One of the areas of rifle collecting that is easy (and cheap) to get into and very difficult (and expensive) to master is that of Mausers. Literally dozens of countries used Mausers in scores of variations. A great many of them are still available for very affordable prices, including commonly seen Turks and Yugos and more esoteric examples such as Siamese Mausers (like this one closing today on GunBroker with no reserve and a $275 opening bid). On the other hand, the very rare examples like early Serbian 11mm carbines are scarce as hens’ teeth.
Robert Ball has recently published the 5th edition of his excellent reference book on Mausers, covering all the major variants that saw service worldwide. It makes a great reference for anyone interested in Mausers or looking to expand a collection of them:
The book is currently on sale for $30 and change on Amazon, marked down from a normal $50 – an excellent deal for the holidays. There is also a Kindle edition for those interested in it, although it’s just a few dollars less than the hardback print copy.
RE: Robert W. D. Ball
There is an epic ( in this case the word actually applies) 42 page thread of him recounting his collecting and post war service years in pursuit of arms over at Parallax Bills C&R forum in the Spanish, Central & South American Military rifles forum.
http://parallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums.yuku.com/topic/9390/Trip-Down-Memory-Lane?page=1
The thread started back in 6/19/02. I think I stumbled across it in 2004 or so. It is interspersed with other board members comments but is primarily him recounting his early and late collecting stories, Late WW2 and postwar service in the wild west of arms trading of the time as well as his involvement with JLD, US maker of the G3/ PTR rifle. It is at times very engrossing and takes a fair amount of time to work through. It was definitely worth my time popping back into it from time to time.
I got this book last Christmas as a gift. It is very interesting with a lot of photos as shown, but doesn’t cover all major models. For example, I believe that the Yugo 24/47 is omitted despite being commonly encountered. It’s still worth the price.
How does this book compare with Ludwig Olsen’s classic on the Mauser rifles?