Turkish Mauer

1938/K.KaleThe Turkish Republic updated many of their old rifles to a common configuration, the Model of 1938 in 8x57 Mauser. As they became isolated during WWII they began assembling their own rifles from accumulated parts. While little is publicly known about this, it appears that all Turkish assembled rifles are marked K. Kale, for the arsenal where they were assembled. This is a large ring small shank (LRSSM) rifle. 38/46 Short RifleAnother standardization rifle that is the same as the 1938 standard, but in a short rifle length. 1954 ATF Marked RiflesIt appears that the Turks rebuilt a bunch of rifles in 1954 using some WWI Gew 98's. These have had the receiver ring shortened to make a hand guard holder. These may not be the safest rifles to shoot due to the shortened receiver.Turkish 8mm ammo was once widely available and usually very cheap. It still can be found, but it's not so common or cheap anymore. This is all corrosive Berdan primed on stripper clips. With a 154 grain jacketed bullet and flake powder this round duplicates the performance of the German 8mm S cartridge. This is a full power military cartridge that performs at the upper end of the pressure range for the cartridge. This is obvious when you shoot it.The Ottomans originally chambered their Mausers in 7.65x53 Mauser, but during WWI they started using more and more Imperial German weapons and ammo and eventually switched all their rifles to 8mm Mauser. 8mm Mauser is the American name for 7.91x57 Mauser. Turkish barrels will be marked 7.91 or 7.92. This is not the unfired bullet diameter, but rather the land to land dimension of the barrel. The bullet diameter is closer to 8.2mm (.323 inches) which will more closely match the groove to groove diameter.The earliest example of Turkish ammo that I have shot is dated 1936, although I have some 1931 dated ammo. These have cupro-nickel jacketed bullets. The Turks switched to copper or gilding metal jackets in 1949. You will find that most Turkish ammo will attract a magnet which indicates that it isn't just lead in a copper jacket