7mm Mauser ID

[muidem]

I recently acquired this rifle from my father and neither of us know much about. He got it from a friend of his who passed away.

The only markings I can find on it are 7x57 mau stamped on one side of the barrel and what appears to be a serial number of V50104 on the other. Additionally, there appear to be two small crowns on the bottom of the magazine. Also, there are three digits on the bolt handle. They are quite worn down but appear to say 365. Finally, on the bottom of the bolt handle, there are some triangle markings, one of which appears to be inside a circle. I could not find any other markings. Any ideas?

Full shot of rifle


Serial number?


Crowns on bottom of magazine


Shot of bolt


Bolt handle with "365"


Barrel with "7x57"


Triangles underneath bolt handle


Here is a link to the album with full resolution images (didn't want to break size of the webpage by posting them here).

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Is the action cock-on-open or cock-on-close?

 

[muidem]

Cock on open.

 

[Float Pilot]

Hmm, that is actually a very pretty rifle.

And a touch odd. The receiver (upper action) is a intermediate length M-98 Mauser variant. Such as a m-48 Yugo, or m24 Mexican. It would be interesting to see the other side and the top of the front action ring which is currently hidden under the scope mount.

The trigger guard and floor plate came from a Swedish Mauser and are really not related to the upper action. It was probably used because it did not have guard screws and looks cleaner.

The length of the Swedish Mausers, from front to back action screw is 7.620 inches. That is also the length of the intermediate length Mauser actions like the Yugo M-48, M48A, Mexican m-1924, Mexican 1910s and so-on...


It is true that the Swedes did use M-98 size rifles, the M-39 and M-40, but the few they did have were German made. and they were a full length M-98 type action.

So you have a very nice looking and very strong intermediate length LARGE RING Mauser action in a custom stock that has been re-barreled to the excellent 7x57mm Mauser cartridge. And it just happens to have a trigger guard and floor-plate made by Carl Gustaf in Sweden.

the action is not long enough to re-barrel to something like 30-06. So it is best left as it is right now... Plus whoever did the work knew what they were doing...


The safety has been modified to a two position scope type safety. Either an old Buhler or Timney and maybe even one of the newer yet crappy MKIIs.

Hope this helps.

That rifle will kill just about anything in North America with proper shot placement. The largest brown bear I ever shot was with a 7x57mm Mauser and a fairly warm hand-load.

 

[muidem]

Thanks a ton for the information; I find it quite fascinating. I'll see if I can't take the other pictures you requested. Do you have any idea how old it is or much it might be worth? I don't intend to sell it but I would like to know nevertheless.

Full res images are in album here

 

[Float Pilot]

Custom hunting rifles cost a lot more to make than you would think. Then they almost never sell for as much as you have sunk into them.

Look under the front scope mount to see if there is any sign of a crest or design on the front receiver ring. Also look to see if it looks like one was ground off and polished over. (a very common practice that helped put me through college in the 70s.)

If,,, there is no sign at all of a crest and no other markings on the other side of the action, then I would suspect that what you have there is a M-48 Yugoslavian action that was intentionally made with no crest or manufacture name for export to Syria back in the early 1950s. The Russians armed them via third party commie bloc countries.
They were of course originally a 7.92x57mm rifle.
I gave one to my son a few years ago...

If the bluing and bore look as nice close-up as the photos appear to look from a distance. I would personally pay $450 to $500 if I saw it for sale in a shop someplace.

If you tried to build another one just like it, you could easily spend $700 getting it all done.


I have a 7x57mm Mauser I built on an old Brazilian contract rifle action. It will shoot groups about the size of a quarter at 100 yards with most loads.

Your action is a strong one and that rifle will take loads which are substantially warmer than the wimpy US made factory loads for 7mm Mauser.

Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell (1880–1951), known as Karamojo Bell,
shot over 1,000 elephants with a 7x57mm Mauser.

 

[muidem]

Again, excellent information. Thank you very much!

 

[NCsmitty]

Nice rifle, and the 7mm Mauser is a great round. Float Pilot knows his Mausers.



NCsmitty

 

[Float Pilot]

MUIDEM did you get my last couple P-mails?

 

[eastbank]

now take that scope off and put a good scope on it, it looks like a 50.00 saddle on a 500.00 horse. i built one like that for my late father in 7x57 with a 4x leupold on it, with 154gr hornady,s at 2500fps it was a deer death stick. its a very good rifle. eastbank.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

That Bushnell will work just fine. I have hunted with Sportviews for MANY years on various caliber rifles,two of which were 7x57 Mausers. Scope performance was very good. I have a Nikon Pro-staff on my present 7x57 but not because my Bushnell quit working. It has just been moved to my .22lr for long range squirrel popping.