Mukden Arsenal Mauser

The Mukden Arsenal Mauser also known as the Model 13 Mauser and Liao Type 13 was a rifle that implemented characteristics of both the Mauser Type 4 and the Arisaka rifles. They were mostly built in the Mukden arsenal in Manchukuo. Œ.W.G. continued improvement of its Steyr Model 1912 Mauser export rifle after 1912 and during the World War I, finalizing a prototype with a shrouded firing pin, shrouded striker, two gas vent holes, detachable box magazine, and a receiver dust cover in 1917, taking a lot of influence from Japanese Type 38 rifle itself derived from Mauser. However, before the war end the production of Mannlicher M1895s for the Austro-Hungarian Army was prioritized for obvious reasons, and in 1919 the peace treaty prohibited military arms production in Austria. So Steyr sold a license to a customer in the Far East, which got rid of the detachable box magazine. It has also been suggested that incomplete guns were imported from Austria in 1918–1920. The factory established in Shenyang (later known as Mukden) began producing the rifle around 1924. This date is believed to be the origin of the designation "Type 13" as the Nationalist Chinese calendar begins in 1911. After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, rifles continued to be produced in the newly created puppet state of Manchukuo, until the factory switched over to producing Arisaka rifles in 1938. It is estimated that around 140,000 Type 13 rifles were made in total. Most of the weapons are using the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge, but about 10,000 were chambered in 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka after in late 1944 the production was restarted again for the Manchukuo Imperial Army. Besides different chamber dimensions, these had a steel block inside the magazine installed in order to shorten it without changing the production technology. The rifles were originally used by the soldiers of Zhang Zuolin (who established the factory and the production of the rifle) in various battles during the warlord era. 72,679 rifles of this type were captured by the Japanese after the Mukden Incident in 1931.