Manuel Mondragon was an officer and later a General in the Mexican army who designed several weapons that were some of the most technically advanced weapons for the early 1900s. The Model 1890 was the first semi-automatic rifle to be adopted by any nation and it's successor, the Model 1908 was made in Switzerland by "SIG" at Newhouse as they were one of the few arms makers with the technical capability to manufacture weapons with the tight manufacturing tolerances required by Mondragon. It is estimated that only 400 of this model were delivered to Mexico before the Mexican revolution broke out with the remaining rifles all being sold to Germany prior to WWI. All examples are very rare with very few ever seen in the U.S. These Mondragon rifles employ some unique features such as a barrel mounted gas block located on the front underside of the barrel with two gas settings, (similar to that on the FN/FAL rifles) with a long operating rod mounted on the underside of the barrel that extends from the front of the gas block to the cocking handle with a side mounted cocking handle that is attached to a round and rotating bolt. This bolt is very unique in that it has two race ways machined into the body where the cocking handle fits, which rotates the bolt to lock and unlock the two rows of locking lugs (four at the front and four at the rear, which is similar to the bolt system used on the Swiss K31 rifles), during the cycling operation. Additionally the cocking handle can actually be disengaged from the operation rod allowing the shooter to hand cycle the action making it like a bolt action rifle, and then reengage the op-rod so that its semi-automatic again. These rifles were also fitted with an extended box magazine. It is fitted with a military style tangent rear sight graduated from 400-2,000 meters with a inverted "V" front sight with a bayonet lug on the underside of the barrel. The rifle action is unmarked except for the serial number (274) which is stamped on the left side of the action, top of the bolt, top of the cocking handling and the trigger guard. Each one of the various parts is stamped with a small "heart" and or "heart inside a circle" proof mark, which is probably an early Swiss acceptance proof. Both the stock and barrel cover/handguard are correctly made from a matching light colored European straight grained walnut with a flat steel buttplate. The lower left side of the stock is marked "81.65".

Excellent condition with 98% of the original blue finish overall the complete bolt and cocking handle assembly still in the factory bright finish. The buttstock and handguard are both very good with 95% of the original varnish overall mixed with minor handling marks and light scratches on the buttstock. The rifle hand cycles and operates correctly. This is a nice all complete all original very high condition "Mondragon" semi-automatic rifle, certainly worthy of any advanced martial arms collection.