Dave DeLaurant
Member
Back in the mid-1970s, my dad floored me one Saturday when mom was away by showing me three surplus military rifles he'd purchased a couple decades earlier.
While I waited at the bottom of the ladder, dad went up into the attic and handed down three long, Interarmco-marked cardboard boxes. We took them out onto the front lawn where dad pulled out the following three rifles in turn:
Up until then I had no idea he owned anything like these!
Despite the box labels, I think he said he'd bought them through the local Montgomery Wards for under $20 apiece. He also had a modest supply of surplus military ammo that he kept inside an old ice chest. At the time he showed them to me, he'd not yet gotten around to firing the two Mausers, but he told me my older brother Kermit had 'borrowed' the Lee-Enfield without telling him and shot it with corrosive ammo without properly cleaning the bore afterward. I could tell he was still pretty upset about that.
I was sworn to secrecy because mom didn't know he'd bought them and he wanted it to stay that way. Knowing those two, I'm sure this was because dad enjoyed having a few secrets from mom -- later on, the old rifles were just one of many "secrets from mom" we shared. I think that was just how marriages often worked in the "Honeymooners" generation.
We took the rifles to the range together some years later and fired a few rounds, but otherwise they just sat in their boxes, not particularly well-protected, until dad passed in 2001 at age 86.
By then, the No.4 was in sad shape. The metal on 1893 wasn't too bad, but dad had refinished the stock with shiny varnish that spoiled much of the collector value. With the stupidity of youth (and I wasn't even that young), I kept and sporterized the Brno Mauser and sold off the other two. I didn't begin to take military surplus rifles in original condition very seriously until about 15 years too late for these three.
In 2021 I acquired a Yugo-reworked K98k (with a repro ZF-41 scope installed) from my LGS, and it occurred to me that I would also really like to have a No.4 and a 1893 Spanish Mauser like dad's to keep it company. They needn't be precisely the same -- something reasonably close would do nicely.
Last year I found and purchased a very nice No.4 Mk.I from an estate I helped to value for a friend of a friend. A post-war arsenal-rework like the Yugo, I think it was in much better condition than dad's when he'd originally bought his. Finding a good example of a 1893 Mauser proved more of a challenge, but this week I acquired a clean 1895 Chilean Mauser from Simpsons that fills this opening nicely. A few stock dings, but the metal is in amazing condition 128 years after leaving the factory.
[Not the best conditions for photography this morning -- we're between storms here.]
Dad would have had a heart attack learning what these three rifles cost in today's market.
I can't fault his taste -- I think all three rifles have undeniable charisma.
While I waited at the bottom of the ladder, dad went up into the attic and handed down three long, Interarmco-marked cardboard boxes. We took them out onto the front lawn where dad pulled out the following three rifles in turn:
postwar Brno-production K98k with laminated stock and the oversized stamped trigger guard
Loewe-production Spanish M93 long rifle
worn but serviceable Lee-Enfield No.4 MkI
Loewe-production Spanish M93 long rifle
worn but serviceable Lee-Enfield No.4 MkI
Up until then I had no idea he owned anything like these!
Despite the box labels, I think he said he'd bought them through the local Montgomery Wards for under $20 apiece. He also had a modest supply of surplus military ammo that he kept inside an old ice chest. At the time he showed them to me, he'd not yet gotten around to firing the two Mausers, but he told me my older brother Kermit had 'borrowed' the Lee-Enfield without telling him and shot it with corrosive ammo without properly cleaning the bore afterward. I could tell he was still pretty upset about that.
I was sworn to secrecy because mom didn't know he'd bought them and he wanted it to stay that way. Knowing those two, I'm sure this was because dad enjoyed having a few secrets from mom -- later on, the old rifles were just one of many "secrets from mom" we shared. I think that was just how marriages often worked in the "Honeymooners" generation.
We took the rifles to the range together some years later and fired a few rounds, but otherwise they just sat in their boxes, not particularly well-protected, until dad passed in 2001 at age 86.
By then, the No.4 was in sad shape. The metal on 1893 wasn't too bad, but dad had refinished the stock with shiny varnish that spoiled much of the collector value. With the stupidity of youth (and I wasn't even that young), I kept and sporterized the Brno Mauser and sold off the other two. I didn't begin to take military surplus rifles in original condition very seriously until about 15 years too late for these three.
In 2021 I acquired a Yugo-reworked K98k (with a repro ZF-41 scope installed) from my LGS, and it occurred to me that I would also really like to have a No.4 and a 1893 Spanish Mauser like dad's to keep it company. They needn't be precisely the same -- something reasonably close would do nicely.
Last year I found and purchased a very nice No.4 Mk.I from an estate I helped to value for a friend of a friend. A post-war arsenal-rework like the Yugo, I think it was in much better condition than dad's when he'd originally bought his. Finding a good example of a 1893 Mauser proved more of a challenge, but this week I acquired a clean 1895 Chilean Mauser from Simpsons that fills this opening nicely. A few stock dings, but the metal is in amazing condition 128 years after leaving the factory.
[Not the best conditions for photography this morning -- we're between storms here.]
Dad would have had a heart attack learning what these three rifles cost in today's market.
I can't fault his taste -- I think all three rifles have undeniable charisma.
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