TOPIC:

Rob,
According to the inscription on the back, the man holding the Krag in the photo in your last post is Commandant Jacobus Frederick (Tollie) de Beer, Bloemhof Commando.

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Trev commented several posts ago that the Mauser 96 self-loading pistol must have been an expensive purchase - and I half remembered that I had seen a price list somewhere.
Found it yesterday. In my copy of the 1911 Export catalogue of Adolf Frank Export Gesellschaft ,Hamburg (ALFA) on page 114, item 334(A) one could order such a pistol, complete with shoulder stock, in calibre 7.63mm , with parts "burnished black" for the sum of DM 140. A rough approximation, using the pre-WW1 exchange rate of 20.43 DM to the Pound Sterling, and assuming the manufacturer kept his price reasonably constant, that works out to nearly seven pounds Sterling. Of course, a British officer purchasing one commercially in 1900's London would have to stump up extra for import duties and the Dealer's mark up. Maybe a tenner plus ammo. Considering what an enlisted soldier would be paid, a considerable sum.
The ALFA catalogue gives the M96 Mauser pistol a good plug; in calibre 7.63mm, "five shots a second, up to fifty shots a minute. At 300 meters a shot will still go through a man's arm. It also carries up to 1,000m, the stock can be quickly attached and taken of by the pressure of a spring". And readers thought advertising hype was something new?
Many years ago, IL witnessed a colleague attempting to hit a 4 foot square target at 100y with a shoulder stocked Browning pistol. He wasn't in the hunt! A different calibre, yes. However, the short sight radius and the different recoil characteristics put the shots all over.
As far as carrying such as the Mauser M96 pistol in 1900, give IL a Lee Metford carbine!
Regards
IL..

It would be cruel to ignore the heartfelt appeal "give IL a Lee Metford carbine!"
Hope this Lee Enfield Mk1 carbine will do the trick. This one is marked to the 4th Hussars, a Canadian unit.

Rob
Ah yes. A nice looking example. Used a reasonable example in the bush 'way back; slick handling, beautifully smooth bolt throw and a kick like a mule.
Regards
IL.

Found in a Boer 's grave upon exhumation for reburial. Note the damage to the head of the third cartridge. Probably connected to the fatal wound.

Fused mass of Mauser, Lee-Metford and Martini-Henry cartridges.
Purchased through eBay in 2006 without any provenance, so I do not know which theatre of the war these came from. Ron Bester (Small Arms of the Anglo-Boer War, 2003, p. 326) talks of the existence of "the remnants of millions of rounds of Boer ammunition destroyed in the Brandwater Basin". The exact whereabouts of these are a closely guarded secret.

Mauser headstamps: DM 1897 K
Lee-Metford headstamps: R /|\ L .C .II



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