Manuel Mondragón designs the Mondragón rifle

Background. Manuel Mondragón, a Mexican military officer who graduated from the Mexican Military Academy as an artillery officer in 1880, began working on his initial rifle design in 1891. These designs included the straight-pull bolt-action M1893 and M1894 rifles. At the time of the rifle's design, Mexico did not have any manufacturers capable of producing them to the required tolerances.

Design Development. Mondragón continued his work, filing a patent application for his new design for a self-loading rifle on August 8, 1904. The design was adopted by the Mexican Army in 1908 as the Fusil Porfirio Díaz Sistema Mondragón Modelo 1908. The same year, the Mexican government contracted with SIG for the production of 4,000 M1908 rifles.

Technical Specifications. The Mondragón Modelo 1908 was a gas-operated rifle with a rotating bolt using a cylinder and piston arrangement, a design considered unusual at the time. It was chambered in the 7×57mm Mauser Mexican service cartridge. Mondragón also designed a spade bayonet for use with the Modelo 1908, for which he filed a patent application on June 6, 1911.