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Mauser Models 71 & 71/84 FdH

The M71/84 Mauser rifle.

IF THERE WERE a Hall of Fame for firearms designers and inventors, the accomplishments of German-born Peter Paul Mauser would certainly be displayed most prominently, because he, like our own John M. Browning, was one of the world’s foremost creators of firearms mechanisms.

The Model 71 was the first successful rifle designed and produced by Paul Mauser, but this achievement did not come easy, and it was coupled with a personal disaster which would have stopped many a man not as hardy as Paul Mauser. Its success signaled the start of a long career of firearms development which ultimately led to the Model 98 Mauser action system, unquestionably the best military turnbolt action ever designed.

It was natural that Paul Mauser (1838-1914) became a gunmaker; his father and six older brothers were also gunmakers. After some schooling and an apprenticeship in the gunmaking trade, he began to show an interest in gun design while working in a government arms factory in Oberndorf, Germany.

Wilhelm Mauser (1834-1882), Paul’s brother, four years older, was also interested in firearms development work, and they worked together until his death. Paul, however, had the brains and hands for the mechanical details, while Wilhelm handled the business end. Together they developed the M71, obtained a contract and set up a factory to produce them.

Paul and Wilhelm probably began working together in the mid-1860s. Their first efforts were focused on improving the Dreyse needle rifle, at that time a widely used breech-loading military arm. Its firing mechanism had a long needle-like firing pin which had to penetrate the paper cartridge case and powder charge to detonate the primer, positioned at the base of the bullet. Their initial Models 71 improvement changed the action to cock on the uplift of the bolt handle. About the same time, they converted the action to use a metallic cartridge, its primer located in the case head. It appears the Mauser brothers also worked over the Chassepot action in a similar manner, but failed to sell their ideas to modernize these rifles.

The Mausers then, about 1867, built some rifles on actions of their own design incorporating these new features, but again they failed to sell their new rifle design. However, an American arms salesman, Samuel Norris, representing Remington, heard of their rifle and thought it showed promise.

Norris negotiated a partnership with the Mausers, and evidently thought enough of the Mauser action to have it patented in the United States. This patent, No.78,603, was granted to him and the Mausers on June 2, 1868. This action, known as the Mauser-Norris, was the first patented design bearing Paul Mauser’s name.

Meanwhile, the Mauser brothers continued working to design and develop a rifle action which would interest someone, Remington having failed to take up the patented rifle. Discarding many of the Mauser-Norris features, they built a another rifle with several important aspects. The new rifles were given to the Prussian army for testing. After these tests a few changes were suggested. The Mauser brothers made the necessary changes, following which the Prussian commission tested the new rifles and found them good. The new rifle was officially adopted in 1871, and the Mauser brothers received a contract. They were in business at last! (The Mauser-Norris, or the Mauser M67/69, as it is also known, and a second Mauser rifle, known as the Interim Model, are extremely rare. Only a few test rifles were made, and fewer exist today.)

The M71 and their next rifle, the M71/84, were made in large numbers, and are still common today. I will limit my detailed discussion in this chapter to these two models.

The Model 71 Mauser

With the Prussian contract in hand, the Mauser brothers set up a small temporary shop in Oberndorf, then moved to larger quarters in 1872. In 1874 the new factory was destroyed by fire, but they promptly rebuilt and resumed production of the M71. Not long after they were given a new contract to make 100,000 M71s. They granted licenses and received royalties from other armsmaking firms, which also began producing 71s in large numbers. M71s were made in various German government arsenals at Amberg, Danzig, Erfurt and Spandau, and in the great Austrian arms center at Steyr. While the M71 became the standard shoulder arm for the entire German empire, the Steyr factory built thousands of them for China, Japan and other countries. All in all, huge quantities were made from 1872 to 1884 and, though they were more or less obsolete by the latter date, many were not retired from service until years later.

The M71 Mauser was made in several styles. Foremost was the M71 rifle with a barrel 33.5” long, 53” overall and weighing about 10 pounds. The M71 Jaeger rifle has a 29.45” barrel, is 48.75” overall and weighs about 9 pounds. The M71 short rifle weighs about 8.5 pounds and has a 20.5” barrel.

The M71 Carbine has a 20” barrel, is about 39.5” overall, and weighs about 7.5 pounds. All were chambered for the 11mm Mauser cartridge.

The Model 71 Mauser carbine. Chambered for the 11mm (43-caliber) Mauser cartridge, this carbine has a 20” barrel, is 39.25 ” overall and weighs about 7.6 pounds. The model designation, stamped on the left side of the receiver, is “K. MOD. 71”. The date (year) of manufacture is stamped on the right side of the receiver. On the top flat over the breech end of the barrel is stamped the makers name, on this one: “GEBR MAUSER & CO OBERNDORF.”

The M71 Mauser Action

The receiver, a one-piece iron or steel casting or forging, is bored lengthwise to accept the bolt; the front end, about 1” long, is threaded to take the barrel shank. Beginning behind the ring, part of the top and right side of the receiver is milled away, leaving a loading port about 3.12” long. The receiver bridge behind the loading port is slotted to allow passage of the bolt handle and bolt guide rib. Behind the bridge the receiver is milled down to form a tang.

The steel bolt body is cylindrical, drilled out from the front. Integral with the bolt body is a heavy longitudinal guide rib and a bolt handle with a round grasping ball. With the bolt in the receiver and the bolt handle turned down, the rear end of this rib lies in front of the right receiver bridge wall, locking the bolt in the receiver.

The M71 bolt has a separate head which does not rotate with the bolt when the handle is raised or lowered. The rear end of the bolt head fits partly into the front of the bolt, and is drawn back with the bolt by a collar which fits into a notch cut under the front part of the bolt rib. The face of the bolt head is not recessed for the cartridge rim. The one-piece extractor spring is fitted into the left side of the bolt head, its rear end held in place by the bolt body.

The one-piece firing pin, and the coil mainspring which surrounds it, fits inside the bolt through the front end. The mainspring is compressed between the step-down in the rear of the bolt and the collar on the front of the firing pin. The firing pin extends through the rear of the bolt, through the heavy cocking piece, and all are held in place by the firing pin nut which threads on the rear end of the firing pin. A deep notch in the rear end of the bolt, and a matching projection on the front of the cocking piece, cause the cocking piece to be pushed back when the bolt handle is raised to cock the action. A heavy rib on top of the cocking piece extends forward into the slot in the receiver bridge, which prevents the cocking piece from turning when the bolt handle is raised or lowered. The safety is fitted into a hole drilled lengthwise into the rib on the cocking piece, and is held in place by a cross pin. When the action is cocked and closed, the safety, when swung to the right, cams the cocking piece back slightly off of the sear and locks it there, at the same time locking the bolt so it cannot be opened.

On opening the bolt, the front end of the bolt rib, contacting an inclined surface on the rear of the receiver ring, forces the bolt back to provide the initial extraction power. Conversely, the rear end of the rib, its locking surface, and the top corner of the right receiver bridge wall are similarly rounded or angled so that, on closing the bolt and lowering the bolt handle, the bolt is forced forward to seat the cartridge in the chamber. A heavy washer, held on the bolt rib with a screw, acts as the bolt-stop when the bolt is opened—then the washer contacts the semicircular cuts in the top edges of the receiver bridge walls.

The sear is attached to a long spring member by a pin, the spring being attached to the solid bottom of the receiver with a screw. The trigger, also attached to the end of this spring, pivots on a pin. The sear projects upwards through a hole in the receiver, contacting the bottom of the cocking piece when the action is operated. The trigger has three small humps where it contacts the receiver. On pulling the trigger back, the first hump causes the sear to be pulled down almost all the way off of the cocking piece, but after the second hump touches the receiver only an additional short pull on the trigger moves the sear free of the cocking piece to fire the rifle. This is the standard military double stage trigger let-off. The third hump on the trigger is provided to move the sear all the way down, when the trigger is pulled back all the way, so the bolt can be withdrawn from the receiver, but only after the bolt-stop screw and washer are loosened.

The M71 has a one-piece walnut buttstock and forend. A long narrow plate is inletted into the bottom of the stock under the action. Two sturdy screws—one through the receiver tang and stock threads into this plate, the other, through the front end of this plate and stock, threads into the receiver—hold the action in the stock. These two screws, the rear end of the receiver tang and an upright projection on the front end of the trigger guard plate all tend to prevent setback of the action in the stock from the recoil of firing the rifle. The trigger guard bow is screwed to the plate to protect the trigger. Barrel bands around the barrel and forend hold the forend against the barrel.

The M71 has a simple yet reliable action, well made and convenient to operate.

Takedown and Assembly

To remove the bolt, raise the bolt handle and pull the bolt back as far as it will go. Turn out the bolt-stop washer screw and remove the washer. While pulling back on the trigger, pull the bolt assembly from the receiver.

Left side of the M71/84 Mauser action, opened.

To disassemble the bolt, first turn the cocking piece one-quarter turn counterclockwise so that the cocking piece is forward. Pull the bolt head from the bolt, then pull the extractor from the bolt head. Rest the firing pin tip on a hard surface and press down on the cocking piece so the firing pin nut can be unscrewed from the firing pin. The firing pin and mainspring can then be pulled from the bolt and the parts separated. Drive out the safety pin to remove the safety. Reassemble in reverse order.

To remove the barrel and action from the stock, first unscrew the ramrod and pull it from the forend, then remove the barrel bands. Turn out the tang screw and the front trigger guard plate screw, then lift the barrel and action from the stock. The trigger assembly can then be removed by turning out the trigger/sear spring screw. Reassemble in reverse order. The barrel is threaded tightly into the receiver (right-hand threads) and is not easily removed.

M 71/84 Mauser Rifles

Wilhelm Mauser died in 1882, but even before this Paul Mauser was working alone on further development of the M71 action. By this time most military nations began to see the wisdom of adopting a repeating rifle for their armed forces. Paul Mauser began working on a repeating mechanism for the M71 in the late 1870s, and it was pretty well perfected by 1881, when he demonstrated it before German officials. The conversion, on which he obtained a patent, was effected by installing a magazine tube in the forend under the barrel and providing a carrier in the bottom of the receiver to lift the cartridge from the magazine to the receiver opening. The demonstration was successful and Mauser soon obtained contracts to make these repeating rifles—designated the M71/84. The M71/84 rifles were not converted M71s, but were entirely a new manufacture.

The M71/84 Mauser rifle has a 30.5 ” barrel, is 51” overall and weighs about 10.2 pounds. It is chambered for the 11mm Mauser cartridge, and the tubular magazine has a capacity of nine rounds. It was the official German shoulder arm from 1884 to 1888, at which time Germany adopted the Model 88 Commission rifle chambered for the 8mm cartridge. Although a great many of the M71/84s were made during these four years, probably not enough were made to entirely replace the M71 rifles then in use in Germany.

The M71/84 Action

To say that the M71/84 Mauser action is a M71 with a cartridge carrier added is an oversimplification. Adding a carrier and making the action a repeater required considerable changing of the receiver, plus adding parts such as the carrier, cartridge stop, ejector, cutoff and some means to cause the carrier to tip up and down when the bolt is operated. Adding these parts also necessitated changing other parts such as the trigger mechanism. I will enumerate and briefly describe all of these changes.

1. Receiver: The receiver of the M71/84 is similar in profile to the M71 receiver but, instead of being round with a solid bottom, it is made with a heavy rectangular box underneath it, which is in turn milled and machined to accept the various parts of the repeating mechanism, leaving an opening in the boltway through which the cartridges may pass. The rear part of this box acts as a recoil-lug surface transmitting the recoil to the stock.

2. Carrier: The heavy cartridge carrier (often called the “lifter”) with its U-shaped trough is fitted into the box below the receiver; it is held in place by, and pivots on, a heavy pin through the rear of the box. A large-headed lock screw holds this pin in place. The carrier is tipped up and down by a cam fitted into recesses cut into the left side of the carrier and receiver-box wall. This cam pivots on a stud which is part of the magazine cutoff lever, which in turn pivots on a stud set into a hole on the left, outside of the receiver.

The cutoff is held in place and is provided two-position tension by a spring screwed to the receiver. A checkered thumb-piece on top of the cutoff lever projects above the stock line and allows the cutoff to be moved. When the cutoff is tipped back the cam is raised so its upper, rounded end projects into the ejector raceway. When moved or tipped forward, the cutoff lowers the carrier cam within the carrier box so it is out of contact with the ejector.

The M71/84 Mauser action.

3. Ejector: To actuate the carrier, that is, to tip it up and down, an ejector rib is incorporated with the bolt assembly. It is as long as the entire bolt and is attached to it by a spring clamp on its front end, engaging a groove in the bolt head. There is a small lug under the ejector which fits into a hole in the bolt head and another lug on the cocking piece which fits in a groove in the rear part of the ejector—this helps align these parts and holds the ejector in place. A raceway is milled into the inside left receiver wall for the ejector and, besides its other functions, helps guide the bolt and prevents it from binding. The main function of this long ejector, however, is to activate the carrier and to eject the fired cases from the action. There is a recess groove milled in the outside bottom edge of this rib and, when the cutoff is tipped back to bring the carrier cam up, the end of a cam is brought up into this groove. Thus, when the bolt is opened and the end of the groove contacts the cam, the carrier is tipped up. It is tipped down again when the bolt is fully closed and the rear end of the groove pushes the cam, tipping the carrier down once more, to pick up a new cartridge from the tubular magazine.

Functioning as the ejector, the front end of this rib projects through a groove cut into the recessed bolt face. It is made to have some longitudinal movement on the bolt. As the bolt is opened and the rib strikes the carrier cam, the bolt moves slightly farther back than the ejector to tip the cartridge case to the right and out of the action. When the cutoff is tipped back to disengage the carrier cam from the ejector, a stud on the front inside of the cutoff spring, projecting through a hole in the ejector raceway, contacts the end of the ejector groove instead of the cam, halting the ejector as before to eject the case.

4. Cartridge stop: Part of the repeating system is the cartridge stop built into the left side of the carrier box. It is a lever, pivoted on a pin set in a groove in the side of the box and given tension by a spring which also places the carrier under tension. There is a projection on the front end of the cartridge stop which extends inside the box just ahead of the carrier, and is activated to release a cartridge from the magazine when the carrier is tipped down, and holding back the cartridges when the carrier is up.

5. Magazine: To complete the repeating system a magazine tube is fitted into the forend, with its rear end extending into a hole in the front of the carrier box. The front end of the magazine tube has a thread-on cap, while a long thin magazine spring and plug follower completes the magazine. A cross-key between the front end of the magazine tube and the barrel prevents the tube from sliding forward from the recoil of the rifle.

6. Trigger: Because of the carrier box on the M71/84 receiver, a different trigger arrangement had to be designed. This kept the firing pin from turning.

7. Safety: The safety was improved in two ways. First, instead of using a cross pin as in the M71 action, the safety and the firing pin nut were so made that the nut held the safety in place. Second, by having a coil spring around the safety stem to push the safety back, the safety also prevents possible loss of the screw and stop washer when the bolt is removed. The extractor is positioned on the top, right-hand side of the bolt head instead of on the left as in the M71 action. The trigger guard bow is made as an integral part of the trigger guard plate, and a screw through the inside bottom of the stock holds the trigger guard in the stock when the two guard screws are removed.

8. Minor changes: Other changes were made in the M71/84. A cross pin through the bolt rib prevents the bolt-stop screw from being turned out completely, which is done by making a separate sear lever pivoted on a pin at the rear of the carrier box. A coil spring, set in a hole in the sear lever, gives it tension. The sear and the trigger, fitted to the rear end of the sear lever, are held in place by pins just as in the M71. The trigger has the same double-stage pull.

In practically every other respect the M71/84 action is about the same as the M71 action. The extractor, bolt body, firing pin, mainspring, bolt head, bolt handle and bolt-stop are all similar to the Model 71. The locking system is the same, and so are the extractor camming and bolt camming features.

Minor design and construction changes were made in the 71 and 71/84 Mausers when they were in production, but these changes are of little importance and I have not thoroughly examined enough of these rifles to describe them in detail.

Takedown and Assembly

Make sure the chamber and magazine are empty. To remove the bolt proceed as follows: If the cutoff button is not in the forward position, open the bolt and pull it back to raise the carrier, then push the cutoff forward. Loosen the bolt stop screw several turns or as far as it will go without resistance. (Note: there is a cross pin through the bolt rib which prevents the complete removal of the bolt-stop screw. If it is necessary to remove this screw completely, then the cross pin must first be driven out.) Open the bolt and pull it back. Tip the rifle far over to the right, making sure the bolt-stop washer is against the head of the bolt-stop screw, then move the cutoff lever back about ” to raise the cutoff spring slightly. The bolt can then be pulled from the receiver. To replace the bolt the cutoff must be forward.