Fire-arm inventor, born in Oberndorf, SW Germany. With his brother Wilhelm (183482) he was responsible for the improved needle-gun (adopted by the German army in 1871) and for the improved breech-loading cannon. He produced the Mauser magazine-rifle in 1897.
Meisner was the inventor of the Mauser magazine rifle.
The Mauser company, established by the two Mauser brothers, established its reputation in firearms making in the last decades of the XIX century, and continued to build a very well thought-out and skillfully built firearms until the end of the World War 2. One of such designs, is undoubtfully a Mauser model 1898 rifle, also known as Gew. 98 or simply G98 (G = Gewehr, rifle in German). This rifle was designed from the experience, gained on previous Mauser designs, and was first appeared in 1898 as a standard German army infantry rifle.
During the interwar period this fine design was slightly altered to became the K98k - Karbiner Kurz, or short carbine - a somewhat shorter, lighter and handier version of the original one.
The model 98 rifle is a manually operated, magazine fed, bolt action rifle. The magazine and the bolt action are the two most famous features of the model 98. Each clip can hold 5 rounds, enough to fill the magazine, and is inserted into the clip guides, machined into the rear receiver bridge. After the loading, empty clip is ejected automatically when bolt is closed. Magazine could be unloaded by operating the bolt (safety must be in the middle position!) or by removing the magazine floorplate (not recommended).
Mauser bolt is a simple, extremely strong and well thought out design. The bolt has three locking lugs, two at the bolt head and one at the rear part of the bolt. The bolt handle is rigidly attached to the bolt body. On the original Gew 98 rifles it was straight and located horizontally when bolt was in the closed position. On the K98k the bolt handle was bent down, which allowed for more comfortable carrying and bolt operations. Bolt has a gas vent holes that are designed to move the hot gases away from the shooters face and into the magazine opening in the case of the cartridge case or primer rupture. Next famous feature of the model 98 bolt is a "controlled feed" extractor. Massive, non-rotating claw extractor was designed to engage the cartridge rim as soon as cartridge left the magazine, and held the cartridge case firmly until it was ejected by the ejector, fixed inside the receiver. Combined with a slight bolt retraction at the last stage of the bolt turn-open rotation, caused by the cammed surface on the rear receiver bridge, this resulted in very positive primary extraction. Striker is cocked when bolt is rotated to open, allowing for smoother forward bolt pull. The rear part of the striker is protruded from within the bolt, so state of the action (cocked or not) can be checked visually or even manually. The bolt group can be easily removed from the receiver simply by pulling out the bolt stop, located at the left wall of the receiver, and then by rotating and pulling the bolt out. The safety switch is located at the rear of the bolt and has three positions: in the left position (when looking from behind the rifle) it locks the sear and also locks the bolt in place, so it could not be rotated and opened. in the middle (raised) position it still locks the sear, but bolt is unlocked and could be operated, to load and unload the rifle;
Model 98 rifle featured a one-piece wooden stock with semi-pistol grip. Those rifles also have different rear sights: Gew 98 have a curved, tangent sight, while K98k has more modern, leaf type rear sight.
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