Swedish M/38 Question

[Wes Janson]

A friend of mine's father has an old Swedish M/38 Mauser that has apparantly been sitting in a closet for the last twenty years or so. He pulled it out to show me today, but I don't know much of anything about Mausers. From what I can tell, in decent condition the rifle should be worth $400 or so, but in its current state I'm guessing closer to $150. From what I can tell:

*Stock is in good condition altogether, and fitting seems fairly decent.
*Decent trigger pull, around 4 pounds after a half-inch takeup.
*Safety seems functional.
*Bore condition unknown (dusty), but crown has some definite rusting going on.
*Bolt seems to be in fairly good condition with comparatively little rust.
*Reciever and all other metal surfaces are showing rust in numerous places.

My initial advice (besides telling him to take it out to the range to have professionals look at it) was to disassemble the rifle, clean the bore, try to remove some of the surface rust, and coat the sucker in CLP until he can come to a further decision. He'd like to shoot the rifle some time, but the price of 6.5x55 Swedish seems kinda high.

Should he even bother trying to clean up this rifle? How much does 6.5x55 surplus run per/round (I'm seeing commercial prices of $.50 to $.75)? What do you think he should do with it?

Thanks!

 

[atomchaser]

Definitely worth the effort to clean it up as long as the barrel is not too bad. The Swedes are great shooters. Surplus ammo is not cheap or particularly plentiful -- usually about 50 cents a round.

 

[Sleeping Dog]

My Swede Mauser (model 96) is what got me started reloading, because the surplus ammo costs a lot.

If you reload, the first round is $200. The next rounds are about .20 each.

The gun is probably ok, just clean it and shoot it. Get the 20-round box for $10 to see if you like shooting it.

 

[atblis]

You can load decent ammo

with equipment that costs much less than 200.
The LEE starter kit is cheesy but it does work.
Neck Sizing Dies
Trimmer pilot thingy
Isn't that about it?
~100 Bucks

If the bolt matches the receiver, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot it.

 

[Sleeping Dog]

The $200 figure was just pulled out of thin air. I can't remember what I spent initially. I got a RCBS Master reloading kit, a set of Lee dies, a tumbler, a decent caliper, and some 2x6 to beef up an old computer desk. Then a bag of brass, some bullets, some powder, some primers, and I was reloading.

The point is, there's an initial financial outlay to start reloading. After that, I "could" save, except that I experiment with different bullets, powders, etc, so wind up spending.

Regards.

 

[atblis]

Cost

I was just trying to point out that for reloading you can get into it pretty cheap, and it is worth it. $200 would be a better estimate for a quality setup. $100 is just the rock bottom estimate (the Lee stuff does work though).
$5 box as opposed to $10 a box and your reloads are better quality.
It doesn't take too long to make back your $100-$200 bucks