I am always digging for new revelations pertaining to my own firearm battery and quite recently I drew a few intersting (at least in my mind) observations while re-examining Mr. John Speed's Mauser Archive. In it, 3 primary similarities between the Mauser M-03 and former original Mauser design parameters were discovered. First I discovered Herr Mauser's 2-piece bolt assembly that was developed around the turn of the century and apparently did not go far beyond prototype stage. The photo of this bolt illustrates a remarkable similarity with the M-03 in regard to the means the two cooresponding components are joined. The second and third similarities revolve around the Mauser 1933 experimental sporting rifle. In both this design and the M-03, the rifles share a receiver lacking a left receiver wall and both feature a detachable box magazine. Apparently complaints on the original M-98 had made their way to the Mauser engineering team in regard to what was assumed to be bullet deformation during chambering. The detachable box magazine on the 1933 model was designed for center position loading (not shared by the M-03) into the chamber and externally looks a bit like that of the M-03's detachable box magazine. Bolt configurations are completely different of course with bolt lock-up inside the barrel on the M-03 and a cocking mechanism vice a mechanical safety as well but the similarities peeked my interest and made me wonder if the M-03 design team took a look back in time for "new" concepts for this modern rifle. I hope others might find this interesting as well and would greatly appreciate other's viewpoints. Thank you,

Best regards,