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LOT 1395
Unique SIG Mondragon Model 1908 Semi-Automatic Rifle with Ultra Rare Drum Magazine - Serial no. 2578, 7 mm Mauser cal., 25 inch round bbl., blue finish, walnut stock. Manuel Mondragon was an officer and later general in the Mexican army who designed several weapons that were some of the most advanced specimens of their time in the 1890s-early 1900s. Mondragon developed a series of bolt action rifles having “slamfire” capability starting in the 1890s, then invented the Model 1900 semi-automatic rifle, with a patent application filed in 1904 for its improved successor, referred to as the Model 1908 as manufactured in Switzerland at the SIG factory and officially adopted for use by the Mexican Army in the year 1908, and chambered in their standard rifle caliber of 7 mm Mauser as used in the Mexican Model 1902 Mauser bolt action rifles and smokeless Rolling Block rifles then in Mexican military service.
SIG was one of the few arms makers, at this time, capable of producing weapons with such a high degree of fit and finish as required by General Mondragon. Although Mexico originally contracted with SIG for 4,000 rifles, it is estimated that only 400 Model 1908 Mondragon rifles were ever delivered to Mexico before 1910, when the Mexican Revolution broke out, with the remaining rifles all subsequently sold to Germany in 1914. The Imperial German Flying Corps adopted the rifle, redesignated as the Fl.-S.-K. 15 (Flieger-Selbstladekarabiner, Modell 1915
- Aviator’s Selfloading Carbine, Model 1915), and issued two rifles accompanied with these 30-round drum magazines to each aircraft crew. The rifles themselves are extremely rare with very few even surviving today in any condition, and the drum magazines are virtually unheard of! Consequently, a rifle such as this one in exceptional condition combined with an original drum magazine, is nearly nonexistent in the most advanced collections today. The Mondragon employed several unique features such as; an early gas-operated system that has an operating rod that extends from the gas port under the front of the barrel to the front of the bolt to cycle the rifle, and the charging handle also features a switch that allows the bolt to disengage itself from the gas system, allowing the rifle to effectively operate as a straight-pull bolt action rifle.