The result of over twenty years of research, this is the most complete account ever published of the life and times of Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis and his crowning achievement, the Lewis Automatic Machine Gun. The Lewis became a favourite tool of the British and Canadian "machine gun killer" teams of World War I, but U.S. "doughboys" and Marines were issued the French Chauchat, instead. This gave rise to a bitter controversy, which became one of the most sensational issues of the decade. The Lewis was the principal "free" or flexible Allied aircraft machine gun of World War I, manufactured by B.S.A. in England, Savage in the U.S.A., and Darne in France. After World War I several versions of the Lewis were manufactured in Holland and by two Naval Arsenals in Japan. Japanese Naval and Air forces remained committed to the Lewis throughout World War II.

Two complete chapters are devoted to the accessories designed and issued expressly for use with the Lewis, one for general and ground gun devices, and one covering the special needs of Air Service guns.

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Mauser manufactured a number of pistols of the firm's own design. These included roughly a million examples of the famous C96 (plus 100,000 selective-fire versions and 1,200 hunting carbines); 500,000 blowback pocket pistols; 80,000 examples of two versions of the tiny 6.35mm WTP “vest pocket” pistol; and 261,000 HSc pistols.

Over the years Mauser also manufactured several handguns which had been designed elsewhere, including at least 7,800 Reichsrevolvers; 1,000,000 Parabellum (Luger) pistols, including lange Pistolen 08 (“artillery” Lugers) for Persia and Siam; plus 340,000 P38s.

In addition, many other pistol models were produced as prototypes only. Many of these photos are from rare glass plate negatives which have never been published before. These include the Mauser C77; the Mauser “Zig-Zag” revolvers; the Mauser C87 ring-trigger repeater; the C02, the C06, the C06/08 and the C06 + C06/08 hybrid; the large-calibre blowback Model 1909 self-loader; and the Models 1912 and 1912/14 Armeepistole.

During WWI Josef Nickl designed several locked-breech pistols with rotating barrels. After the war Nickl assisted in establishing the Brno arsenal in Czechoslovakia, where his rotating-barrel CZ22 was later produced as the blowback CZ27. Back at Mauser, Nickl then produced a further series of little-known but interesting pistols.

A small series of double-action 9mm pistols appeared in the 1930s, in parallel with the popular HSc designed by Alex Seidel. These included the rotating-barrel “HSV36” and the streamlined Hsv.

Late in World War II two ingenious stamped-frame revolvers and at least two models of stamped-steel Volkspistolen were developed.

The occupying French looted some very interesting pistols before they put the Mauser factory back to work in May, 1945, after which thousands of postwar HSc, P08 and P38 pistols and other arms were assembled, largely from leftover components.

All the previously available information on Mauser sporting arms has already appeared in the author's two previous Collector Grade titles: Mauser: Original Oberndorf Sporting Rifles (1997) and Mauser Smallbores: Sporting, Target & Training Rifles (1998). After their publication the author felt that no more significant discoveries remained to be made in this field, as any further factory documentation had presumably been lost or destroyed.

However, recently there have been two miraculous discoveries. First, hundreds of previously unpublished company documents have been located, which give us unprecedented insight into the workings of the Mauser firm almost from its inception right through both World Wars and the French occupation period. These include actual production and sales data, inventory lists, and cost and sale price calculations for all types of Mauser products - black powder arms, pistols, military arms (the Standard Modell, the K98k, the MG81 and MG151 and the Flak 38), centrefire hunting, sporting and target rifles, .22 sporting, target and training rifles, pressure test units, and more.

Secondly, some 300 fragile glass plate negatives have miraculously survived, which depict a variety of hitherto unknown Mauser sporting models in their original configurations. Many embody features not often encountered, and include rare prototypes and in-the-white or low-serial-numbered examples of most early and later Mauser .22 rifle models, Schützen-style, Wehrmanns and Einheits target rifles, and some never-before-seen factory-engraved and custom rifles. The book ends with a selection of full-colour views of high-grade Mauser sporters, many with special features, from the world's finest collections.

This remarkable book breaks new ground with never-before-published photos and data about Mauser-Werke itself, then offers the most exhaustive study ever published of the design origins and manufacturing history of the Original Oberndorf Mauser sporter, a rifle produced in a vast number of calibres and variations right alongside the military Gewehr 98 (before WWI) and later, the K98k.Includes many magnificent Mauser sporters made up by the finest armsmakers in England, America, and Germany, using 98 actions supplied from Oberndorf, plus the most comprehensive Serial Number/Date chart ever.
Sincr WWII, Mauser has been reluctant to put all its eggs in the 98 basket, and numerous other avenues have been explored, while today, sporters built on refurbished military 98 actions are still in production.

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With the aid of the world's leading smallbore rifle collectors, we present 15 in-depth chapters and two appendices full of original, previously unpublished photos, charts, drawings and data on the history of all models of smallbore sporting, target and training rifles produced by the legendary Mauser-Werke of Oberndorf am Nekar, Germany.

Includes a full chapter called Wehrsport (paramilitary training) devoted to the marketing and use of smallbore trainers by the Hitler-Jugend and other Nazi political and military groups.

Also includes chapters on the postwar Model 45 (made up at the request of the occupying French) and the last Mauser sporter, the Model 46; competitors' smalbores; investigations of the .22 cartridge; .22 conversion units; and a Grand Finale of colour photos of some 40 Mauser smallbores, plus comprehensive serial number charts and parts lists for all models.

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