Mauser 98

[tigger2]

I got one when I was 14. I am 55 now. I have kept it clean and lubricated all
these years. I wouldn't sell it for anything. It still works like a brand new one.
It has the original steel butt plate. That don't help when you shoot it. It kicks
like a pissed off horse. It sounds like a cannon when fired.
A local man that owned an Otasco Hardware store bought a semi full of 7mm
and 8mm. He sold the 7mm for $10.00 each and the 8mm for $12.00 each. My father bought me one of the 7mm. It had a crack on the stock from the trigger guard all the way up to the end at the front sight. He took it back and paid $2.00 more for one of the 8mm.
I found a web site that had a kit to mount a scope on the 8mm. You had to remove the rear iron sight to do it. Talk about reaching out and touching something. I think it was made in Yugoslavia. It has a certain crest that matches up to those.

 

[SaxonPig]

I remember the gun shop keeping a 55 gallon drum filled with Model 95 and Model 98 Mausers. The 95s were $14.95 and the 98s were $19.95. Wish I had bought a hundred of them.

Bought a 1903 Springfield at Woolworths for $69. Lots of stores used to sell guns and ammo back then. Remember the Western Auto stores? Had their own brand name on guns made by Savage, Stevens, etc. Sears was out of the handgun business by the time I came along but I recall they they sold rifles and shotguns as "Ted Williams" brand.

I still have some shotgun shells I bought at White Front. They have the 79 cents price sticker on them. A friend bought his first pistol at that same store.

My first deer rifle was ordered from the Herter's catalog and delivered to my door.

Those were the days, buddy.

 

[tigger2]

Mau

We had a Western Auto down here. It was here for years. It fianlly closed.
Otasco became Ace hardware.

 

[tigger2]

Mauser

When did everything start going to hell, around 1965? I mean as far as ordering guns and having them sent to your door. It is rediculous now.