Mauser - it's trippy cool!

You may remember me threatening the liver of my darling husband a few posts back. Please rest assured he's FINE - I have not yet skewered him.

But I COULD.

This here is what we call a Mauser. There are a LOT of "Mausers" out there, since most countries made them in the first part of the 20th century. This one happens to be from Brazil. It's a 30.06. I'm sure I absolutely decimated the collector value by re-bluing and polishing the wood, but it pleases me.

Note that, with bayonet attached, that's a BIG rifle. The tip of the bayonet, with the rifle resting at "order arms," extends slightly past my shoulder.

I pick this one up, and it's SOLID. Hell, it's HEAVY. I imagine carrying one of these every day. Not just carrying one every day the way you do in recruit training, or even today's war, but the way they used to. Every damn day in the mud and cold of European winters. In trenches and on mountainsides and in blowing snow. Or up and down the Andes in some South American banana war. Wiping the sweat out of your eyes with one hand while trying to keep this big damn rifle from tangling in every vine and tree.

But the sights are adjustable waaay out past 800 yards.

Damn. Different weapon for different wars.

That's the fun of old military weapons. Where have they been? The couple of Russian rifles we've got? Stalingrad, maybe? My old Argentine .45? Did the officer who wore it know about the old Nazi resettlement program? Did he drop a dime to the Mossad?