Ever imagine a time when gun development wasn’t based on gimmicks or refinements of old designs?
Every year, new firearms get introduced, which is good for the end user. There are more options to suit the needs of just about anybody. But the great quantum leaps, it seems, are in the past. Firearms released each year are mere refinements of previous designs, some decades old. That is simply putting things in a positive light. In my opinion, the 19th century was the greatest time period for quantum leaps in firearms’ history, going from smoothbore muskets to machine guns before the century was even out.
In the world of rifle development, one really only needs to remember one name — Mauser. Everyone knows about the famous Model 98 rifle carried by German troops in World War I and World War II, but the previous models have merit of their own and game changing features that made them futuristic in their own time.
If there is any other Mauser that comes close to the M98 in recognition, it has to be the Spanish Model 1893. This weapon is famous in American historical circles as being the deadly rifle we faced in the Spanish-American War, a gun that made the US adopt new weaponry almost overnight. The M93 also had an illustrious career spanning struggles in the Philippine Insurrection to the chaotic Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. So what makes the m93?
