Did They Ever Import Any M1908 Mondragon 7mm Rifles Into Canada???

Alan Lever got a shipment of them by mistake. This was in 1967.

They were each in separate crates, with spare parts, different magazines, tools, and cleaning accessories.

All of them were as new.

I don't remember the details of how he got them, but they were supposed to have been dropped off in Washington, not DC.

He made some sort of a deal with the shop there, and they stayed in Canada.

It wasn't quite that simple, because Customs Canada had to be informed, and the guns went into quarantine.

It was a strange type of quarantine, because Lever Arms was one of the locations they would bring firearms for storage, and they just went to that section of the Lever Arms warehouse.

I don't know why Customs was even that concerned, as this sort of thing happened quite often.

I know I couldn't afford one, but they never made it to the display shop on Dunsmuir. All were sold before customs released them a few weeks later.

I remember one being sold by Rock Island back around 2005? and it went for $75K, but it was also serial #1
 
canuck said:
Posting pictures for victorm

I’m in awe!!
Amazing collection of Mondragon rifles
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Holy ####ing sh!t!!! :love:🤯🤯🤯🤯

I'm not usually blown away but holy ####ing ####! I would give my right nut for just one of these for my Swiss collection! Bro....

If victorm ever wanna shed any, PM me...
 
canuck said:
Do you know where they came from bear (to arrive at Levers) ?
Victor mentioned Bannermans - I would assume that was one of Alan Lever's suppliers
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No, they came from Golden State Armory in California.

Lever had a hard on for some suppliers, and I don't remember seeing anything from Bannerman's, but Bannerman's was out of business before the Great Depression of the 1930s. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

In 1973 I went to Mexico with Mr Lever to check out several warehouses of "surplus" arms and equipment.

I remember seeing Mondragons that ranged from scrap to new in crates. There weren't very many, maybe 100+.

There weren't any spare parts, and it was obvious some of them had been cannibalized to keep others going.

From what I remember, the armorer who escorted us around the sale said they had been in the same spot, and he had never seen any of them in use during the twenty years he had been an armorer.

I know Mr Lever wanted them, but he didn't get any of them.

We did get several thousand Mexican Mausers. Again, junk to brand new. Especially the later, Mexican made type 1954, small ring Mausers, which was basically the 1910 and 1936 model with a few refinements done to please the US, which was giving them train car loads of surplus 30-06 ammunition.

They made a cocking piece that looked like the one on Springfield 1903s and copied their ferrules.
 
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