The Swedes were very meticulous in the mfg of their rifles and subsequent, freakishly straight S/N's and proof marks. It's one of the reasons I honed in on the Swedish Mausers. At the very least it may have started as an original commercial mauser as you suspect, but has received embellishments over the years. Could have also been done by a smaller export company or a gunsmith your rebore seems to suggest one of the scenario's.
Lot's of receivers were recycled post war by Mauser and given new life in the commercial market with matching serial numbers. Most were intentional chicanery and some, unintentionally misleading. When I first got into mausers, there was a lot of that going on with M98's and K98's as well as 03 Springfield's. A barrel can be stamped to match a receiver at a later date as well as proof marks. Take all of it with a grain of salt and beware, there are a lot of fakes.
I know everything I really need to (the fact that there's a 1:3 chance that it's pre-20th century just makes me giddy all over! ) but it would be nice to uncover at least the important bullet points of its history. Im going here can tell me which particular factory it came from. He's in central Germany somewhere, in his late 70s & i'm guessing it's some big muck-a-muck in the Mauser collecting circles. Im trying to get hold of a gent from the Nitro Express forum who seems to hold the key to understanding the random letter & number stamps under the receiver. The original maker's mark & factory stamp, as previously mentioned, have been removed when the dovetail was cut in the front ring. It seems, from all this, that it was exported from Germany post 1950. There isn't any way to determine the rebore date, other than the second proof mark is post 1950 (I believe) & it would have to have been proofed before resale or return to the customer. A fresh barrel would only have the one stamp, unless it was also rebored & that wouldn't make sense. The fact that it has a 'crown over N' proof, along with the plain crown, is suggesting a rebore. The barrel is original to the action, but at some point has been rebored. Im in deep conversation with a gent on 24hr Campfire who dated it to originally built between 1899 & 1901. It's not a hinged plate, just the standard sliding model. Hinged, could be a commercial Orberndorf sporter not hinged, a post war M98 sporter conversion. In your first pic, it appears the floor plate is not hinged but it is difficult to determine. A Shop Manual" By Jerry Kuhnhausen, it dose appear to be a M98.Īll that being said, I have one question Is the floor plate "hinged"? If it is hinged, according to Jerry Kuhnhausen, early commercial M98 Orberndorf sporters could be had with adjustable double set triggers, and the sporters had hinged floor plates. Looking thru a copy of "The Mauser Bolt Actions.
Because there is nothing visible stamped on the top of the ring and on the left side of the receiver it's a safe bet you have "probable" post WWI conversion. Commercial variants were tolerated and generally left in "virgin" state but not always. If it had been a factory commercial German Mauser the "Mauser" logo would have been stamped on top of the front ring. Lot's of records were destroyed by Allied and Russian forces post WWII and unfortunately, many pre/post WWI military and commercial Mauser records were lost. IIRC Imperial(WWI) and Nazi(WWII) markings on the side and top of the front receiver ring were generally removed (ground off) in order to export to other european countries and to make them legal to own in post war Germany. This ^^^ It also appeared to me. to be a post WWI conversion. The reason they made them in different chamberings than 8 mm was many countries didn't allow civilians to own anything in a military caliber
Those Gew 98's had a straight bolt so it was bent or forged over and ground. It's a WW1 Imperial that was re barreled and proofed commercial N.