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. where they quickly became a loved and cherished firearm for gun enthusiasts everywhere with a commonly available cartridge.Recently, I blogged about the last production Mauser rifle made, the Yugoslavian M48.

At that point the surplus of FR8's found their way being imported into the U.S. The FR8 saw service well into the 1980's until Spain adopted the 5.56 Nato. These Mausers soon equipped to the Guardia Civil (National Police), reserve troopers, and anyone looking for a rifle but didn't need the newest shiniest piece of machinery. But these training rifles were found to be too good for their simple task of transitioning soldiers to the new cartridge.

This is why the FR7 and 8 Mausers have the notorious CETME front sight and dial rear sight. So what would any rational person do?… Put them together and create a hybrid beautiful masterpiece of course! Spain began rebuilding their old Mausers in their new cartridge and for training purposes began outfitting the Mausers with left over CETME parts. The Spanish began mass producing these new self loading rifles but has a surplus of Mausers.

The new rifles were configured to use 7.62x51mm Nato cartridges. As the Spanish began transitioning from the 8mm Bolt Action Mausers to Semi-Auto Cetme Rifles (HK G3 or HK 91).

The 'Cetmeton' FR8 reconfigured rifle has a unique place in firearm history. Asking $600 for the rifle, $700 with about 225 rounds of brass case M80 spec 308. I have a few hundred rounds of 308 that can go with it. Only trade I am interested in is a Remington 700 AAC-SD threaded model in 308. Looking for something I can put a scope on.

Spanish fr8 mauser parts