What do I have here? 1901 Large Ring, Short (true short) action Mauser 98

Ardent

Ardent

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I've bought a rifle that really has me wondering, it is a large ring, true short action. Unfortunately drilled and tapped, but that's life and I can fix that.

Specs, close as tape measure and eye will allow, not at home:

Receiver OAL: 8 1/8"
Between Screws: 7 5/16"
Mag Follower: 2 9/16"
Receiver Ring: 1.40"

Ring markings, pretty standard except the date, and only marking so far found but haven't pulled it from the stock. The markings look odd to me in their cut / stamp, but I've never owned a 1901 either:

WAFFENFABRIK
MAUSER
OBERNDORF A/N
1901

I'm perplexed by the extremely early date, and the true short action combination, and the large ring. I know one large ring short action has been found and proven to be original, I'm not going to count on being that lucky just yet. I need education but had thought the short actions were 1915 and later, coinciding with the .250 Savage etc. So far, I cannot find any signs of weld, it has of course been case hardened in recent times. Barrel maker was of Innsbruck, Austria, originally it was chambered in 6.5x57 (now 7x57, though has to be very short seated to fit the mag length), and I believe the barrel was a take off from another rifle of course as it seems to be later manufacture and the chambering doesn't fit the action length of course.

 
lovely old rifle!

One point: Paul Mauser developed a LOT of cartridges, including an entire family based on a 51mm case length.

His 8x51 was introduced in 1888 and used in Mauser types A, K and M sporters.

COTW-6 lists only the 8x51 but notes that it was a part of an extensive family.

Hope this helps.
 
Appreciate the kind words and so I've learned smellie, was news to me. Appears this was likely originally a 6.5x54 short action rechambered and reproofed to 6.5x57 in May, 1942. A member on the Mauser forums at Nitro Express got in touch with Jon Speed and ran the rifle by him, I'm sending him a bunch more photos.
 
tacfoley said:
Not the barrel-maker, but the gun-dealer who sold the rifle. This is how they are marked. A lovely piece, too.

tac
Click to expand...

Depends if the barrel is original to the rifle, my point was that barrel may not have shipped on this action due to the much different dates on receiver and barrel. A German collector in touch with Jon Speed, not that you need that much knowledge to make this assertion, pointed out the barrel was simply rechambered and reproofed at the later date, which of course may well mean the barrel and action were mated at birth. This would be important and hopefully is the case.
 
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