


While the original needle gun used a pin that pierced the base of the cartridge to ignite the primer in the middle, Mauser soon developed a needle that ignited the charge at the base, a superior design. After Paul developed a new turning-bolt design, Wilhelm was impressed enough to rejoin the business and succeeded in obtaining the financing to purchase machinery and continue development. Paul and Wilhelm had separated due to differences during this time. Following the success of the Dreyse needle gun ( Zündnadelgewehr), Paul turned his energies to improving on that design and producing a new one. During his entire career, he had a unique ability to produce both the gun and the ammunition for it. Paul's first invention was a cannon and its ammunition. Paul was the engineer and designer, while Wilhelm took on the task of manager for their interests with the Oberndorf factory. Paul engaged his older brother Wilhelm in working on a new gun system during their spare time after work.

By December 1859, he had so impressed his superiors that he was placed on inactive military service and assigned to the royal factory at Oberndorf. Paul was conscripted in 1859 as an artilleryman at the Ludwigsburg arsenal, where he worked as a gunsmith. Another brother, Franz Mauser, went to America in 1853 with his sister and worked at E. His brother Wilhelm was four years older. Peter Paul Mauser, often referred to as Paul Mauser, was born on 27 June 1838 in Oberndorf am Neckar, Württemberg. His older brother Wilhelm assumed many of his father's duties as he became ill. Of his seven sons who worked with him there, Peter Paul Mauser showed an outstanding ability to develop methods of operation that were faster and more efficient. Originally located partly at Ludwigsburg and partly at Christophsthal, the factory was transferred to the former Augustine Cloister in Oberndorf am Neckar, where Andreas Mauser worked as the master gunsmith. King Frederick I of Württemberg founded the enterprise as Königliche Waffen Schmieden (literally: Royal Weapons Forges) on 31 July 1811. The Gewehr 98 in particular was widely adopted and copied, and it is the foundation of many of today's sporting bolt-action rifles. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mauser designs were also exported and licensed to many countries, which adopted them as military and civilian sporting firearms. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols was produced beginning in the 1870s for the German armed forces. Mauser, originally the Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik, was a German arms manufacturer.
