Mauser banner receiver, what to do?

D

Dan859

Inactive
I've got a 1934 Mauser Oberndorf banner receiver and barrel. The receiver has the mauser banner, with "1934" stamped under it. I'm trying to decide what to do with it. The receiver and barrel are both in excellent condition, the bluing is still great, and the bore is clean and bright.
Basically, I see 2 choices. First, use it to build a classic 30's German style sporter--schnabel stock, ribbed barrel, etc. Second, try to restore it back to it's original military configuration. I'm not sure what would be the best course of action.
I've been looking at the auction sites to try to find an appropriate stock, hardware, etc for the military option, but the pickings look pretty slim. Doing a classic sporter looks like it would be easier, just a question of buying the right parts.
I've done some research, and this seems like it would be a fairly rare receiver, as Mauser started switching over to letter/number codes that year. Is that correct, or is this more common than I think? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks
 
Does it say "Standard Modell" on the left side?

You might be able to find a K.98k stock, but I doubt very much if you can find a Standard Modell stock, and there are differences.

If you choose to turn it into a classic German sporter, and do it well, I doubt many would blame you.

Jim
 
You say "receiver." Does that include the bolt? Bottom metal? Does the barrel have sights?

A nice Continental sporter would look nice but will run to a lot of work. Are you planning to do the work yourself? I recall an old article that described the deluxe sporter built on a military Mauser action as the gunsmith's full employment program. The author got a lot of hate mail, but I think he was right.

I don't guess bolting it all back into a military stock would be a huge project, but as Jim K. says, finding the correct parts would be a chore. And it would be instantly recognized as a parts gun due to the European habit of putting serial numbers here, there, and everywhere. Or were you planning on "force numbering" it into a complete fake?
 
To clarify things a bit, the receiver doesn't say "Standard Modell" on the rail, it says something to the effect of "Mauserwerke Oberndorf aN". Don't quote me on that, as I'm not home to verify the exact phrase/spelling. I don't know enough about Mausers to know if that's significant or not. I do have a Standard Modell, and dimensionally, they look to be the same. The receiver has the trigger and ejector, that's it, no bolt or bottom metal. The barrel has military sights on it.
For me, either option I choose has some drawbacks. I'm left-handed, so the classic hunting rifle would be somewhat cumbersome. I do have some left-hand Zastavas, so I don't really need another hunting rifle. Having said that, one can never have too many hunting rifles, especially a classic style like what I'm thinking of for this. There's also the cost factor. A custom ribbed barrel is a fair bit of change, plus the cost of the hardware and a good quality stock. I can do most the stock work myself, fitting, finishing, etc, but I would need the machine work and checkering done by a gunsmith. So, at the end of the day, I'm looking at a pretty fair amount of money.
I think it would be a challenge to do a military restoration, given the scarcity of proper parts. Having said that, military Mausers from between the wars seem pretty uncommon, so I think it'd be nice to have one restored with period-correct parts. For Jim Watson, yes, I'm aware of the issues of force numbering parts, but thanks anyway for so rudely pointing that out.
 
IMO, already lost all value as a collector's item. Yeah original military would be interesting, but without original matching parts, not collectible. I'd complete the sporter project.
 
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