The 71/84 actually also had an obscure second life in Canada as the only Mauser rifle ever adopted by a branch of the Canadian armed forces. At the outbreak of WWI, the Quebec City home guard purchased 300 surplus 71/84s from Bannerman’s, and converted them back into single shot rifles for home guard duty. Curiously they also bought Vetterli 1871 sword bayonets from Bannerman’s to be issued alongside the rifles. Lucked out and snatched up a complete example for my personal collection, its one of the more bizarre pieces of WW1 history i’ve encountered.
From what I understand they were modified to single shot once they were surplused to the cadets. Mine is still a repeater and the only thing that was modified was a sling swivel was added to the rear.
I feel like the 71/84 was very much a "make haste slowly" kind of rifle. The conversation at 49:00 is why we have the modern terms "infantry-proof" and "grunt-proof". It's also why infantry units have always been the ones tasked with testing a new service rifle: if it can be broken, damaged, or otherwise made unusable, you can ALWAYS trust the infantry to find a way.
Loved the comparative animation with the single loading and the magazine fire AND the very kind mention... You can really feel the anticipation of the upcoming episodes.... I sense a fantastic home stretch, here. Hurry, Hard!...
I cannot fully express my gratitude over typing for what your channel does. This is better then any cable programing that i thumb through today. My dad and i bond over your videos that is priceless thank you for what you do.
I can't wait to see Othais do the Hussite wars. "And these would have all been melted down for church bells were it not for the fact that in 1427, Crusade Were Declared."
When the Republic was unable to meet the demands of Khyber crystals they contracted out to numerous companies under the Industrial Automaton. And this....*ufffff* is the IA Model 22BBYA1
Excellent rifle. I use one for sport shooting. Accuracy improves with good ammo. Takes some effort to find the proper bullet, powder, grease etc. but it's worth it . One remark about the Jaegerbuchse 71/84 and its sights. In early 1886 there was a troop test with two different sights in 4 Jaeger and 5 regular infantry batallions. The Jaegers agreed with the Infantry about the ladder back sight. For the fixed/flip backsight the Jaegers prefered 200/300m, the Infantry wanted 270/350m. The result was that the Jaegers got their way and the 200/300 Jaeger backsight was introduced into production for all rifles. (vergl. Goetz: Deutsche Militaergewehre und Maschinenpistolen, Stuttgart 1982) But this was the last time, the jaegers got their way in rifle development.
Me, a philistine, before watching the video: "oh cool, a mauser" Me, enlightened, ascended, on a whole new level of existence, after watching the video: "that mauser was cool"
RE: Animations. If the animator could make a spring under compression the color red then green when no compression then we could see how the springs are being utilized. Just a suggestion.
I noticed some background music outside of the normal music placements. I'd personally say to drop it because its a little distracting from the talking and dropping it would take one layer off of the production needed to get a new video out. But that is just my humble viewer's opinion, i can live with it either way.
Just a +1 to this. I'm a huge music fan and the music is nice and all but it made the video borderline unwatchable for me. I'm at 7:40 and I've already paused it 4 times like "what is that music, is that the video?", gone to get my headphones to confirm, checked an old video to see if I somehow just missed it in the past, and come down here to comment and thumb up anyone else who mentioned it. Othais, your voice has sufficient presence that it does not require padding.
I've been watching your episodes in a sort of mish mash order, following the playlists and or the progression of guns / actions, since I found this channel only quite recently. The production quality has risen dramatically from the earlier episodes. I'm not sure if this is the first episode with the music in the background also when you're talking, but that adds a sense of polish as well and I like it. I have to say that Othais, you look a lot better as well overall and the new glasses are much better too. ;) Mae looks as good as ever... Thank you for a great series, this is probably my all time favorite channel!
Good enough is the enemy of Great. We actually have edits, equipment, staging, lighting, etc planned out well beyond financial means at the present moment. So basically every Patron dollar unlocks more for the show.
We also want to know, would you feel comfortable clubbing your field lunch with this rifle? (Speaking as a former soldier who bayoneted field served jello because it was self motile on the plate.)
Today i bought a 71/84 at the Novi Gun Show! Shes a beautiful piece, she was a police service rifle in Siam, and wound up in the Springfield Stockpile before they went defunct She needs a new magazine, but besides that and a damaged front half of the stock, shes absolutely beautiful I adore her And im terrified of the cost of ammo, my best option here in van buren county where i live is 100 DOLLARS
I believe you have some of the finest firearm content currently available on the web and as someone who's attended uncountable engineering lectures, your material is terrific. Sign me up to Patreon. However, for me, mixing background music with the lecture is a distraction not an enhancement. Thanks for all the work and effort you put into your channel.
Small quibble: The German currency was the Reichsmark=RM until 1949. DM= Deutsche Mark is a post-WW2 thing. Even used adapted USD dies for printing the first bills.
The same things happemed to Germany when they had just brought out a quite useabke Krupp breech-loader wit fixed recoil, and right after that the French came out with the 75 with pneumatic recoil.
I know I'm a bit late to the party but I was really disappointed to see that you didn't mention my rifle that I've been looking for information on for years. It's an I.G. 71/84 "short" according to the closest thing I have to an antique firearms expert. It's not sporterized, but it has an oddly shaped bolt that tilts downward, has a short barrel (~22 inches) and, I believe because I don't have ammo to load, a magazine that doesn't appear to hold the full 8 rounds. The stock ends just after the rear sight which is original and it appears that the upper strap loop was at one time affixed to the upper end of the magazine. The gun also lacks any kind of place to attach a push or cleaning rod. I've only seen two pictures of a gun just like it, one on a firearms auction site advertising it as only a 43 Mauser 71/84, and the other was in a German museum, also described as a "short" version of the 71/84. I've been drawing blanks on all my attempts to find out more information. I emailed the Mauser company itself and posted on several antique firearms forums and Facebook groups to no avail. I would be glad to provide you with pictures or even, if you wanted to feature it in a video, work out the logistics of shipping it to you.
MustaEyolfPedes that sounds like a Calvary carbine variant, but Germany never made any Calvary carbine variants of the 71/84. The closest thing I’ve found is reference to Ottoman Calvary carbine variants of the 1887 (the improved export version). EDIT: The Ottoman 1887 video made reference to a carbine of unknown origin around the 41-42 min mark (however the most likely user is Bulgaria). The drawings match this image of one for auction www.gunsamerica.com/937134035/Mauser-I-G-Mod-71-84-10-95mm.htm
Great rifle! I have nearly a 3-4" POI shift to the right after 2 rounds due to the barrel issue, but its still a tight group. At 300 yards, i have to aim a whole 24 inches off to hit, but its still not an issue if you understand your rifle
Othais said that after WW 1, sticking with one conflict is probably not going to happen, as it can get quite restrictive in putting episodes out. Trying to get hold of rare guns, or the history and data on them to complete 'sets' can delay and frustrate things. Plus they want to be able to jump around and show us cool things.
I'd much prefer that they stick to WW1 until they've covered it in its entirety. Everyone already knows everything about guns like the M1 Garand, M1A1 Thompson, M1 carbine, PPSh, Gewehr 43, 91/30 Mosin, MP40, Sten gun, etc. I mean, this isn't Forgotten Weapons, but I still find it a lot more interesting to see all these weird hybrids and conversions, plus the advent of the self-loader and machine gun, all new things at the time of the war, and how even the oldest of the old and obsolete still made it into the trenches.
My thoughts exactly, except I consider Both world war part of one larger conflict, kind of like how the napoleonic wars were separate but considered the same. So in my case Bring on both wars and the interwar period.
Well this explains why the cutoff lever on the sadly rough condition example I have access to is broken. One day I'll get it up and running again, the bore is still in great shape, so it should make a good shooter. Just needs a stock, barrel band spring and screw, repaired or replaced cutoff lever (actually do have both of the pieces of it and it's a pretty clean break), and a new mag tube. The trick is finding the parts that are missing/beyond repair. Good to know the trick with the cutoff lever though, I had no way to figure out how to get the bolt out until I got the action out of the stock (I also got my first look at how much rust I'd have to clean off and stabilize at the same time, that was 'fun').
"You would not want us to damage something." God no. Those antique guns are to be preserved. "Or ourselves." Oh yes, that too. But do not damage the guns! :D
So great channel. I have a carbine one. It’s a single shot only but has the divot for the magazine cutoff. I assume it was “sporterised “ for hunting sometime after its service.
A small nitpick, DM is short for Dutche Mark (german mark) that is the currency of postwar west Germany and the unified Germany until the introduction of the Euro. The currency of the german empire were just called Mark, and was abbreviated (fancy)M.
49:44 Othias is a sexy beast and all, but the picture of him in yoga class is not one I want in my head 😀. I have 40 rounds of ammo for mine, but need to fix an extraction issue before shooting it.
Hi Otias, and Mae. You guys have covered the first 3 Mauser rifles which I commend you for, will you next cover the first smokeless powder Mauser known as the 1891. I know that it was originally Belgian-made but was commercially successful as an export to countries in South America, and used a 7.65 mm cartridge that was similar to the later 7.62 NATO. Most importantly, it would be the rifle that first used Mauser stripper clips in a 5 round integral box magazine. Keep up the good work.
I find the music highly distracting. Keep hearing notes on the ragged edge of my hearing which keeps throwing my focus off, my brain keeps bouncing back and forth. Again, very distracting.
Yeah, I didn't like the music either, it didn't sound like it goes with the show, I would rather just have Othais talking. I do love the old music that's played with the animations tho, but not this episode's animation music.
To clarify my above comment, the music during the animations and Mae's shooting is fine. It's the low volume music during Othais taking parts that I find distracting.
The black powder smoke issue might be a bit exaggerated. Black powder smoke gives away the position of the shooter. but I do not think that constant fire always means bad visibility and obscured targets. I frequently shoot black powder rifles, often with several other shooters at 50 or 100m ranges. . Here in Germany we mostly have ranges with walls around. Even under these conditions and with several shooters keeping up a constant rifle fire for an hour or two, smoke and visibility are hardly an issue. Only when it is cold and wet without any wind or under foggy conditions the targets are sometimes obscured by smoke. Battlefields hsually have no protective walls, that inhibit wind from dispersing the smoke. When the 71 Cartrige was developped, there was a significant improvement in powder production. Curtis and Harvey produced an excellent powder. Rottweil too and the Metz Powder mostly used for the 71 was much more constant in grain size and gas pressure than the previous prussian powder.. Residue was reduced, in all of these powders, which also meant less sparks and smoke.
Hi Randy, If I place my 1500 "friends" in tightly packed rows, they should create quite an impressive fog. But this would not have been the tactical deployment of Infantery after the 71/84 was issued. Moltke, ad drawn his conclusions frion some terrible infantry losses in the 70/71 war. The Infanteriereglement of 1888 introduced the "Schützenschwarm" , which meant Infantry acting in platoon sized groups, led by corporals who were trained and encouraged to act according to the tactical situation. Moltke had seen that the days when generals could control the battle from an observation point were over and that no battle plan lasted longer than the first minutes of the engagement. So he developped the "Auftragstaktik", The generals defined the ams and gave the lower ranks tactical independence He encouraged the infantry to disperse over a much wide area and to use natural cover for attack and defence. The days of close formation defence were definitely over when the 71/84 arrived. If I had to deploy the 1500 "friends" you mentioned, according to the infantry reglement of 1888, the front would be quite wide. No need to worry that much about smoke,.
Thank you Gang another great episode I did miss the old animation music but then I'm a sucker for the cello anyway thank you once again and good evening from Tasmania
elitebuster2012 normally I'm working second shift but this time I have to work half of a first shift tomorrow to for a total of 12 hours so this is the one time that it's a tough one to stay awake for lol
Instead of moving the bolt empty forward, after moving the lever from single shot to magazin, you could drop one more cartridge in before moving the bolt forward.
One thing I noticed that wasn’t in this episode is the fact that a small hand full of Mauser 71/84s were fixed up and issued to the Volkssturm in 1945 and would see some action in the defense of Berlin.
Does anyone know if there exist a similar youtube series to this, with the same high quality as this, but for WW2 small arms? Would love to watch something like that!
I would like to hear more about gas control. My 71/84 vented in my face when the rim separated from the case . 1/2 my face was peppered with powder, with some blood and burns, and powder tattooed in my skin. At least I had safety glasses on. The action survived, but the wood split on the right side of the action. The bolt was not matching numbers to the receiver.
Something that is very curious about your black powder 71/84 cartridges is I purchased a 71/84 about 40 years ago and with it came two boxes of unopened ammunition loaded in 1887 which was 40 rounds in total not only did every single round go off and function flawlessly in the rifle but there was very very little smoke, I was very curious about this so I disassembled one of the cartridges and between the bullet and the black powder was a small disk of paper about a milimeter thick which I think was nitrated paper the function of which I think was similar to the flash suppressor packet which went between the powder charge and the projectile of 155 mm Howitzer to minimize smoke and Flash.
were these paper patched original military cartridges? We nowadays know that the paper disc is neccessary to separate the powder from the lead bullet.in order to prevent damage to the base. Original 71/84 military ammo usually had a wax disc between two paper discs. The thick paper disc prevented the wax from sticking to the bullet base.
Stephan Bläsner to to be absolutely honest I'm not sure it was so long ago in hindsight I should have tried to ignite the little paper disc on its own to see what happened with the ammunition was so difficult to get it that time I felt like I was wasting one of the cartridges so I reassembled it and fired it when mae fired hers I was amazed how much smoke when was generated when I fired mine there wasn't a quarter that much smoke but I do know that all the ammunition was manufactured in 1887 and came and chipboard boxes of 20 rounds each with chipboard separators between each cartridge the packages were gray and had a white paper band around the center to secure the boxes closed
20 is the right number. They came in boxes of ten or twenty. Most of the original boxes were blue, though the Karlsruhe armoury turned out white boxes.. Separator as you discribed. Only the paper band is ununsual, I'm not sure about the nitrated paper. Flash is definitely no problem with this rifle. . According to my experience he amount of smoke when firing black powder depends a lot on temerature and humidity. Under cold and wet climate it is sometimes difficult to see the target after just a few shots. When it is warm and dry, there is much less smoke.
The bolt looks like a mosin bolt. Or more accurately. the Mosin bolt looks like this one! Why doesn't it have the mosin sticky bolt you blamed on the side rail thingy?
I have a question. So when you disengage the magazine disconnect, you need to cycle again so that the elevator drops. Is there doctrine for or against disengaging the disconnect, loading a single round then continuing on to the magazine? I am imagining a couple seconds saving of the extra bolt work but maybe there's a safety or mechanical limitation?
IV8888 is not the best youtuber to associate with IMO, he's part of the "US gun channel/Trump supporter" crowd. On the other hand, Othais and Ian are examples of quality gun channels that don't involve a simplistic view of politics.
lptomtom Finding non-political firearms content is hard. On the RU-vid, im on my aware of Othais&spinoff, Ian, and InRange. Even InRange has a distinctly small-government libertarian tinge to it (for example what Karl says in the Infosec videos).
That's an unfortunate by-product of this firearms community - a lot of them are Americans and like all Americans they are infected with opinions and even worse - a lot of them share those opinions freely. (I'm American I can make these jokes. Anyone can make these jokes, it's a free country. Even if you're not American, we'll MAKE your country free). Also the best way to acknowledge Libertarians is in scare-quotes: "Libertarians" because those "Libertarians" are actual Libertarians like North Korea is a "Democratic People's Republic."
