Looking for some details on this 7x57 mauser sporter - looks like milsurp

TheCoachZed

TheCoachZed

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Hey guys,

Some quick background: About six years ago, a coworker asked me to buy a rifle for him to hold until he got his PAL. Fast-forward a while, and he still hasn't gotten it. I still have the gun, and I am thinking about just giving him his money back.

But I'm curious to know a few things. Thought maybe you could help me? It's chambered in 7x57, FWIW.

1). Is this a Model 96? It was advertised as such, and this is what the receiver marking says.

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2). Does this crown look usable, or salvageable?

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3). Can I buy the parts for this ladder sight affordably? Does it go as low as 100m, or is the lowest setting the 300m battle setting?
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4). Is there a no-drill scope mount available for this rifle? I was thinking of putting a red dot scope on it for deer/bear hunting around dusk.

5). Does this look like an easily replaceable aftermarket bolt handle? I know nothing about Mauser bolts, other than that they never clear scopes when you need 'em too. I'd prefer an IR 3-9x scope, but am prepared to go with the red dot, like I said, if modifying this bolt and safety is just a pain in the neck.
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6). Here's a stamp on the barrel - is this a Mauser proof?

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7). Is there a ready-fit recoil pad for these stocks? The gun seems pretty light and I bet it would kick.

I considered just selling off the rifle and giving my friend the money, but I kinda need a rifle with this power anyway, and the offers I received were too low. This thing is super handy, and if recoil isn't too punishing, would be my weapon of choice for black bears on CFB Gagetown I think.
 
I don't know what the story is on the bolt handle; never seen one that looks like that.

There is a pretty good chance that the rifle was a Boer Mauser, brought back from South Africa.
 
It's a 95 Mauser. Manufacturer was Ludwig and Lowe.

I doubt very much it is a Boer Mauser as there are no OVS stamps.

That is a very nice little carbine. NO, it won't be a kicker with factory ammo.

The Spanish 93 Mauser carbine stocks will fit it and look almost identical to how it started life. With that bolt modification, there isn't much sense trying to restore it.

Parts for the rifle are available from Numrich(gun parts) in the US.

It would make a very nice little sporter but in all honesty, if you have to put more than a couple of hundred dollars into it, not including a scope, it isn't worth it.

As is it is a great tree stand or stalking rifle. Nice rifle, historical maker. What more could you ask for???

Tiriaq, were you thinking it is a "Pleiser Mauser" because of the bolt mods???

The Pleiser Mausers I have had all had "OVS" stamps for Orange Free State. Many Boers bought their rifles from the State and took them to war. I can see where you are coming from though.
 
Are all Boer Mausers OVS marked? One rifle that I have seen locally is not OVS marked, but has a name carved on the butt in fraktur script, which is certainly a Boer tradition.
At any rate, it is my understanding that the serial numbers of the Mausers shipped to the Boer republics are all documented.

That bolt handle doesn't look like something an amateur gunsmith did.
 
Like Bearhunter said, the sight is available from Numrich. I have one of these that has been scrubbed. This was done to a whole bunch of them presumably in about 1916. The sights are for 300 meters. I modified a Lee Enfield front sight blade to fit the block. The blade brought it up about .035 and brought the poi down about 10". These are great little guns but with a 14" sight radius and a very course open sight I find them hard to group well (old eyes).
After polishing, blueing and refinishing the sporter stock it is a very pretty carbine. Very handy for dep bush or truck gun.
As above, never seen that bolt handle.
 
Only the arms ordered by the Orange Vrei Stadt (OVS) were marked OVS.
The much larger number of Mausers ordered by the Transvaal ,aka Zuid Afrikaans Republik,(ZAR)were not marked by the govt.
 
green said:
Only the arms ordered by the Orange Vrei Stadt (OVS) were marked OVS.
The much larger number of Mausers ordered by the Transvaal ,aka Zuid Afrikaans Republik,(ZAR)were not marked by the govt.
Click to expand...

OK, thanks for that. There must be some markings on them though that would signify their ownership. I have never seen any government released arms that weren't marked in some manner.
 
Things did get pretty hectic in there for a while and no, definitely not, there were NO European countries helping the Boers from a desire to throw sand in the faces of the British.

Well, unless you count Germany and France and a couple others.

SOME ZAR Mausers were marked but by far the majority were not. This specifically included shipments to the Boer Republic made AFTER the war started.

If you are at the CFB Shilo Artillery Museum some time, take a good look at their brass-jacket Maxim 1-pdr Pom-pom guns. They have two of them, both missing their Locks and their Feed Blocks. They are carried as Boer War CAPTURES but were made in England. Was Maxim shipping full-automatic artillery pieces to a country which was AT WAR against Britain? Definitely not. The guns were part of a shipment sold pre-war to our glorious FRENCH friends for torpedo-boat use. When things came unhinged in South Africa, a part of the shipment was sent to the Boers. The Boers, after all, had diamonds and gold in vast quantities...... and the French were still ticked about Waterloo and a few other events. So the French-owned British-made guns ended up in Boer hands, being used to destroy British artillery positions (at which they were very good). Some of the guns then were captured by the British at great cost and a pair ended up in Shilo. The serial numbers trace the guns. They have no French markings, no Boer markings, only British commercial markings.

In Germany, it was more a case of commercial competition and solid business than anything else.

I once owned a genuine Plaisier Mauser rifle by Ludwig Loewe. It was a 7x57 on a 95 action, had a beautifully-figured dark Walnut stock with a low cheekpiece. The stock had two places in which presentation inlays had been and had been removed and it was fitted already with a very old reddish rubber butt pad. It had Express sights and a 26-inch tapered octagonal barrel. The bolt handle was longer than on this rifle and was turned-down quite sharply, being curved slightly outward at the end for good grasping; it would have been just about perfect for scoping. It was by any standard, a work of art. Likely it is still floating about on the West Coast, being sold again commercially after it was stolen from me.... by an undercover cop. Of course, no charges were ever laid. This rifle seems quite unlike the one I owned.

I am curious also about that bolt-handle. It is quite unlike anything I have ever encountered.

I would think a close examination of the Adolf Frank 1911 catalogue might prove enlightening.
 
I have a Boer War bringback carbine, serial #6991, one of 2000 made for a contract by Ludwig Loewe of Berlin in summer of 1897 for the ZAR/OVS. In addition to having a cryptic cartouche on the rear left side of the butt, it has the serial repeated on the wood of the stock immediately under the same location on the action. Being a cavalry carbine, it has a turned-down bolt, but it just looks like any other turned-down bolt Mauser-action. That pictured in the OPs post is of a shape and form that I've never seen before in my life on ANY centre-fire Mauser, but looks very like the bolt on my 1930 Walther hybrid-action .22 Sport rifle.. The single stamp on the breech, again, is unlike anything I've seen before and although there is a crown, the letter does not match the list of proof houses in my possession. Mauser per se were based then and now, in Oberndorf, which has its own proof house - manufacturers did not prove their own products under the Rules of 1891/2, but submitted their barrelled action to the local proof- houses that were then and are still now, under government control. Berlin had the Berlin proof house and the then-externally-located Spandau proof house - this mark shown is neither of them.

There must, therefore, be a number of other proof marks on the action that we need to see.

My little Mauser can be seen in the George book on 'decorated' Boer Mausers, BTW. If anybody wants to see it in action, then it's on Youtube tac's guns Boer War Mauser, being shot by my leftie Tanazanian pal.

If anybody cares to see pics of my own carbine, please PM me - Smellie or Mooncoon perhaps?

tac
 
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That bolt knob looks like someone cut the bolt shorter, turned the end down, and made up a bit of a "ring" to put on the end. Does it rotate a bit, or is is solid? Almost looks like it was swaged to hold it onto the shank? Possible modification when it was sporterized? While the parts of the bolt such as the cocking piece, firing pin, etc., usually have two digit numbers on them, and the bolt KNOB was stamped, is there any serial number on the bolt BODY itself?
 
The German gun proof laws of 1891/2 REQUIRE that every firearm made in Germany be indelibly stamped with the following marks on the action and or receiver or both -

1. Calibre.

2. Type of shot/bullet with the weight in grams and powder used - example - 2,67g G.B.P over St.M.G = 2.67grams of flake rifle powder firing a steel-jacketed bullet - this is in conjunction with Crown over N [nitro proof].

3. Serial number of the arm.

4. Inspections - any number of stamps.

5. Provisional and full nitro proof [where a nitro-cellulose cartridge is used] and the type of propellant powder used. .

6. Crown over U - supplementary mark of post-proof inspection.

7. Crown over G - supplementary mark of arm firing solid projectiles.

8. Prussian eagle - provisional proof.

Most of these SHOULD be on your Ludwig Loewe-made carbine.

tac
 
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