43 mauser

Slugs Away

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I recently inhereted two 43 mausers complete with a box of paper patched black powder cartridges and a box of smokeless cartridges.
I have read since that the .43 masuer has strong African history.
So .... what do you know about the .43 masuer?
Thanks
 
happy to help.

-matt
 
The caliber also pops up occasionally in cape guns from late in the 19th century. Ballistics are very similar to the old 577/450 martini henry. Big bullet at BP velocity. Would be a fine deer or boar rifle out to 125 meters or so. The military rifles have ladder sights out to "way, way out there". Those were conceived to have utility in volley fire at massed formations of troops. The .43 found its way to Africa via German colonies in what is now Namibia and Tanzania where it was a secondary weapon to arm some of the native troops. Though, by the outbreak of WWI, most native contingents were equipped with mausers.
 
Slugs would you be willing to share a picture of the rifles? I'd be interesting
In seeing what they look like.
 
The caliber also pops up occasionally in cape guns from late in the 19th century. Ballistics are very similar to the old 577/450 martini henry. Big bullet at BP velocity. Would be a fine deer or boar rifle out to 125 meters or so. The military rifles have ladder sights out to "way, way out there". Those were conceived to have utility in volley fire at massed formations of troops. The .43 found its way to Africa via German colonies in what is now Namibia and Tanzania where it was a secondary weapon to arm some of the native troops. Though, by the outbreak of WWI, most native contingents were equipped with mausers.

Thanks, great infomation.

Slugs would you be willing to share a picture of the rifles? I'd be interesting
In seeing what they look like.

Yes, later today I shall try.
 
http://www.gunsinternational.com/search-results.cfm The link will take you to several commission rifles and a cape gun in 11mm (43 mauser). A turn of the century German farmer/rancher colonist likely would have had an ex-military rifle, cape gun, or sporter in 11mm standing in the corner of the kitchen ready for man or beast. His English or Dutch counterpart would have had the same in 577/450.
 
Interesting, a cape gun is a sxs combination gun?
Yes. Normally the sxs configuration is called a "cape gun". The English version was almost exclusively built for use in Africa or India with the .303 being a common rifle cal. in the smokeless era. They are very common on the continent, though more usually in OU configuration and there rifle calibers run the gambit from .22 savage high power to 9.3x74r. The OUs are usually called "combination guns" in this country. The Germans and Austrians refer to them as a "bochbuchsflinte". The other very common combination gun is of course the drilling. Normally it has two shotgun barrels over a rifle (though occasionally one finds a double rifle drilling).
 
Pictures as promised.

One .43 mauser carbine [sporterized ??] and one .43 mauser infantry?.

20160131_133657 (1).jpg
20160131_133649.jpg
 
You might want to get a value on those ammunition boxes - particularly the BP loading. They could have some real meaning to a collector.
 
You might want to get a value on those ammunition boxes - particularly the BP loading. They could have some real meaning to a collector.

Thank you Red, for the heads up.

All the stamped numbers are matching.
 
Really two beautiful rifles you have there...maybe you should consider come hunting with me on a 1880 Black powder re-enactment hunt in the Limpopo region in South Africa. The week long hunt commence on the 1 st of May to the 8 the of May . You do not pay day fees, you hunt on your own and you live in your own made 1880 pioneer tent..hunting clothes need to be as original as possible to reflect the 1880 era. This seems to be the only way I will be able to hunt with one of these black powder Mauser rifles..
 
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