Our investigation into the Ottoman Mauser 1903 began sometime after C&Rsenal shared an episode of their widely respected documentary series, which examines the small arms of the First World War, focused on the Ottoman rifle. The video explores the development history of the rifle and how the Ottoman Empire came to adopt it as their standard issue arm. It saw extensive use throughout the Italian-Turkish War (1911-12), the Balkan Wars (1912-13), the First World War (1914-18) and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1924). In the 1930s many were rechambered to 7.92×57mm.
bolt action
Egyptian Female Volunteers in Suez Crisis and Their Armaments
Whenever you think of female warriors in the Middle East, the very first thing that crosses the Western mind is the YPJ (Women’s Protection Units), an all-female Kurdish militia that fights with other Kurdish militias such as the YPG (People’s Protection Units). Of course, with the war raging against ISIS, and the terrible atrocities committed against women, the global media fixated their spotlights on the female warriors who fought tooth and nail against a patriarchal, barbaric and medieval-minded opponent.
Within modern Arab history we have examples where women carried arms and fought as well.
Recent Turkish Tactical Bolt Action Rifles of 2018
The Turkish bolt action rifles market is probably the most emerging segment of the country’s small arms industry. Every year, Turkish companies introduce new models of bolt action rifles designed both for the hunting and tactical applications. Earlier we reported about the Yazicilarav’s Cosmos bolt action rifle. Today we’ll take a brief look at two other Turkish bolt action rifles designed for the military/LE/tactical use.
Huglu OVIS Tactical Black
The OVIS Tactical Black rifle is designed by the Turkish company called Huglu. It features a skeletonized pistol grip, 6-lug bolt, adjustable trigger, collapsible wire stock, adjustable cheek rest and monopod. The rifle is chambered in .308 Winchester. It is fed from 5-round detachable box magazines. The free-floated barrel is 71 centimeters long (28″) and comes with an installed muzzle brake. The overall weight of this rifle is 7.5 kilograms (about 16 lbs 8 oz).
Hugku also makes a version of this rifle with a wooden stock. This iteration is called Huglu OVIS Tactical. You can see its image embedded below.
Ata Arms ASR308
Another Turkish bolt action rifle made by Ata Arms was introduced at the recently held Eurostatory 2018 arms exhibition. Presumably, the action of the ASR308 rifle is identical to or based on the Ata Arms Turqua rifle.
Judging by the images published on the manufacturer’s social media pages, we can tell that the chassis of this rifle has a fixed stock with adjustable length of pull and cheek rest height. The barrel is free floated and has a three-port muzzle brake. The rifle is fed from detachable box magazines and it is most likely chambered in .308 Winchester. ASR308 has a Picatinny rail on top of the receiver for mounting a scope. There are also small rails located on 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions of the forearm and another rail on the stock for mounting a monopod.
Images from www.huglu.com.tr, www.facebook.com/ataarmstr
New Iraqi Bolt-Action Anti-Materiel Rifle Made by TDMP
The Firearm Blog reports that Iraqi Technical Directorate for Military Production (TDMP) has released a new anti-materiel rifle during the International Defense Exhibition (IQDEX 2018) held in Baghdad, Iraq. Let’s take a closer look at the published images and see what we can notice.
The chassis of the rifle looks to be made of two identical pieces of metal (most likely aluminum) with milled cuts to make it lighter. The two halves are probably assembled by the screws which heads are visible on the rifle. If so, then there must be a third inner part, too.
The folding stock looks to be simply shaped from an aluminum plate of a certain thickness. Note that the receiver also looks to be a very simple one. It is probably machined from a cylindrical steel bar. If my assumptions are correct, then this rifle must be quite easy to manufacture.
If you look closer, you can notice the magazine in the top image. It is obstructed by the watermark and blends with the background, but it is still visible. Its size suggests that it is chambered either in .50 BMG or in 12.7x108mm or maybe even a larger caliber.
The rifle has a large muzzle break normally seen on anti-material rifles. The bipod is probably used for demonstration purposes only. Such a weak looking design probably wouldn’t work with the heavy and violently recoiling anti-materiel rifle.
The new TDMP rifle also has a top Picatinny rail. In the above image, you can also see the fluted bolt of the rifle with an extractor groove cut in it. The small part bolted to the left side of the receiver should be the extractor and bolt disassembly lever – a pretty common design seen in many bolt action rifles.
So far these images are the only information available on this rifle. Stay tuned to learn more about this rifle.