[ Ethiopian Oddities: "Mo43" Mauser ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at
InterOrdnance / Royal Tiger Imports taking a look at
a rather unusual gun that they brought in from Ethiopia.
This is yet another of the "Oddities from Ethiopia".
This, I think, is actually ... mostly a legitimate
factory production Mauser,
but it's been rather uniquely marked. Let me show you.
So looks like a Mauser, right? Bolt action, 5 round magazine.
But check this out - what on earth is that?
We've got some crescents, we've got some crosses, we've got some curly crosses there.
And then we have "Mo" and the number 43.
On this side of the receiver it's been clearly hand marked "Germany".
Normally, ... if there wasn't a receiver crest,
we would expect to see some information on the side wall here.
There is none, perhaps that was worn off, perhaps it was ground off,
perhaps there was originally some marking on the top of the receiver.
It's not normal for this to have a flat, it should be rounded.
So perhaps the rounded original receiver was ground flat
to provide a good space for those markings.
The 43 is not just present here, by the way,
the magazine floor plate has been checkered and also numbered 43.
We have 43 on the trigger guard. Note that we have still interlocking screws here.
Whether those are original or not it's a little hard to say, because they're so heavily worn.
We then have a front barrel band here that is also numbered 43.
Pretty sure that that is not an original barrel band.
The ... groove in it, it's not really quite straight.
We have the ... H bar style of nose cap, which
I'm going to go out on a limb and say is original, just again very heavily worn.
This is obviously a ... very handmade replacement
for the little locking spring to hold that in place.
But that nose cap itself? To me that looks factory.
As for the bayonet lug, that's definitely a handmade reproduction part.
Those grooves are not deep enough to actually properly fit a bayonet,
and it doesn't have the little locking notch to secure a bayonet in place.
The front sight though? Again a little hard to tell because of the wear,
but I think that's also original. I think the barrel and front sight are original.
I think this is a legitimate Mauser rear sight.
It's quite loose, but you'll notice, we still have markings on the underside,
and that doesn't look like a handmade part.
And then we have what appears to be a good
proper standard factory serial number on the bolt handle.
And the bolt itself looks good, looks factory made.
Like even the bolt release, we've got a little "B" marking there that also looks original.
And if I go ahead and open the bolt, it's in pretty poor condition in there
(there we go), but this all looks original to me.
So the question is: why these weird markings on the receiver?
I think that what was going on here was a gun that had to be repaired.
(Clearly needs to be repaired again...)
There is actually this interesting cutout.
There's a stock disk in it, and the disk is some sort of clear material,
Plexiglas or something like that, although it hasn't yellowed.
Don't know what that was originally intended for.
We've got a stock slot there.
Yeah, this one's really kind of a mystery to me.
This one's kind of a bit of a mystery to me because, as far as I can tell,
most of the components are actually legit factory components.
And there wasn't that much that actually had to be fabricated to put this rifle together.
So the question arises of why the weird markings? And I frankly have no idea.
There are many plausible potential explanations for something like this.
But I have no background or context with which to try and make a determination
as to whether this is trying to fool someone,
or just trying to make something cool,
or exactly what the significance of that receiver crest is.
That might actually be a big help.
So perhaps if you recognise that crest, let us know down in the comments.
I'd be curious to find out more about what this might have been.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.