Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters An interesting Commercial DWM in 7x57 cal w/Lyman 35 Site

An interesting Commercial DWM in 7x57 cal w/Lyman 35 Site

I purchased this rifle about 11 years ago. Its a vintage Mauser that has a DWM marked receiver with the left wall is marked "Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabrik Berlin".

It also has an original vintage Lyman #35 receiver site which is original to the time of building. It has added markings for 175g and 139g bullet zeros. LOP is 13-3/4" to the front of double-set triggers.

"Made in Germany" after the serial number is one-line stamped on the bottom of the stock. 3 digit serial number with last 2 digits matching on all the parts including the Double-Set Trigger assembly. A "7" is on the top of the barrel ring ahead of the receiver indicating it is 7x57 cal.

This is a Professional Factory built rifle as opposed to a Gunsmith project. The 22" stepped barrel is factory original and not a cut-down. The rifle weighs exactly 7 pounds.

as always ... comments are most welcome.

I got info about this unique rifle from Axel E.

"Though this rifle may look like a sporterized surplus military rifle, it is not. At the time it was proofed there were no "surplus" M98 rifles, as these were still state of the art military rifles.

The CROWN-crown/N proof mark shows it was civilian proofed according to the rule of July 23, 1893, using the special "4000 atm proof powder". This proof was in use mainly before 1912, though Zella-Mehlis apparently sometimes used up left-over powder up to 1922. This rifle was proofed before WW1.

In those innocent days around 1900 it was usual practice to include some sporting rifles in the military calibers into each shipment of military rifles to foreign countries. These were meant as "presents" to the decision-making officers. Mauser, Oberndorf sent C-type "Army Hunting Rifles", for example some in 7.65 mm for Argentinia, see Jon Speed's first book "Mauser-OOSR" page 111.

Ludwig Loewe/DWM also had sporters, the so-called "Plezier rifles" built on left over M93 Spanish Mauser actions and shipped them, together with the military M95 7x57 Mausers, to the South African republics Orange Free State and Transvaal, where the sporters were not only used for hunting, but for shooting Brits too. These plezier Mausers are now rare and sought-after collector items. All these rifles show civilian proofmarks.

This DWM made, civilian proofed sporter served as a present (or bribe) when it was shipped to a South American country. At least, it looks somewhat similar to a Mauser C-type with the military stepped barrel and front sight base. Though DWM did not offer sporters to the public, they made several hundreds at least, but not for sale."

Interesting to me on this rifle is the set trigger arrangement. The spring of the double set trigger is the long Mauser factory type, not the short V-type of the contemporary Suhl-made rifles. But the set trigger assembly is mounted into the trigger guard with a separate housing, other than the Mauser commercial ones. The two small cross pins holding the housing are visible in one of the photos. The Magazine-trigger guard unit with hinged, button release floorplate apparently comes from either Argentine 1909 or Portuguese Vegueiro production, both are the same.

The load information "2.57 gramm Gewehrblättchenpulver = rifle flake powder / Stahlmantelgeschoss = steel jacketed bullet" is of the type used up to 1912, so this rifle was civilian proofed before.
The stock looks more like a pre-1912 Mauser B one instead of the usual "sporterized military" C type one.

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Beautiful gun. Were the Germans using American made receiver sights back then? Seems like they would make their own, but maybe not.

Hello,
thanks for the reply.

Many old German catalogs had U.S. options available for their guns, such as sights.

What a beauty.

The hand work and subtle changes in shape as well as the thinned portions of the stock where it counts is amazing.

Great looking rifle. You sir, have a heck of a collection.

And its in my favorite caliber.

Hi Buckstix,

This is my DWM Original sporter 7x57 made on a 1893 Mauser action. The first owner was my greatgrandfather. My sons the last users. Five generations and still going strong with the original rust blue. One of my best made rifles. Feed 5 empty cases from the magazine with ese...

That is another beautiful rifle and you live in one of the most beautiful spots on this earth.
Cheers 🍻