Wasnt the Springfield based on the mauser action? Did we pay license fees for some time for the design?
Springfield was based on what is known as a "mauser style" action. That was it. It was the massive extractor and controled round feed that made the mauser so reliable.
The answer to your license fees is, No we did not have to pay. Actaully Mr Mauser (I cant remember his first name atm) developed the action himself. He went blind in one eye due a test fire. What happend was the case failed, the gasses blew back through the bolt and into his face, rendering him blind in one eye. He allowed all to use his design. There were more manufactures of the Mauser style rifles than one would ever wish to count. Many countries/militaries demanded the issue of this action due to its reliability and ease of use. It was built extensivly on both a commercial and military basis. In post WW2 years it was one of the most popular guns to "sporterize." I have a guide gun infact that I built in 458 Win mag based on a FN build mauser action. Also a few others.
Today, the rarest of rare of the 98's are the German Sniper rifles. An original matching numbers one will fetch near 6000 dollars today.
A few of the early 1903 springfeilds underwent 2 heat treatings. These are of the most dangerous to shoot today. As they are very brittle. They are fine by ww2 standard military rounds go. But what was happening is GI's were bringing them home and sporterizing them. Using comercial ammo in them, or reloads which was much "hotter" than standard military or "ball" ammo. They were blowing them up left and right. This also happend during the war and was documented in many cases. All due to bad heat treating and brittle actions. I forget the "cut off" date for when this was corrected but the info is out there for those who wish to know. You can check to see if a gun is before or after the cut off date by the serial number naturally.
This is what I call a sweet piece of military history. This is a pic I took of a good friend who works at our store here. He is with out a doubt the most knowledgeable man of all things military I have never known. This is him with his just finished German MG-34. The receiver was welded and is totally inoperable. If this weren't the case this gun would be worth upwards of 30,000 dollars today IF AND ONLY IF it were on the books and had the correct papers. A fully operational gun that is in full auto. People are now designing prints and parts to convert many of the old "de-milled" machine guns into semi-auto. To do this, the prints and plans must be approved by the good ol ATF to be leagal and legit. Otherwise it MUST be welded and deamed inoperable to be leagal. What good is this? It allowed others to see today what the soilders of yesterday had to fight with. Its also plain old cool to look at and toy with
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Please excuse my spelling and gramar as I am all too tired:p
Too much Aces High will do that to a guy:o
