Greetings and Salutations!
Well, one of the ‘new projects’ showed up today. I think a better term is I went and retrieved it. This is the Spanish Mauser I had talked about:
Now the packaging was brilliant.
The sender took a new and unique way of doing it. From what I can tell, He wrapped the rifle in a LARGE piece of plastic. He then put a layer of spray foam into the box, and put another layer of plastic sheeting over the now sprayed-spray foam! Once he had what I’ll call the ‘bed’ made, he placed and nestled the rifle into the still-soft foam, and pulled the plastic sheet up and over, effectively mummifying it and immobilizing it. He then did the reverse on it, and lightly foamed it, did another layer of plastic, and then sealed up the box. It show up and looked like this after I finally got the fucker open:
As I sent to him via Text Message when I got it opened, that I think this thing could have been dropped from Orbit without a ‘chute, and it would have sustained ZERO damage. Color me impressed. Now, back to the rifle itself….
Turns out it’s NOT an 1898 Model, but a M1916.
That being stated, I’ll break down my findings so far, and then I’ll get into the particulars of what I’m going to be doing.
OK: First off a VERY SERIOUS THANK YOU to a long time reader, contributor and friend-of-the-blog, Scoutergreg. He’s the one who arranged this gift to me. He’s ALWAYS been a staunch supporter here, even back in the dark custody battle days. He and his Father (RIP) long ago bought this like 40+ years ago, had an ‘issue’ with it (which long story short sounds like a headspacing issue) and because of that scare, they turned it into a safe queen.
Like a lot of you who have donated items to the “Big Country Museum of Mayhem” his kids unfortunately, like many of the post Gen X Generations have ZERO interest in firearms or Military ‘stuff’ and this includes my own Spawn(s). So a lot of you recognizing that I purely LOVE this sort of thing have graciously sent me what now has become a pretty impressive collection. My intent and I’ve talked to a County Representative, we here in Tampa have a really good and recently refurbished Veterans Park.
My plan is if I cash my chips early/later, ALLLLL this stuff is going to be donated to be put on display in the New-ish Wing of the County Museum. My only request is that YOU folks have donated to me in the past re-email me at bce187th@protonmail.com your info again of what was given and your real name, because even before that happens, I’m going to do like a “Donated By” Brass Plaque in the extremely near future and leave room for ‘add ons’ so when I die, the “Museum of Mayhem” display attributes the right stuff to the right people.
For Our Posterity Aye?
Moving on.
So once I got it, I did an immediate check of the Serial Numbers. The receiver SN is indicative that the original manufacturing date or at least THIS particular one was made sometime around 1897:
Not sure what the “G 490” is on the stock… not yet leastways.
The magazine/trigger pieces/parts have a different set of numbers:
The 2A upper number I can’t find reference to yet but the 3722 indicates that came off a rifle made in 1896.
Then the bolt also has another serial number, this being F3540
That serial number indicates a bolt from an 1899 rifle.
So overall, a mix-and-match FrankenMauser.
No complaints at all… just fascinating that even back then, the factory mass production of firearms and the inherent ability for universal parts interchangeability astounds me.
Those designers back then were just waaay too good.
We might not ever see the likes of them again unfortunately.
Now the overall condition of this thing is fantastic. The only immediately obvious issue(s) are a broken sling loop on the second barrel band:
Snapped clean off who knows when?
Then a missing cleaning rod, which is easily and very cheaply replaceable at $12.50 at Sarco:
And then, a wee bit of what appears to be water damage/discoloration on the rear buttstock.
The wood overall is magnificent for it’s age (100+ years!!!) with ZERO apparent cracks or major dings so I think a light sanding, maybe some stain but definitely a TON of oil should set that straight.
Both front and rear sights have some issues. The front sight:
…is beat to fuck-all and loose on the barrel, all wiggly-jiggly. Not sure if that needs replacement or just fixing. The protective curving blades are also bent off kilter, so I’m of two minds, one being heat ’em up with a torch and gently get them back to the proper curvature, or replace it. We’ll see as we go.
The rear sight initially looked great.:
Good clean numbers, and a nice smooth sliding action of the elevation. The rear part is worn down pretty badly, but I can work with it. Then I went to check the spring on it, and found this:
Nice lil curve in that sucker Aye?
So again, Heat it and Beat it, or replace it?
Not sure. Between availability of parts and effort involved will play a part… We’ll see as we move on.
Lastly is the bore:
It’s so hard to get a good pic, and my borescope does NOT have the ability to snap a shot. I need to upgrade eventually, especially if I start doing this as a full time side-hustle. It’s waaay better than the Lee Enfield, but still… it IS 120+ years old as stated before.
I will say one noticeable thing:
Out of all my ‘crawling on the boards’ today tracking info and the like, I’m amazed at just how good a condition this particular example is in. The pictures that were posted of ‘new acquisitions’ were of some rifles in even shittier shape than my $99 Lee Enfield! Granted these things aren’t worth a lot of $$$ (about 200+/- depending on just how bad they are) but they remain popular due to the absolute badassery of the 7x57mm round it fires.
The 7x57mm is the two on the far left, and the right two are 7.62×51 NATO and 5.56mm respectively… dunno why they included a 7×55 in the middle? It positively dwarves the M4 round, and makes the M240 round look small too IMO.
It was one of the OG “Elephant Gun Rounds” back in the day in Africa. Famous British riflemakers, such as John Rigby, Holland and Holland, Westley Richards and others made some of the most beautiful and expensive hunting rifles based around this cartridge, with it being more commonly known as the .275 Rigby.
It packs one hell of a punch.
It was famous for being able to punch through an elephant skull straight on. That’s a lot of bone… dense bone. It has superior flat-trajectory characteristics, and if you really want to pare it down, this’s the Great Granddaddy to ALL modern DotMil calibers, as the US developed the 30-06 because of it, and a lot of other rounds, like the German 7.92mm were part of the ammunition evolution so to speak.
So yeah… I’m exceptionally pleased and excited.
Expect to ‘follow the bouncing ball’ over the next few weeks as I refresh this ole War Hoss, and we’ll see what I come up with. I’ll intersperse it in with my usual Badthink Crimethought so don’t think I won’t be ranting and raving as is the norm around here.
So your thoughts per usual are always welcome in the Comments (except for you Hedge… I told you to be polite man!) and I’ll be back later with more fun.
More Later
Big Country
