Flag Mausers of Turkey and The Ottoman Empire
Skip Navigation LinksHome > Models > Model of 1890

Model of 1890

The Model of 1890 was not based upon the German Imperial Army Gewehr 88, which wasn't a Mauser designed rifle. This rifle was very similar, however,  in that it had a charger loaded, 5 round, single stack internal magazine. It was chambered for Mauser's new 7.65x53 smokeless powder cartridge. Mauser sold very similar rifles to Belgium (1889), Argentina (1891), and Spain (1891).

The Ottomans received 280,000 1890 rifles, the remainder of the 1887 contract. Some unknown number of these were delivered as carbines. In their original configuration, these are not common rifles and make an excellent addition to a Turkish Mauser collection.

The Ottomans sent a number of rifles to Belgium after WWI as war reparations. It is likely that the rifles that they sent were their Model 1890 rifles as these would have been compatible with the Belgian 1889 rifles. There are three reports of rifles converted to 8mm in the serial number survey.