Nineteenth century firearms technology just wasn't going to cut it anymore. Now, the M43 was a fine rifle in its own right, but this was the 1950s, dang it.

The M43 was essentially a clone of the German K98k Mauser that Spain had produced under license. Like the K98k, it was chambered in 8 x 57mm Mauser, which didn't match up with the new 7.62mm NATO chambering of the CETME. This posed somewhat of a problem, as the most modern rifle in Spain's inventory was the M43. It took Spain a while to perfect and field the CETME in significant numbers. The CETME 'C' model, considered the definitive version, chambered in 7.62 x 51mm NATO, was fielded in 1964 It went into production in 1957 and remained Spain's main battle rifle (in various forms) until 1999. The CETME, after all the bugs were worked out, was chambered in the 'new' 7.62 x 51mm NATO cartridge. The CETME was actually designed by a German (most good things in the '50s were), and as such it became the basis of sorts for the even more famous Fabrique Nationale FAL, also known as 'the right hand of free world'. In the 1950's, his goverment commissioned the development and fielding of the famous CETME battle rifle. Our top story tonight: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.įranco was keen to modernize Spain's military, and that meant semi-automatic rifles like the rest of the world. Well, as normal as a fascist dictator can get, anyway. The Generalissimo went about rebuilding his country, one step at a time, while also taking steps to 'normalize' things. As a result, his was the only fascist government to survive WWII. Franco and his fascists were brutal, but not stupid. He managed to keep Spain 'neutral' during WWII, which was a smart move because there was no way Spain could have held off either the Axis or the Allies when Franco took power. Spain had emerged from a bloody civil war in 1939, with a new fascist government under Generalissimo Francisco Franco. During the war, all the major powers had fielded semi-automatic rifles with varying degrees of success, and after the war bolt-action rifles were old news. As I mentioned in my blog about the M48, after WWII there were literally thousands and thousands of Mauser and Mauser-type rifles scattered about Europe. Secondly, the M48 wasn't the last Mauser-type rifle fielded to military and police forces. Yes, it was the last newly manufactured military Mauser-type rifle, but if you want to get technical (and I do), there was at least one other Mauser design that was fielded after the M48: the Spanish FR-8. First, the last 'true' Mauser made was the German K98k, made in Germany, by Germans.

When I wrote that article, I was a bit torn about the title, for a couple of reasons.

Recently, I blogged about the last production Mauser rifle made, the Yugoslavian M48.

Spanish fr8 mauser parts