Mauser 98 Standard Modell or Mauser “Banner” rifle in 7.92x57mm
Mauser’s Standard Modell was a response to post-World War I trend simplify a country’s main battle arm with a universal or “standard” pattern of intermediate length rifle. In 1924, both Belgian’s Fabrique Nationale (FN) and Czechoslovakia’s Ceskoslovenská Zbrojovka (CZ) introduced “short” ’98 rifles with 23.25" barrels, which they sold around the world. In the 1920s Mauser’s production of firearms was restricted by the Versailles Treaty. Under the pretense of export sales and arming civil authorities, Mauser began developing its own version of the short rifle, the Standard Modell. The rifle featured a 23.62" (600 mm) barrel, retained the horizontal bolt handle of the World War I Gewehr 98 and was offered for sale in 7.92x57 mm, 7x57 mm and 7.65x53 mm calibers. China was the largest purchaser of Standard Modell 98s, with other notable contracts going to Bolivia, Ethiopia and Paraguay. Most Mauser Banners in the US were imported from China in the 1980s. Non-import-marked Standard Modell rifles often saw use in the Spanish Civil War (SCW). Germany sent them to arm Franco’s Nationalist soldiers and the German volunteer Condor Legion. In the 1950s-60s these rifles were sold on the surplus market and imported into the U.S. by Interarmco (later Interarms). This rifle appears to be one of these SCW rifles.