Old is beautiful

J

JRR

New member
Recently acquired this oldie. Pre WW1 Mauser 98, Small ring. .323 bore. Commercial sporter. Proof marks show manufactured between 1905 and 1915.

Barrel, Receiver and bolt all matching numbers. Trigger is amazing and rather scary. Set, it is below 8 oz.

It has been molested with drilled and tapped scope holes. Original replaced with a Bueler safety.

Barrel is full length ribbed with flip up express sights.

Receiver, bottom metal and barrel are beautifully machined.

I shot it with cast bullets at 100 yards. Nice 2" group.
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Looks like a commercially built sporting rifle. May be altered from a military issue rifle or build up from an action or barreled action. The engraving on the trigger guard and bolt handle indicate the sporting rifle aspect; so does the set trigger, the dog ear handle and the stock.

The thumb cut on the left side of the receiver indicated it is a military design action, but not all of them were used for military rifles.

What caliber is it? The .323" barrel indicates 8mm, but after the First World War, many were 'rechambered' to 8x60mmS, which sidestepped some legal constraints. Looks like a winner.
 
Looks like a real nice old 98 sporter to me. Thumb cut out was on a lot of them.
If it started life as a military would have stripper clip guides. Old 98s are hard to
beat. I have seen a lot of beautiful 98 Sporters that ened up here as bring homes from WW2. Many of these rifles haven't been shot because of metric
cartridges cost and availability. If the owner wasn't a hunter they were kept as
war trophies. Not for Sale by grandpa who brought it home. I do see more of these type guns leaking out from heirs that have lost sentimental attachments to
them. You don't notice military rifle bring homes because there is so many of them. A classic 98 sporter gets my attention immediately.
 
Nice find. Be it an original commercial built sporting rifle, or sporter built from military. I love finding old guns in well cared for, well used condition. I don't collect, but rather acquire simple old shotguns. Particularly old bolt guns. Just like to think about all the meals these old "poor man's" guns have provided for families through the years. Or how proud some young kid was of his first shotgun. Your Mauser probably has a similar history of happy, useful memories, and pride of ownership.
 
It has the cutout and stripper clip hump but a lot of the old commercial Mausers did. IMO the stock if it was original to the rifle should have had a through bolt.
 
We could tell more with more view of the rifle. The rifle may have had a scope based on modifications to the receiver and low safety. The rifle may have had a generation of work done in the US. The action appears to be scrubbed. With a view of the front of the action we could have told if it were a KAR or GEW action. To full view would have told us if it were a military barrel. I say the chances are the rifle has a military based on the triggers being pined into the trigger guard.
 
Very nice classic European hunting rifle made from a military rifle. There are a lot of these old rifles around.
Thumb cut out was on a lot of them.
If it started life as a military would have stripper clip guides.
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It has both, if you look. Thumb notches and stripper clips were the speed loaders of that time.
 
Old is beautiful
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Yep, my mirror validates this truth every time I take a peek at it...I've got to start going to my meetings again.

Old is beautiful, a fact verified every time I take another look at my Savage Model 99 and my Winchester Model 1886 rifles-and they get prettier with each passing day. :cool:
 
dgludwig
Old is beautiful , not always . At a reunion I saw a high school girlfriend , shouldn't mess with mother nature .
 
Largely why I've never gone to them.
Today I wouldn't even recognize any of those old people. :)

And I much prefer to remember a couple of the girls as they were then.....
Denis
 
I missed a chance to pick up a pre WWI Mauser sporting rifle with a three leaf express sight a few months ago. It just dripped with old world craftsmanship and was set up like an African game rifle. For the life of me, I just couldn't think of any earthly use I would have for it so I let it go.
 
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