FN Belgian Army Mauser

S

Skarekrow88

New member
I inherited a really nice looking K98(?) Mauser chambered in .30-06 made by FN that’s marked with a crowned “L” with “ABL” and 1951 under it. I can’t be sure but it might be re-blued and refinished or it was just really well taken care of. From my understanding these were Belgian Army rifles and the “L” stands for Leopold who was King of Belgium for a short time but that’s about all I know. Anyone have any more info on these and/or what it might be worth?

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That is very nice. You should be very proud of that rifle. I am a late bloomer when it comes to the love of the CRF action. But I am very enamored by them.
 
Looks like somebody sanded and then re-coated the stock with the shiniest BLO on the market. :rolleyes:

It might be fine as a "shooter," but a serious collector would hold his nose and give it a hard pass.
 
"Looks like somebody sanded and then re-coated the stock with the shiniest BLO on the market.

It might be fine as a "shooter," but a serious collector would hold his nose and give it a hard pass."

Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like the bolt handle has been altered to accommodate scope use. :(
Paul B.
 
Following WWII the Belgians were short of rifles, their's having been taken by some passing German tourists.:)

So, they needed immediate rifles for use in the Belgian Congo and in Belgium.
They were developing the FN Model 1950 semi-auto, but as a fill in until it was ready they just produced '98 Mauser's on the tooling they'd been using for FN Mauser's bolt rifles since WWI.

After the war the US gave Belgium and many other countries vast amounts of US 30-06 ammo so it made sense for the Belgian's to chamber the Model 1950 Mauser in 30-06....... the only Mauser military rifle ever originally made in 30-06.

The receiver mark has the letters "ABL" standing for the three languages used in Belgium.
There were two versions of the rifle, one with an "L" for King Leopold, the other with a "B" for King Baudouin.

These are very desirable Mauser's for both the quality and caliber.
The versions used in the Congo are typically in badly used and pitted condition, the European versions are usually in much better condition due to the better conditions and limited time they were in service.

As above the stock has been refinished, the bolt handle bent, and the metal reblued with a gloss finish.
 
Thanks for all the helpful information. I'm sure my grandfather just bought this rifle because it looked like it was nice. He was more in to the collectible sporting/hunting long guns and only got into the military collectibles because he knew I had an interest in them. I remember shooting this rifle with him when I was younger so he probably knew it wasn't a very valuable example because we rarely, if ever, shot the high dollar guns.
 
So we can agree there’s been some bargain-basement “Bubba work” done to this one.
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No, we do NOT agree that it was bargain basement "Bubba work". It appears to be well done gunsmith work.

If you call good gunsmith work done to a milsurp rifle "Bubba work" you're doing a disservice to skilled work and giving "Bubba" credit too much credit.

"Bubba" is a shoddy craftsman, its literally what defines his work.

I'm fairly certain the work done improved the rifle in the eyes of the original owner who did it, or had the work done.

In most cases, when milsurp rifles were worked over, they were common, and nearly as cheap as dirt. There was nothing special about them, and improving them for sporting use was the goal.

What collectors might value 30, 40, 50, or 100 years down the road was not of significant interest to the owner who wanted a lighter, better handling and hopefully more accurate rifle.
 
No, we do NOT agree that it was bargain basement "Bubba work". It appears to be well done gunsmith work.
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I was going to say this myself but you said it better than I could. I personally don’t see anything wrong with the job that was done on it. I’ve seen my fair share of “bubba’d” milsurp guns and I would not count this rifle among them.
 
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