Ottoman Mauser M1887

About the Ottoman Mauser M1887

The Ottoman Mauser M1887 is a black-powder, bolt-action repeating rifle and the first in the long series of Mauser rifles supplied to the Ottoman Empire. Built at Mauser's Oberndorf works, it refined the German Model 1871/84 design with a strengthened action featuring an additional rear locking lug and a reduced 9.5x60R caliber. It fed from an eight-round Kropatschek-style tubular magazine under the barrel and included a magazine cutoff allowing single-shot fire while holding the magazine in reserve. The original contract called for 500,000 rifles and 50,000 carbines, but only around 200,000 were delivered before the design was rendered obsolete by the arrival of small-caliber smokeless-powder rifles.

Adopted just as Europe raced to rearm with small-caliber smokeless rifles, the M1887 was technologically outdated almost the moment it entered Ottoman service, making surviving examples in its now-unobtainable 9.5x60R chambering prized collector curiosities.

Ottoman Mauser M1887 specifications

Often considered the last black-powder cartridge rifle produced by Mauser. It was quickly superseded in Ottoman service by the smokeless 7.65mm Mauser Model 1890.