I acquired this Haenel Model 1909 rifle, serial # 9928, a month or so ago and after a long journey and some research on the development history of the rifle, I wanted to post it here to see if others can help fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge of this model and its history.
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I am in the process of working up a development history for this rifle but it is not yet ready for posting. When it gets a little more complete, it will also be posted at Myers Arms LLC (https://www.myersarms.com/), where I found a significant amount of information on this rifle and from whom I have received much appreciated on-going guidance on this rifle’s development history and operational characteristics.
The rifle below is chambered in 7x57mm (model # and caliber stamped on side rail) and is in military (straight bolt arm), rather than sporting configuration (bent bolt). The receiver crest is stamped “C.G. HAENEL” over “SUHL” over “1914”, which I assume is the year of manufacture. The starboard receiver wall is stamped with three proof/inspection marks that have a three-spike crown over a German Fraktur letter. Forward of these proof/inspection stamps is the serial number, 9928, which is matching on every serialized part of this rifle.
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The Haenel Model 1909 has a pistol-grip stock with straight comb, no grasping grooves, and has a recoil bolt. The hand guard has a curved sheet metal piece riveted to its aft end that fits into a groove in the receiver, thereby securing the aft end of the hand guard. The forward end of the hand guard is secured by the rear barrel band. The stock is fitted with bottom mounted sling swivels. The front barrel band is forged integral to its Mauser-pattern bayonet lug, has a split upper bridge and is secured by a through-screw. Sights are Mauser-pattern barleycorn front and tangent rear calibrated from 50 to 1000m. Unlike many other barrels of this era, the Haenel M1909 barrel is not stepped along its length. It is smoothly tapered from a diameter of 22.8mm at the barrel shank to 15.2mm at its mid-point to 13.9mm at the muzzle, with most of this taper taking place in the aft half of the barrel.
It may not be obvious from the photos posted below, but this rifle is extremely light (weight 7.2 lbs or 3.26kg). Compare this to the admittedly robust bulk of a Guatemalan Vz24 that was handy and which I used for comparison (9.1lb or 4.13kg). The Vz24 is a substantial 25% heavier than the Haenel M1909. The dimensional measurements of the Haenel M1909 also exhibit the svelte, almost delicate features of the Haenel M1909 (Table 1).
Table 1: Haenel Model 1909 dimensions, serial # 9928.
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The Haenel M1909 was designed and manufactured by C.G. Haenel, a well-respected firearms manufacturer based in Suhl, Germany. In the early 1890s, Haenel had helped manufacture Kar88 and Gew91 carbines for the Germany military and soon after began selling commercial sporting rifles built on the Gew 1888 action. New and better designed Mauser and Mannlicher rifle designs came out in the 1890s and were eagerly acquired numerous military powers. Manufacture of the Gew 1888 ceased shortly after the ground-breaking Mauser Gew 1898 was introduced. These developments left Haenel with machinery that could produce high quality sporting rifles on the Gew 88 action, Haenel had little chance of competing with the new and better designs being fielded by the likes of Waffenfabrik Mauser, DWM, and OEWG.
Although Haenel continued to produce sporting rifles and even agreed to manufacture the Roth-Haenel Model 1899 semiautomatic rifle, Haenel also took a bold step and decided to design and market its own bolt action rifle with the hopes of winning one or more of the lucrative military contracts which were then the domain of its larger competitors in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Japan and the United States. Haenel chose the Gew 1888 action as the starting point for its new rifle. Wisely, Haenel took steps to avoid patent infringement issues with its competitors while modifying and improving the old Gew 88 action.
The initial result of Haenel’s efforts was the Haenel Model 1900. This rifle had the following diagnostic features (Eichendorff, Haenel, C.G. of Suhl):
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Not long after this rifle was introduced, the Chinese Imperial government began a protracted period of arms testing with the goal of purchasing a new battle rifle and caliber for its large armed forces (Zou, 2025, Mauser M1907 Chinese Rifle and Carbine, ARMAX: Journal of Contemporary Arms, in press). To this end, China held a series of rifle trails between 1903 and 1905 in which the competing rifles included the Mauser Model 1903/04 export rifle, the OEWG (Österreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft, aka Steyr) Exportmodel 1904 rifle, the C.G. Haenel Model 1907 rifle and the Japanese Type 30 rifle. China eventually settled on a new caliber, 6.8x57mm, even before selecting a new rifle. Eventually, in 1907, the Chinese selected the Mauser Model 1907 rifle and carbine chambered in the Chinese 6.8x57mm round. Haenel had lost its first major arms competition but there is good evidence it managed to sell some of its 6.8x57mm-chambered Model 1907 rifles directly to provincial or local government concerns in China, a process the Imperial Chinese government tried, but failed, to stop.
During the first decade of the 1900s, Haenel received feedback on the performance of its Model 1900 and 1907 rifles and carbines. At least one example of a possible Haenel sales rifle has been noted that is marked on the side rail “Modell 1908” with no caliber denoted (Zou, 2025, written comm.), indicating Haenel, like other arms manufacturers, continued to market and make improvements on the Model 1900 based on feedback from its buyers. Using this feedback, Haenel made several improvements, resulting in the introduction of the Model 1909 rifle and carbine. Haenel’s Model 1909 had the following improvements over the Model 1900 (Eichendorff, Haenel, C.G. of Suhl):
Unfortunately, little primary source evidence speaks to possible acquisition of the Model 1909 by Paraguay or Uruguay. Two arguments suggest Uruguay, rather than Paraguay, is a more likely buyer of the 1914-dated, 7x57mm-chambered Haenel M1909:
(other photos to follow)
I am in the process of working up a development history for this rifle but it is not yet ready for posting. When it gets a little more complete, it will also be posted at Myers Arms LLC (https://www.myersarms.com/), where I found a significant amount of information on this rifle and from whom I have received much appreciated on-going guidance on this rifle’s development history and operational characteristics.
The rifle below is chambered in 7x57mm (model # and caliber stamped on side rail) and is in military (straight bolt arm), rather than sporting configuration (bent bolt). The receiver crest is stamped “C.G. HAENEL” over “SUHL” over “1914”, which I assume is the year of manufacture. The starboard receiver wall is stamped with three proof/inspection marks that have a three-spike crown over a German Fraktur letter. Forward of these proof/inspection stamps is the serial number, 9928, which is matching on every serialized part of this rifle.
The Haenel Model 1909 has a pistol-grip stock with straight comb, no grasping grooves, and has a recoil bolt. The hand guard has a curved sheet metal piece riveted to its aft end that fits into a groove in the receiver, thereby securing the aft end of the hand guard. The forward end of the hand guard is secured by the rear barrel band. The stock is fitted with bottom mounted sling swivels. The front barrel band is forged integral to its Mauser-pattern bayonet lug, has a split upper bridge and is secured by a through-screw. Sights are Mauser-pattern barleycorn front and tangent rear calibrated from 50 to 1000m. Unlike many other barrels of this era, the Haenel M1909 barrel is not stepped along its length. It is smoothly tapered from a diameter of 22.8mm at the barrel shank to 15.2mm at its mid-point to 13.9mm at the muzzle, with most of this taper taking place in the aft half of the barrel.
It may not be obvious from the photos posted below, but this rifle is extremely light (weight 7.2 lbs or 3.26kg). Compare this to the admittedly robust bulk of a Guatemalan Vz24 that was handy and which I used for comparison (9.1lb or 4.13kg). The Vz24 is a substantial 25% heavier than the Haenel M1909. The dimensional measurements of the Haenel M1909 also exhibit the svelte, almost delicate features of the Haenel M1909 (Table 1).
Table 1: Haenel Model 1909 dimensions, serial # 9928.
The Haenel M1909 was designed and manufactured by C.G. Haenel, a well-respected firearms manufacturer based in Suhl, Germany. In the early 1890s, Haenel had helped manufacture Kar88 and Gew91 carbines for the Germany military and soon after began selling commercial sporting rifles built on the Gew 1888 action. New and better designed Mauser and Mannlicher rifle designs came out in the 1890s and were eagerly acquired numerous military powers. Manufacture of the Gew 1888 ceased shortly after the ground-breaking Mauser Gew 1898 was introduced. These developments left Haenel with machinery that could produce high quality sporting rifles on the Gew 88 action, Haenel had little chance of competing with the new and better designs being fielded by the likes of Waffenfabrik Mauser, DWM, and OEWG.
Although Haenel continued to produce sporting rifles and even agreed to manufacture the Roth-Haenel Model 1899 semiautomatic rifle, Haenel also took a bold step and decided to design and market its own bolt action rifle with the hopes of winning one or more of the lucrative military contracts which were then the domain of its larger competitors in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Japan and the United States. Haenel chose the Gew 1888 action as the starting point for its new rifle. Wisely, Haenel took steps to avoid patent infringement issues with its competitors while modifying and improving the old Gew 88 action.
The initial result of Haenel’s efforts was the Haenel Model 1900. This rifle had the following diagnostic features (Eichendorff, Haenel, C.G. of Suhl):
- The Gew 88’s Mannlicher-style en-bloc clip feed system was replaced with a double-stack 5-round fixed internal magazine of Haenel’s own design, one that performed like the staggered, internal box magazine of the Mauser Gew 1898 but which was sufficiently different from a mechanical standpoint to enable it to be granted a Deutsches Reichs Patent (DRP) of its own, Patent # 667,856, granted to Carl Robert Wagner on February 12, 1901 (see Haenel_Magazine-Patent_MyersArms.pdf);
- A previously patented bolt shield was added to the aft end of the bolt body to redirect gasses from a ruptured primer or cartridge, something that was still an issue with ammunition of that period and something the Gew 88 design did not do well. This gas shield piece is sometimes stamped “D. R. G. M.” indicating it was granted a Deutsches Reichs Gebrauches Muster (DRGM), a slightly less protective patent than a DRP (German Reich Utility Pattern, D.R.G.M.’s or Deutsches Reichs Gebrauchs-Muster (German utility or design patents 1891-1945)).
- A rounded rear split-bridge with slots for rapid stripper clip reloading of the internal magazine;
- Mauser-pattern tangent rear sights and barleycorn front sights;
- Mauser-pattern bolt release lever;
- A wooden hand guard that extended from the receiver to the rear barrel band and which eliminated the heavy, expensive and troublesome barrel jacket on Gew 88 rifles and carbines;
- A Gew88-type bolt body without the flat rib but with a straight bolt handle and checkering on the underside of the bolt ball;
- The bolt retained the detachable bolt head of the Gew 88, but the new Haenel M1900 rifle bolts included one of this rifle’s most important design features: a two-piece firing pin. Both the bolt body and the detachable bolt head housed separate firing pin pieces. The forward firing pin is captive in the removeable bolt head. The aft firing pin piece looks much like a Gew 88 firing pin except for having its point ground off. This change in the bolt head design eliminated a Gew 88 design flaw, whereby a cartridge could be accidentally detonated with the bolt out of battery, if the headless bolt was forced forward, allowing its protruding firing pin to impact the cartridge primer (Olson, Mauser Bolt Rifles, page 260). The Haenel design made it impossible for the firing pin to strike a primer unless the bolt head was properly attached;
- A large and somewhat complicated magazine floor plate release catch that hooked over a cross pin and protruded into the trigger guard, and;
- A separate ejector housing added to the front of the bolt stop.
Not long after this rifle was introduced, the Chinese Imperial government began a protracted period of arms testing with the goal of purchasing a new battle rifle and caliber for its large armed forces (Zou, 2025, Mauser M1907 Chinese Rifle and Carbine, ARMAX: Journal of Contemporary Arms, in press). To this end, China held a series of rifle trails between 1903 and 1905 in which the competing rifles included the Mauser Model 1903/04 export rifle, the OEWG (Österreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft, aka Steyr) Exportmodel 1904 rifle, the C.G. Haenel Model 1907 rifle and the Japanese Type 30 rifle. China eventually settled on a new caliber, 6.8x57mm, even before selecting a new rifle. Eventually, in 1907, the Chinese selected the Mauser Model 1907 rifle and carbine chambered in the Chinese 6.8x57mm round. Haenel had lost its first major arms competition but there is good evidence it managed to sell some of its 6.8x57mm-chambered Model 1907 rifles directly to provincial or local government concerns in China, a process the Imperial Chinese government tried, but failed, to stop.
During the first decade of the 1900s, Haenel received feedback on the performance of its Model 1900 and 1907 rifles and carbines. At least one example of a possible Haenel sales rifle has been noted that is marked on the side rail “Modell 1908” with no caliber denoted (Zou, 2025, written comm.), indicating Haenel, like other arms manufacturers, continued to market and make improvements on the Model 1900 based on feedback from its buyers. Using this feedback, Haenel made several improvements, resulting in the introduction of the Model 1909 rifle and carbine. Haenel’s Model 1909 had the following improvements over the Model 1900 (Eichendorff, Haenel, C.G. of Suhl):
- The bolt was improved with a Mannlicher-Scheonauer-style guide rib and had a lightening cut in the bolt body;
- The receiver bridge was modified to a slimmer looking octagonal cross section;
- The floor plate release mechanism was replaced with a simpler push-button release located above and ahead of the trigger guard;
- The bolt stop and ejector housing were replaced with a simpler, streamlined one-piece unit.
Unfortunately, little primary source evidence speaks to possible acquisition of the Model 1909 by Paraguay or Uruguay. Two arguments suggest Uruguay, rather than Paraguay, is a more likely buyer of the 1914-dated, 7x57mm-chambered Haenel M1909:
- The Paraguayan tri-service military academy was started in 1915 while the Uruguayan Army academy was established in 1885 and its Naval academy was established in 1907. With the outbreak of World War I in mid-1914, the demand for military arms put an end to Haenel’s development of the M1909 as the Imperial German war machine moved into high gear. It seems unlikely that Haenel could have exported anything to Paraguay in 1915 after the founding of their tri-service military academy. On the other hand, either of Uruguay’s military academies could have acquired the Haenel M1909 in 1914 before the outbreak of WWI.
- Uruguay’s standard military cartridge was the 7x57mm Mauser while Paraguay’s standard military service round was the 7.65x53mm round. It seems highly unlikely that Paraguay would have ordered the M1909 in 7x57mm, thereby requiring the country to acquire a non-standard cartridge solely to train its up-an-coming military officers. However, Uruguay had been using the 7x57mm round for nearly 2 decades by the time 1914 rolled around and would be far more likely to have ordered the Haenel M1909 in 7x57mm.
- According to some sources, by 1894, Oscar Hesse of New Jersey became the first U.S. importer to offer what collectors and historians have incorrectly called the “Haenel-Mannlicher” (Olson, Mauser Bolt Rifles, page 260; Early German Bolt-Action Sporters Set a Standard; Haenel-Mannlicher 9x57 Mauser | RifleMagazine). I assume these firearms were built on the Gew 1888 action and if so, were they produced from Haenel's spare parts left over from their Kar88/Gew91 carbine contract or did Haenel acquire a license to build and sell Gew 88-based rifles and carbines?
- Was the Haenel Model 1907 rifle submitted to the Chinese rifle trials simply a Model 1900 chambered in the new Chinese 6.8x57mm caliber or did it have incremental design improvements over the original Model 1900?
- In a Gunboards post by author and collector John Sheehan, he stated this about the Haenel M1907: “according to Walter, several thousand of the Model 1907s were manufactured for China but never delivered. They were chambered for the 6.8x57mm cartridge.” (https://www.gunboards.com/threads/haenel-mannlicher-m1909.902418). Mr. Sheehan was referring to the book by John Walter, “Central Powers Small Arms of World War One” (1999, Crowood, 192p). At first blush, it seems unlikely that Haenel would have produced "several thousand" Chinese M1907s without having a firm sales contract in-hand. Since they did not win the Chinese contract with their M1907 rifle, is there any hard evidence that Haenel sold their Model 1907 in 6.8x57mm to Provincial or local Chinese concerns, similar to how other firms sold firearms directly to these Chinese concerns during this period in history?
- As a collector with strong interests in South American Mausers, I am particularly interested in the idea that Haenel sold the M1909 in 7x57mm to either Paraguay and/or Uruguay. Common sense tells me that Uruguay was the buyer since all of their military bolt rifles were chambered in 7x57mm while Paraguay fielded only 7.65x53mm bolt rifles. However, common sense is not evidence! Does anyone have any primary source documents that indicate who bought M1909s from Haenel, when they acquired them and in what quantities?
(other photos to follow)
