Milsurp After Hours

This Mauser is one of the last batch to arrive in the OVS in about 1897.After that date,imports was difficult,close to impossible,as the arms had to pass through British ports like Cape Town.

The early batch Mausers were narked "Ludwig Loewe Berlin", but the factory changed its name in 1894 to "Deutsche Waffen und Munition Fabrik Berlin".The reason was that Loewe was Jewish and in order to secure contracts from the government in Berlin,changed the name to a more patriotic one.The serial number on your Mauser is rather high,therefore indicative of the fact that it was some of the last imported.The rifles from the 9000 series up never reached the OVS, but was sold to Chile in 1900 and remarked with the Chilean arms on the reciever.

The carving on the but is a common means the Boers used to identify their arms,and mostly consisted of their names.Examples do excist that very ornately carved.The carving on your rifle might stand for PH Kotze,but thats just a guess on my part.It might also represent the surname of Kok.

Boer Mausers were sought-after trophies by the British soldiers serving in South-Africa.After the big Boer surrenders of Paardeberg and Surrender Hill,vast ammounts of these arms fell into British hands.A great deal of these were sent to England and the colonies as trophies after the war.

Therefore,it is possible that your rifle also got sent home as a throphy.On the Boer POW list there is one Pieter Hendrik Kotze (sometimes spelled Coetzee). He was a Transvaal burger from the Potchefstroom Commando, captured at Paardeberg,27 February 1900 and sent to Greenpoint POW camp.Altought the rifle is a Free State Mauser,it is very probable that a Transvaal burger could have fought with one, as General Cronje had a vast ammount of arms and war material from the arsenal in Bloemfontein with him.Furthermore,the Potchefstroom Commando recieved the brunt of the British artillery attack during the Battle of Magersfontein,which led to many being left with damadged firearms,that they exchanged for newer ones.

So,it is very possible that this rifle belonged to burger Pieter Hendrik Kotze.The other possible owner is one Pieter Hendrik Kok, a Free Stater from the Harrismith Commando.He is given as having surrendered at Surrender Hill.