The following is from April 2000 issue, pages 91 - 92.

Since writing the two articles on the production of the Chinese Model 13 rifle in the Three Northeast Provinces Arsenal in Shenyang (Mukden), I have gathered additional information on these rifles. In addition to a number of data sheets readers have sent in, I was sent a newspaper clipping from an Austrian newspaper that describes the sale of rifle production machinery from the Austrian arsenal at Steyr to Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso-lin) in 1926 and the work of an Austrian arsenal foreman who spent 1926 -–1928 in Shenyang setting up the machinery.

Since Austria was on the losing side in WWI, the arms making capacity of Austria was to be restricted. Apparently the machinery sold was the machinery used to manufacture the Austrian Model 1912 version of the Mauser 98 for a number of foreign countries. This would make sense since the official rifle of the Austrian Army was the Mannlicher Model 95, so the machinery for making the Austrian Model 1912 would have been used only for export sales which were now prohibited by the peace treaty.

Thomas Keep first brought my attention to the fact that the Model 13 has two different barrel configurations (see the enclosed drawings). Of particular interest is the fact that the later barrel configuration is identical to the barrel configuration of the various Austrian Model 1912’s. This would seem to imply that the Model 13 rifles with the later barrel configuration were in fact made on the machinery purchased from Steyr.

So I have the following request(s) to make of the readership:

1. If you have a Model 13 rifle, would you please note which barrel configuration your rifle has along with the serial number of your rifle?
2. If you have any of the various Austrian Model 1912’s (Mexican, Columbian, Chilean, etc.) with the original barrel configuration (that is, not cut down and rechambered), would you please compare your barrel dimensions with those shown in the drawing of the later barrel configuration and let me know which model rifle you have and how the dimensions compare?

Send to:

This (above) is the early barrel configuration.

This (above) is the later barrel configuration.