Argentine Modelo 1891

[Greasemonkey]

Well there are nice looking Mauser's, then there are these, the Model 1891 Argentine. These in my book are are the super models of the Mauser world. The old world craftsmanship is truly amazing and this particular action is super smooth. The Argentines were contract weapons built by Ludwig Loewe in Berlin.  These are in 7.65x53 Arg. which is very close to the 308 in ballistics. This example, like many had the crest ground off, one with a crest, is very uncommon and highly prized.

[Dannyboy53]

That is a beautiful rifle GM. Until we got our Bersa Thunder I never paid much attention to Argentine firearms, that was a big mistake on my part.

[agrace]

I have to agree.  I bought one 20 years ago that had been sporterized. I didn't know what it was at the time but I fell in love with it. But got sad after I found out what they had done.  Same caliber as you mention above. At any rate to much had been done to return to original. So I am going to invest some time and finish it up. I have a Peruvian in the same caliber that I love to.

[Phosphorus32]

I've heard nothing but good things about the German made Argentine Mausers.  That is a really beautiful example.  That ~120 year old stock looks new  I've found myself lusting over the Modelo 1909 rifles and carbines on occasion but these Modelo 1891s are very interesting too.  How does it shoot?  I've never shot anything in 7.65x53.

[Greasemonkey]

Shoots real nice, you can find the caliber was used in some Turkish Mausers, Belgium used it and a few others.

I've got a Model 1909, but its one Agentinia sportized and rebarreled it to .30-06 before they exported them. They figured they would jump on the bandwagon and try to get more money that way. So they bubba'ed up there own weapons. The bubba sporter has the crest still intact.

[Phosphorus32]

Shoots real nice, you can find the caliber was used in some Turkish Mausers, Belgium used it and a few others.

Thanks for the info.  Yeah, I was reading about these and was surprised to find the 7.65x53 "Argentine" cartridge was used more widely early on in the Mauser contract rifles.  Cool stuff.

[Greasemonkey]

Funny thing, in my area, the surplus 7.65 Arg. is or was fairly common, used to be every couple of weeks I'd wipe out the local seller, $6 bucks a box. Seemed like it was always there and I just kept getting 10-15 boxes, what ever was there. I've missed a couple of times getting it recently, but now last time I went in its, 18bucks a box.

Off the top of my head, I think even a FnFal or maybe the Cetme was made in 7.65 Arg. I know there were other heavy machine guns in the caliber, maybe like the M1919 or Vickers or something.