Here's an interesting rifle. The side rail has a faint Mod 1904 marking. However, the receiver has 1948 marking on top, just like 1937 on Chinese used P series VZ24. The barrel has some German markings. The stock, barrel, receiver has the same low serial number 769. The stock has a Chinese character 公 inside a star. I don’t think anyone was still making Mauser 1904 in 1948. The Chinese character 公 could be short for 公安, which means Public Security. In late 40s early 50s, Public Security force was part of Communist People’s Liberation Army PLA, that could explain why it’s in a PLA star. The PLA star has Chinese character 八 and 一 inside the star with 八 on top of 一, signified the date, August 1st, that the PLA was founded. The PLA star looks similar but slightly different than the 公 inside the star.
1948 is the year that the communists took over the 3 northeastern provinces, the former Manchuria region, which include the former warlord Zhang Zuolin's East 3 Provinces Arsenal which became Mukden Arsenal under Japanese occupation then the nationalists' Arsenal 90, before fell into the communists' hands. Likely explanation is that this Mod 1904 was being refurbished by the communists after captured Arsenal 90 when they took complete control of Northeastern region in November 1948, and then issued to the Public Security force. During the refurbish process, the original maker marking was removed and replace with 1948 refurbish year marking. Not sure if the serial number was original to the Mod 1904 when the Qing Dynasty government purchased, or it's a reserialized number applied by the communist's arsenal. Also not sure whether this Mod 1904 was the initial purchased in 6.8x57mm caliber or it's the late 7.9x57mm model purchased. If it's original in 6.8x57mm caliber, the refurbish makes sense to bring it to 7.9x57mm as that's the main rifle caliber used back then. If it's the late 7.9x57mm to start with, then the refurbishment process probably just bring it the battle ready condition. It doesn’t have importer marking. Have no idea how it ended up in the states. Anyway, it’s an interesting odd one. Hopefully, the more experienced collectors or historians on this forum can shine a light on this one and provide more information to the history of this rifle. Thanks in advance!
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More photos to follow.
1948 is the year that the communists took over the 3 northeastern provinces, the former Manchuria region, which include the former warlord Zhang Zuolin's East 3 Provinces Arsenal which became Mukden Arsenal under Japanese occupation then the nationalists' Arsenal 90, before fell into the communists' hands. Likely explanation is that this Mod 1904 was being refurbished by the communists after captured Arsenal 90 when they took complete control of Northeastern region in November 1948, and then issued to the Public Security force. During the refurbish process, the original maker marking was removed and replace with 1948 refurbish year marking. Not sure if the serial number was original to the Mod 1904 when the Qing Dynasty government purchased, or it's a reserialized number applied by the communist's arsenal. Also not sure whether this Mod 1904 was the initial purchased in 6.8x57mm caliber or it's the late 7.9x57mm model purchased. If it's original in 6.8x57mm caliber, the refurbish makes sense to bring it to 7.9x57mm as that's the main rifle caliber used back then. If it's the late 7.9x57mm to start with, then the refurbishment process probably just bring it the battle ready condition. It doesn’t have importer marking. Have no idea how it ended up in the states. Anyway, it’s an interesting odd one. Hopefully, the more experienced collectors or historians on this forum can shine a light on this one and provide more information to the history of this rifle. Thanks in advance!
More photos to follow.
