Mauser Model 1871/84

About the Mauser Model 1871/84

The Mauser Model 1871/84 (Gewehr 71/84) is a bolt-action repeating rifle and the first repeating rifle adopted by the Imperial German Army. It updated the single-shot Mauser Model 1871 with an 8-round tubular magazine in the forestock, fed singly from the top with the bolt open, and a magazine cutoff that let the rifle be fired as a single-loader to conserve the magazine. Chambered for the black-powder 11x60mmR Mauser cartridge, it served as Germany's standard infantry rifle until the smokeless-powder Gewehr 88 replaced it.

Adopted in 1884 after troop trials, the 71/84 gave the German Army its first magazine-fed service rifle. The under-barrel tubular magazine design drew on the Kropatschek system patented by Alfred von Kropatschek. Within a few years the rifle was rendered obsolete by the smokeless revolution, but surplus 71/84s lingered in colonial and second-line service into World War I.

Mauser Model 1871/84 specifications

The tubular magazine, while a major firepower improvement over the single-shot M1871, was slow and awkward to reload and was intended largely as reserve firepower. The design was quickly rendered obsolete by the smokeless-powder Gewehr 1888.