produced from 1903 to 1905.
The original caliber was 7.62x53mm Mauser.
These rifles soldiered on in a number of wars that the Ottoman empire was brought into with WW1 being one of them. After WW1, they helped form the modern Turkish state under Mustafa Kemal.
During the 1930s, many rifles were modified to accept the 8mm Mauser cartridge and earlier Mauser model examples (1893s especially) were converted to closely resemble the 1903. The Sultan's "tangra" (forgive my spelling) was removed and a Turkish republic stamp applied on the receiver along with a new serial number. The new receiver stamp sometimes varies in visual layout but follows the same pattern:
"T.C. / ASFA / ANKARA / 19**"
T.C. = Republic of Turkey
ASFA= Military Arsenal
ANKARA = Place of conversion
19** = Date of conversion
The 1930s is also when Mustafa Kemal adopted the western style numbering system and you see this on converted rifles. Some still bear the Arabic numerals though.
If you do not see the new style receiver stamp and only a bird like stamp on the top of the receiver and arabic numerals on the left and right side of the receivers, chances may be yours was not converted and is in the original caliber.
Pictures would be a serious help in determining exactly what you have as Turkey had a variety of different rifles in various calibers in it's stores.
If it still has the older Turkish lettering, it will look similar to arabic.
Anything held over would have been scrubbed of markings and re-stamped in the 1930-40s.
So this is probably a first war bring home.
That leaves the 1890, 1893 and 1903 Turkish Mausers.
Anything held over would have been scrubbed of markings and re-stamped in the 1930-40s.
So this is probably a first war bring home.
That leaves the 1890, 1893 and 1903 Turkish Mausers.
I have one of these old pelters. I bought three different variations years ago for something like $19.95 ea, or so.
The one in the pics is made on an action similar to a 96 Swede. The other two are 98 actions. History oozes from these old rifles.
The one in the pics is made on an action similar to a 96 Swede. The other two are 98 actions. History oozes from these old rifles.
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It's a small-ring action nd looks like a Swede, which makes it the 1893. There is a great amount of interchangeability to parts between the 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1896 models.
All were ####-on-closing small-ring actions, twin lugs and were chambered for just about any Mauser round you can think of. Turkish ones were 7.65x53 or 7.65x54, depending on who you bought your shells from (shells were identical, boxes were marke differently).
As this is a conversion, it should now be in 7.92x57JS: the original 154-grain load for the 8mm Mauser. Turkey used the original 1904 loading for this round, made it well through War Two.
1903 model had a slightly-shorter-than-Standard action (but not quite so short as the K action) but otherwise was a '98 large-ring rifle.
Turkey converted everything they had left over from the Great War in the 1930s and that really wasn't a lot. After Suez and Gaza, Johnnie Turk was on the run and the British didn't have enough troops to fight him AND to guard prisoners. Result was that the prisoners were turned loose and the rifles piled in heaps and burned. So said my old friend Sgt. Angus Kellie, who was there in 380 Siege Battery, along with his 6-inch How Mark VIII and his Holt Tractor...... all the way to Jerusalem and Armageddon and then on toward Damascus.
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All were ####-on-closing small-ring actions, twin lugs and were chambered for just about any Mauser round you can think of. Turkish ones were 7.65x53 or 7.65x54, depending on who you bought your shells from (shells were identical, boxes were marke differently).
As this is a conversion, it should now be in 7.92x57JS: the original 154-grain load for the 8mm Mauser. Turkey used the original 1904 loading for this round, made it well through War Two.
1903 model had a slightly-shorter-than-Standard action (but not quite so short as the K action) but otherwise was a '98 large-ring rifle.
Turkey converted everything they had left over from the Great War in the 1930s and that really wasn't a lot. After Suez and Gaza, Johnnie Turk was on the run and the British didn't have enough troops to fight him AND to guard prisoners. Result was that the prisoners were turned loose and the rifles piled in heaps and burned. So said my old friend Sgt. Angus Kellie, who was there in 380 Siege Battery, along with his 6-inch How Mark VIII and his Holt Tractor...... all the way to Jerusalem and Armageddon and then on toward Damascus.
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kjohn, My rear sight looks like yours except it`s in Arabic and is calibrated sarting at 4 and running to 20 if you look down the right side of the sight plate and 5-19 on the left. I read somewhere that apprx 5-10% of these rifles where made in carbine models (23") barrel and after seeing your sight I think this is an original carbine and has not been cut down.
Turks did not use arabic numbering till the 20s. We use arabic numbering. The numbers are Persian. Wikipedia has the translations they read similar as arabic numbers Surplus Firearms magazine had good article on Turkish Mausers few months ago. Read it it answers a lot
There's a sticky in the Photo and Video Gallery on how to do it. Basically you upload your pics to a image hosting site like Photobucket or Imgur then copy and paste the img code here. Its easier than it sounds.
