In 1867, Norris hired the Mauser brothers to go to Liège to work on a new design. It was here that Norris, an American, of the Remington company saw the new Mauser rifle design. Locally the Dreyse needle gun had just been adopted, so the brothers turned to the Austrian ambassador to try to sell their own gun the ambassador forwarded their new gun to Vienna for testing. 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 but 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 in 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. Peter 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 in Christophsthal, the factory transferred to the former Augustine Cloister in Oberndorf am Neckar, where Andreas Mauser worked as the master gunsmith. King Frederick I 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 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 has been produced since the 1870s for the German armed forces. Mauser, originally Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik ('Royal Württemberg Rifle Factory'), was a German arms manufacturer.

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