Waffenfabrik Mauser introduced their Kurz (short) bolt-action hunting rifle around 1900, using a special version of the famous M98 action which had a shorter overall length and smaller receiver ring. Intended as a compact and lightweight hunting rifle for small to medium game, it was described in the old Mauser catalogues as the “light short rifle” and the “special deer stalking rifle”. Kurz rifles were mostly available in Mauser’s Type A or Type B model configurations – very rare are some examples made as African models or Type M or Type S carbines. Mauser considered the Kurz as their premier rifle and in the early catalogues of the pre-WW1 era (before the Type A rifle in calibre .404 Jeffery or .318 Westley Richards became available from the Mauser factory), the Type A Kurz rifle was in fact the most expensive rifle in the entire Mauser sporting rifle catalogue, and by quite a substantial margin.
Since most of the common cartridges used for hunting actually require a longer action, the Kurz rifles were not made in large numbers – they are, in fact, quite rare. In his first book, Original Oberndorf Sporting Rifles, Mauser expert Jon Speed estimates the total production of Kurz rifles to be more than 5 000 but less than 10 000. After further research into this matter he states in his second book, The Mauser Archive, that this was optimistic and revises his estimate downwards to a production figure between 3 500 and 5 000 units. This makes the Mauser Kurz action significantly rarer than the famed Mauser Magnum action. Many Kurz rifles were also cut up and their actions used by custom rifle makers to build lightweight custom sporters, thereby further reducing the number of original Mauser Kurz rifles still in existence.
Mauser Kurz rifles came in one of only three specific calibres, as
