I was searching one of the gun sale sights ( gunlistings.org ) and I see a guy selling a Browning made in Belgium .243 win rifle. I have always wanted a .243, and have been iching for a new firearm. I sent the seller a text message offering him a trade, he told me he wasn't interested. So I offered him some ammo for it, and he said he didn't have a firearm chambered in the cartridge, dang struck out again. I asked him how much he wanted for the rifle, and he said he didn't know the value of it, not knowing the value of it myself I said $300.00 sounded like a good starting point. He felt that was to low. In his add he said it had been modified, and I was worried it wasn't going to be up to par so I didn't offer him more ( didn't really have more ). After I told him I couldn't add more he told me he already had an trade offer in the process for a 10/22, and another gun, and that he was trying to see if he could get a better deal out of me. The conversation was left at that.
Two weeks later I see he had relisted it. The title said "FT made in Belgium Browning F.L.A.I.G.'S. 243 RIFLE", and in the add it said he had taken it in on a trade, and that the other guy said it was a modified Browning action rifle, and the barrel said FLAIG'S on it. It also said it had a Balfor scope. I had not heard of either before, and so my boss and I did a quick search on them. The scope is made by Bausch and Lomb ( I knew they made good stuff, but had never used it before). A quick search on the Flaigs, and someone was claiming they are worth $300.00.
I really liked the looks of the rifle, and decided to offer the guy a shotgun for trade along with some .22lr ammo. He said he was interested, but wanted alittle more in the trade. I did some more research on Flaig's and come to find out they were a custom rifle maker in Pennsylvania. They used Mauser actions, and a few different barrels ( sounds like they used a lot of Douglas barrels ). I don't know much in the custom gun world ( still don't ) but I was really drawn to this rifle. I offered him another shotgun, and we agreed on trading two shotguns, and 1000 rounds of .22lr for his Mystery rifle assuming everything looked good.
I have really gotten attatched to my firearms lately, and when I got home I was having second thoughts on the trade, my wife wanted me to stay home, and not drive into town. I almost text the guy saying I wasn't coming due to traders remorse that hadn't even happened yet. I thought well I'll at least go look at it, and I don't have to trade. Another thing holding me back was in the picture the scope rings, and bases were something I had never seen before, the rear base looked like it had a metal angle attatched to it.
I drove to town to meet the seller at a random spot, and when I got there he opened up his trunk, and I knew right away before I even touched it that it was quality. Then when I picked it up it just had that feel of a great rifle, just solid You guys know what I'm talking about. I asked the guy if he had shot it, and he said he had, and that it was a good shooter, very accurate. So I then showed him the two shotguns, then I asked him if he was legal to own firearms, he said he was, and we showed each other our permits to carry. We decided to trade, and before i knew it he was loaded up and gone before I could even get into my car.
I drove home very excited over this quality gun in my trunk, and spent the rest of the night with my family untill they went to bed, and started to research it. One thing I noticed was the scope bases, and the rings didn't seem to fit right. They had a rear base, a front base, and a middle piece that attached onto the scope. The scope wasn't completlly into the rings, and the front of the middle piece had a rod on the front of it that was under the front base, everything seemed solid. The scope is a fixed power, and has no adjustments on it. The way you adjust the point of impact is in the bases. It has elevation, and side to side adjustments in the bases. I read up on the system, and everyone kept talking about quick detatch, and a plunger. I unscrewed the front base, and when I did the middle part came off. I could tell the front base should be screwed down to the rifle so I cleaned under it, and did so. The scope was loose in the rings, and notice the two of the screws were nowhere near screwed in all the way, and wouldn't go in anymore so I took the scope off. Inspecting the middle piece the rod in the front of it would slowly push in, that was the plunger everyone was talking about. I put the plunger in where it is supose to go on the front base, and the rear of the middle piece locked into the rear base. I had found out how it was suppose to go in. Then it dawned on me why the seller had gotten rid of it. he had taken it out to shoot it, and couldn't adjust the point of impact so he must have thought the barrel was burned out, and traded it off to me thinking it was a junk rifle. When in reality he just couldn't figure out the system. He had messed up two holes on the rings, and three screws total, Thank God he hadn't hurt the taped holes on the rifle at all.
Today I took the barrel and action out of the stock, and did some research. The action is an FN Mauser action with a jewelled bolt ( didn't have to take it apart to know that, lol ) made in Belgium, the barrel is stamped 4 9 63b I'm assuming this means it was done in April 9 1963. That's pretty cool to me.
I then started to put it back together, and the light hit the inside of the floor plate just right, and I seen what I thought was a name. Looking alittle closer it was a name, first and last, then it said a town, and state. It was from here in Iowa. I looked the name up, and the town (I knew the town, and is only about an hour drive from me). The search brought up an obituary of a man that had died in 2012, it said he liked to hunt, fish, and shoot skeet. he had died at the age of 82. I'm guessing his firearms were sold at auction, or giving to family, and nobody could figure out how the scope system worked so they all thought it was burned out so they all kept trading it. I'm guessing the original owner stored this rifle without the scope attached to it to preserve the plunger, and people could never figure out the right way to attach it ( thank God for me ). I haven't shot the rifle yet, I have only had it a couple days, but my work just received forty boxes of .243 so I'll have plenty of ammo to buy for it, and try it out. I'm guessing it is a tack driver! If I get any interest in this thread I'll add photos or I might do it anyway. I'm sure I left out details on this little story, but I haven't done any kind of revue in a long time, and felt pretty good to tell a story here.
Ug, I copied, and pasted this for spell check, and when I did I lost about 4-5 paragraphs. I had originally talked a bit about Flaig's store from what I have learned on the internet, but it had taken me over an hour to write the original story. I added back in some of the important stuff, but don't have the energy now to rewrite it all. From what I have learned Flaig's mode their own stock, polished and blued everything themselves, and was a high end shop of it's day. I think my rifle has the original sling as well. So since everything got deleted I am not respell checking ( I'm a horrible speller so sorry for that) Thanks, and good day.
Two weeks later I see he had relisted it. The title said "FT made in Belgium Browning F.L.A.I.G.'S. 243 RIFLE", and in the add it said he had taken it in on a trade, and that the other guy said it was a modified Browning action rifle, and the barrel said FLAIG'S on it. It also said it had a Balfor scope. I had not heard of either before, and so my boss and I did a quick search on them. The scope is made by Bausch and Lomb ( I knew they made good stuff, but had never used it before). A quick search on the Flaigs, and someone was claiming they are worth $300.00.
I really liked the looks of the rifle, and decided to offer the guy a shotgun for trade along with some .22lr ammo. He said he was interested, but wanted alittle more in the trade. I did some more research on Flaig's and come to find out they were a custom rifle maker in Pennsylvania. They used Mauser actions, and a few different barrels ( sounds like they used a lot of Douglas barrels ). I don't know much in the custom gun world ( still don't ) but I was really drawn to this rifle. I offered him another shotgun, and we agreed on trading two shotguns, and 1000 rounds of .22lr for his Mystery rifle assuming everything looked good.
I have really gotten attatched to my firearms lately, and when I got home I was having second thoughts on the trade, my wife wanted me to stay home, and not drive into town. I almost text the guy saying I wasn't coming due to traders remorse that hadn't even happened yet. I thought well I'll at least go look at it, and I don't have to trade. Another thing holding me back was in the picture the scope rings, and bases were something I had never seen before, the rear base looked like it had a metal angle attatched to it.
I drove to town to meet the seller at a random spot, and when I got there he opened up his trunk, and I knew right away before I even touched it that it was quality. Then when I picked it up it just had that feel of a great rifle, just solid You guys know what I'm talking about. I asked the guy if he had shot it, and he said he had, and that it was a good shooter, very accurate. So I then showed him the two shotguns, then I asked him if he was legal to own firearms, he said he was, and we showed each other our permits to carry. We decided to trade, and before i knew it he was loaded up and gone before I could even get into my car.
I drove home very excited over this quality gun in my trunk, and spent the rest of the night with my family untill they went to bed, and started to research it. One thing I noticed was the scope bases, and the rings didn't seem to fit right. They had a rear base, a front base, and a middle piece that attached onto the scope. The scope wasn't completlly into the rings, and the front of the middle piece had a rod on the front of it that was under the front base, everything seemed solid. The scope is a fixed power, and has no adjustments on it. The way you adjust the point of impact is in the bases. It has elevation, and side to side adjustments in the bases. I read up on the system, and everyone kept talking about quick detatch, and a plunger. I unscrewed the front base, and when I did the middle part came off. I could tell the front base should be screwed down to the rifle so I cleaned under it, and did so. The scope was loose in the rings, and notice the two of the screws were nowhere near screwed in all the way, and wouldn't go in anymore so I took the scope off. Inspecting the middle piece the rod in the front of it would slowly push in, that was the plunger everyone was talking about. I put the plunger in where it is supose to go on the front base, and the rear of the middle piece locked into the rear base. I had found out how it was suppose to go in. Then it dawned on me why the seller had gotten rid of it. he had taken it out to shoot it, and couldn't adjust the point of impact so he must have thought the barrel was burned out, and traded it off to me thinking it was a junk rifle. When in reality he just couldn't figure out the system. He had messed up two holes on the rings, and three screws total, Thank God he hadn't hurt the taped holes on the rifle at all.
Today I took the barrel and action out of the stock, and did some research. The action is an FN Mauser action with a jewelled bolt ( didn't have to take it apart to know that, lol ) made in Belgium, the barrel is stamped 4 9 63b I'm assuming this means it was done in April 9 1963. That's pretty cool to me.
I then started to put it back together, and the light hit the inside of the floor plate just right, and I seen what I thought was a name. Looking alittle closer it was a name, first and last, then it said a town, and state. It was from here in Iowa. I looked the name up, and the town (I knew the town, and is only about an hour drive from me). The search brought up an obituary of a man that had died in 2012, it said he liked to hunt, fish, and shoot skeet. he had died at the age of 82. I'm guessing his firearms were sold at auction, or giving to family, and nobody could figure out how the scope system worked so they all thought it was burned out so they all kept trading it. I'm guessing the original owner stored this rifle without the scope attached to it to preserve the plunger, and people could never figure out the right way to attach it ( thank God for me ). I haven't shot the rifle yet, I have only had it a couple days, but my work just received forty boxes of .243 so I'll have plenty of ammo to buy for it, and try it out. I'm guessing it is a tack driver! If I get any interest in this thread I'll add photos or I might do it anyway. I'm sure I left out details on this little story, but I haven't done any kind of revue in a long time, and felt pretty good to tell a story here.
Ug, I copied, and pasted this for spell check, and when I did I lost about 4-5 paragraphs. I had originally talked a bit about Flaig's store from what I have learned on the internet, but it had taken me over an hour to write the original story. I added back in some of the important stuff, but don't have the energy now to rewrite it all. From what I have learned Flaig's mode their own stock, polished and blued everything themselves, and was a high end shop of it's day. I think my rifle has the original sling as well. So since everything got deleted I am not respell checking ( I'm a horrible speller so sorry for that) Thanks, and good day.
