Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at Rock Island
taking a look at a Turkish Mauser. This is specifically
a 1903/30 short rifle with a folding bayonet.
And the folding bayonet is a very scarce variation
to actually find. So that's why we're taking
a look at this one.
A very brief bit of backstory on Turkish Mausers,
or Ottoman Empire Mausers.
The Ottoman Empire was responsible for some of the very large early purchases of Mauser rifles.
And ... it's largely because of the Ottomans that Mauser was able to build itself
into the behemoth of an arms company that it would be in the 20th century.
And the Ottoman Empire just kept coming back and buying
new version after new version after new version.
It was like phones today, the Ottomans are always getting,
"Well, it's been 5 years since you had your last pattern of Mauser,
and we have a newer, better version now. Perhaps you would like to upgrade?"
So their contracts kept going, you know the early patterns,
the 1890 pattern rifles, there'll be 1893 pattern rifles,
there'll be 1903 pattern rifles, they'd have some 1898 rifles.
And eventually by the 1930s this had left them with this really
kind of ridiculous mixture of all sorts of different guns.
Perhaps most importantly, ... all the early ones were chambered for 7.65mm, 7.65 Mauser.
But then they had changed that to 8mm, or 7.92.
And one of the big things they wanted to do in the 1930s was standardise with 8mm Mauser.
That was the cartridge they wanted to use, so they wanted to bring all the old 7.65 guns up to the new calibre.
And that would include short rifles like this one.
So, initially in 7.65 there were two versions of basically carbine.
... One had a just under an 18 inch barrel, and one had a little over a 21 inch barrel.
Carbines, like a lot of countries did, they'd have the infantry full length rifle and the cavalry carbine.
And the Ottomans did the same thing.
Well, when they changed to 7.92x57 Mauser, that was a more powerful cartridge than the 7.65.
And as the Germans had discovered, a little 18 inch barrelled carbine and 8mm Mauser
has a tremendous amount of muzzle blast when you're shooting
full-power rifle ammunition that's intended for machine guns and full-length infantry rifles.
And so this is why you don't generally see a German military carbine
with a little short stubby barrel like you see in many other countries.
They made them, for a very short time, and then realised
this is just way too uncomfortable for guys to be shooting next to each other.
Let's extend the barrel out to what became kind of the universal short rifle length.
And the Turks would do the same thing with their short rifles.
So the ... 1930 pattern, updated like this one, has basically a 24 inch barrel on it.
That's probably enough backstory on this. Let's go ahead and take a closer look at it,
and I'll show you how we can see the lineage of this rifle pre-conversion.
At some point I really need to do a full-on series about all of the Turkish Mauser developments
and upgrades and conversions, because I think there's a fantastic lineage there to get into.
But we don't have time for that today, so we'll start with this guy.
A couple of distinctive features, so first off,
the high hump here on the receiver tells us that this is definitely a 1903 pattern of gun.
That was designed for a specific type of stripper clip, and it is very noticeable.
Secondly, we have this notch cut out in the front of the receiver.
That tells us that this was originally a 7.65mm gun.
Those rifles actually have slightly shorter receivers than the purpose built
8mm ones because the cartridge was shorter.
So in order to allow it to fit a stripper clip of 8mm, the receiver was notched out just slightly there.
Our receiver markings have been updated when this gun was rebuilt.
So AS FA is the name of the Turkish arsenal, TC is Turkish Republic,
Ankara is where the work was actually done.
And 1937 is the date of the refurbishment on this particular rifle.
A number of these parts, like the magazine floor plate here,
have serial numbers in Turkish [numbers] on them. ...
Got another one there.
The cocking piece has a Turkish serial number on it.
And in fact the bayonet has a Turkish serial number on it.
Those numbers would all have been put on prior to 1928,
because it was 1928/1929 when Turkey converted to standard (what we would consider 'Arabic') numerals.
And that's why the rear sight on this rifle has Arabic numerals on it.
The early pattern Turkish Mausers have Turkish numbers on the rear sights.
And we also have Arabic numbers for the current serial number,
which on this one is only two digits, only 46.
There are very few of these folding bayonet models recorded.
There are actually two here at Rock Island right now, and they are number 42 and 46.
So I'd love to find some more serial numbers and see if perhaps there were only a few hundred made, perhaps.
... Some more data on this would be interesting.
Unlike most of the Turkish 1930s rebuilt guns, this does not have a disassembly disk in the stock.
In fact, as far as I've been able to tell, none of the 1930 short rifles do,
which is a little bit unusual, but there it is.
Alright, and then clearly the most interesting bit here is the bayonet itself.
First off, the 1930 short rifles are easily distinguished by this style of front sight.
Looks kind of like the German Kar98a front sights.
But what they will then have typically, just a plain rectangular,
plain flat square barrel band with a bayonet lug on the bottom.
In fact these ... front nose caps are very similar in style to Carcano nose caps.
Both this one, which you can see is kind of cut back here at the top of the barrel.
But also sort of the standard 1930 short rifle one,
which just has a simple bayonet lug on the bottom.
Now, got a cleaning rod in there. And then to use this bayonet we have a spring-loaded lug.
You pull that back and you simply
pivot this around and that lug locks into that notch, and presto.
It's not the strongest I've ever seen, it's just held in place by that one cross pin.
The bayonet itself is slightly scooped out on the top,
and that's I think just to better fit against the round surface of the wood stock.
We've got a flange on the bottom to give it some strength.
... It may be short, but it's a pretty stout little bayonet. So I think it's unlikely to probably break or bend.
There is some question as to like, how useful is this really?
I suppose I don't want to get stabbed by it.
But it's a lot shorter than a lot of the other bayonets that were in use at the time.
... That long is all that's sticking past the muzzle.
This is kind of like the FG-42 bayonet.
Someone wanted it on there, but you really have to wonder how effective it would be.
Putting it back is just a simple matter of pull the spring latch forward,
and fold it back around.
It's interesting that there's only one lug on this side,
so ... it doesn't lock it like perfectly in position. It can bend out to that side.
Where it's got a lug on either side on the front to hold it nice and sturdy when you're trying to use it.
Oh, and I should point out: you had a sling slot and a sling swivel [on the stock],
well, you've got the same thing here on the front. So
a sling swivel on the bottom and a sling bar on the side
so that this can be carried easily either over the shoulder or across the back.
Note that the bolt handle has been turned down. That is a little bit unusual for Turkish rifles,
but ... this is standard for the 1930 short rifles and carbines that the Turks put together.
To me it's guns like this one that kind of prove the point that a gun doesn't have to be
hugely valuable or hugely desired on the collector market to be really interesting.
I think there's a fantastic amount of backstory to a lot of these Turkish rifles.
And that you'll find ... really neat sub-variants of them, like this folding bayonet pattern, that
people aren't familiar with, a lot of people don't expect to find.
And I think they're really quite cool. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.
[ sub by sk cn2 ]