While I like Aussies if push came to shove you'd be staring down the bore of my 6.5x55 m/96 Mauser much the same as your ancestors.

The Dutch had an extreme landscape to cultivate and an extreme hostile native population, not to mention the imperialist British invasion, not to leave out the honorable Australian army, many of whom are still buried in SA having learned about the 7mm Mauser the hard way. The same time frame as for what was to become New York, having been New Netherlands first. To appreciate the history of the South African Dutch you have to start in the 1600s when it was colonized by the Dutch. The other South African state to purchase these Mausers was Transvaal. Some of the other South African Mausers will have a siderail address indicating a 'Model 1896' or 'Model 1897' when they were, in fact, model 1893 rifles. So I purchased a complete bolt from Springfield Sporters for all of $20 to make the world right again, though its not a ZAR bolt it is a 1893 bolt. The ZAR also are supposed to have a bent bolt though the one I have does not as it was sold by SOG in Ohio as a 1895 and came with an 1895 bolt, though it will function and headspace with a 1895 bolt its not the correct bolt. In the late 60s I owned OVS 8776 that was stone mint, brand new-in-grease right out of the original German crate. These are far more desireable and collectable and valuable than most other South African Mausers. Rifles marked with the Chilean crest and OVS were intended for the Oranje Vrij Staat, Orange Free State. Not to further confuse - there are a couple/few other 1893 Mauser series that did end up in South Africa and some that didn't. It is not pronounced 'boar'.) Boer is the Dutch word for farmer. In addition the serial number prefix C, identifies it as one of 5,000 rifles in that series sold to the good and fine Dutch volk of the ZAR who taught the British army some hard lessons in marksmanship and how simple Dutch farmers could deliver a serious case of whoopass to the world's most powerful army. The ZAR Mauser has what is called, to collectors, a generic side rail address in that it has no country or model as the 1895 Chilean does. Due to a British navel blockade these rifles never made it to South Africa so they were sent back to Germany where the crest was rollmarked to Chile and off they went. It was made for Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic) or ZAR. But the 1893 was not made for Chile initially. One is an 1893 model, the other an 1895 model. This will be ongoing with more photos added.

1916 spanish mauser serial numbers