Here's the Model 1891 Peruvian Mauser I picked up in the Wolverine sale as it came out of the box:
The bolt is mis-matched, but that's the norm with these peruvian 1891/12's as they didn't bother to keep the bolts matched when they were refurbished with Lange-Visier sights (mods were made in 1912 to make the guns spitzer-compatible and more similar to the Modelo 1909 Peruvian Mauser).
The gun was VERY dirty. A mix of lubericating grease, some sort of white hardened storage grease similar to cosmolene (but whit-is yellow) There was a fair bit of flaky rust under the handguard, but nothing that was an issue (not very deep and localized in a small area). The bore is like new. The cleaning rod was bent up bad and was rusty, I straightened it, cleaned it up, and I had to re-solder the cupro-nickel jag tip back on as it had broken free and could un-thread (they were originaly threaded and soldered on). There was some minor cracking in the toe of the stock, but the toe was not broken off. I got it before the crack became a break and was able to glue it to the point it's basically an invisible repair. The trigger was also somehow very bent over to one side of the trigger guard (must have gotten hit hard at some point). I was able to straighten it without damaging it.
Here she is all cleaned up and ready to go:
The gun was a bit more of a restoration than I had expected but came out very nice. Definitely not a "wipe the dust off" rifle like some Wolverine buyers from this last estate sale were reporting. In this case, I had to detail strip it completely down to get everything cleaned up from dried, caked whitish grease (some stuff was really seized up) and to halt the very few areas of active rust and fix the issues it had. Lange-vizier sights are a bit of a mousetrap to disassemble and re-assemble. I had to make new tooling
I'm happy with the results though - it's not every day you see a Peruvian 1891 with the crest still crisp and clear.
The bolt is mis-matched, but that's the norm with these peruvian 1891/12's as they didn't bother to keep the bolts matched when they were refurbished with Lange-Visier sights (mods were made in 1912 to make the guns spitzer-compatible and more similar to the Modelo 1909 Peruvian Mauser).
The gun was VERY dirty. A mix of lubericating grease, some sort of white hardened storage grease similar to cosmolene (but whit-is yellow) There was a fair bit of flaky rust under the handguard, but nothing that was an issue (not very deep and localized in a small area). The bore is like new. The cleaning rod was bent up bad and was rusty, I straightened it, cleaned it up, and I had to re-solder the cupro-nickel jag tip back on as it had broken free and could un-thread (they were originaly threaded and soldered on). There was some minor cracking in the toe of the stock, but the toe was not broken off. I got it before the crack became a break and was able to glue it to the point it's basically an invisible repair. The trigger was also somehow very bent over to one side of the trigger guard (must have gotten hit hard at some point). I was able to straighten it without damaging it.
Here she is all cleaned up and ready to go:
The gun was a bit more of a restoration than I had expected but came out very nice. Definitely not a "wipe the dust off" rifle like some Wolverine buyers from this last estate sale were reporting. In this case, I had to detail strip it completely down to get everything cleaned up from dried, caked whitish grease (some stuff was really seized up) and to halt the very few areas of active rust and fix the issues it had. Lange-vizier sights are a bit of a mousetrap to disassemble and re-assemble. I had to make new tooling
I'm happy with the results though - it's not every day you see a Peruvian 1891 with the crest still crisp and clear.
