Mauser was a German arms manufacturer of a line of rifles and pistols from the 1870s to 1995. Mauser designs were built for the German armed forces. Since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, military Mauser designs were also exported and licenced to a number of countries, as well as being a popular civilian firearm.
Mauser continued to make sporting and hunting rifles in the late 20th century. In 1995 the company became a subsidiary of Rheinmetall called Mauser-Werke Oberndorf Waffensysteme GmbH, before being merged in 2004 into Rheinmetall Waffe Munition Gmbh.
Amongst the pistols made by Mauser was the legendary Broomhandle’ C96, famously carried by a young Winston Churchill at the Battle of Omdurman.
