South American Mausers

[Peter_Suciu]

I have started to dabble in various international Mausers and I'm finding that this highly popular firearm (possibly the most internationally used gun with the possible exception of the AK-47) was used throughout South America. But every nation seemed to use different calibers. What was the reason?

At least with the AK-47 the caliber was always the same (7.62x39), and this never changed until the introduction of the AK-74, which adopted the 5.45x39mm round.

So why so many calibers of Mauser rifles?

 

[Gustaf]

Hey Peter,
I believe that 7x57 was the common export caliber for Mausers, some countries wanted a larger bore, there has been some discussion about wanting a rifle that could use captured ammo, but the enemy not being able to use yours, but I think it has more to do with bureaucrats deciding to adopt a different caliber just to show that they have the authority to do so, this type of attitude can be seen in US bureaucracies, for example, to comply with OSHA, an out house must have window screen small enough to keep flies out, but on the next page of the rules, another bureaucrat has added the rule that window screen must be large enough to allow flies to get out, go figure.
Best
Gus

 

[Peter_Suciu]

I knew you would have the answer Gus. I thought I had read somewhere that the South American nations also didn't want their guns to be captured and used against themselves, so they came up with that idea of using different calibers.

That sort of speaks of defeatism to me, but maybe it was realism. You'd think you'd want the same caliber so you could CAPTURE the enemy guns, instead of worrying about the enemy capturing your guns!

But clearly these guys knew there was a chance that their troops would surrender the first chance they got!