I picked up this Mauser sporter in 8x57 Monday. It has no maker's name, and no proof marks. There are a series of jumbled letters on the botton of action behind lug. There is no factory name on action. Bluing is old style and appears original. Can anyone help me date or identify this rifle? How about a ballpark price? Here is a pcture and I have others. Thanks, moodyholler

A pic or description of those jumbled letters might help. Nice rifle, comgrats.

Moody

Quote from Deitrich Apel for a German rifle:

What you would be looking for are maybe the letters B, U, G, N with crowns over the tops of each and the serial number. These were used between 1924 and 1934 with some carrying on through the later years.
B = rifle proofed in assembled form.
U = final inspection proof.
G = sporting firearm with rifled barrel.
N = indicates Nitro proofing. (from 1933-1939) Also used on military contract rifles for export.

There may also be a 3 digit number in the form MYY where M=month and YY=year.

Here's my Edger Keiss (Suhl) , Mar 41(341). Krupp steel barrel in 7x64. Stacked horn buttplate.

I don't know a thing about your rifle except I like it!

Nice looking gun. The stock is pretty much the same as on my 9.3x57 ...shit I can´t remember the manufacturer! Husky, Boha and Alf are the AR old German rifles experts -PM them or hope that they pick up on this thread.

quote:

Originally posted by moodyholler:
I picked up this Mauser sporter in 8x57 Monday. It has no maker's name, and no proof marks. There are a series of jumbled letters on the botton of action behind lug. There is no factory name on action. Bluing is old style and appears original. Can anyone help me date or identify this rifle? How about a ballpark price? Here is a pcture and I have others. Thanks, moodyholler

PM fla3006 or Alf to get their attention. They are our experts on mausers.

Close ups please othervise impossible to see, nice rifle though.

/C

Very nice rifle. Looks like a "cigarette" rifle, probably made in Suhl by one of the many custom gunsmiths. The ribbed barrel makes it especially nice. The bore is quite likely J diameter (0.318") rather than S (0.323") so make sure you find out before using that box of ammo. Good find!

You do not have enough pictures to really provide a specific answer. But I will mention something as a possibility.

I have handled at least three rifles that were made into sporting rifles in post war Germany. One rifle was still the property of the WWII vet. Two of these rifles were Mausers and one was a M1903A4. The two Mauser rifles had all military markings ground off. The worksmanship was top rate and of typical German styling. One Mauser used a K98 stock, ground down so much (and no stock bolt) that the stock cracked behind the recoil lug.

We had maybe 500,000 GI's in Europe, many "liberated" rifles and pistols, a few had some built up special.

Maybe yours is one of those.

I'm hoping that either Richj or moodyholler can do me a favor and post some pics of the cheek pieces. Closeups of the bevel if you will where it joins the butt.

z1r, go to photobucket and search for moodyholler album. There are a couple more pic's in there. I will be glad to take a couple more tomorrow evening, but too dark here already. Behind the recoil lug are the letters, "U, G, L, G, H, M, W, S, D, A FUNNY LOOKING CROSS, A 5, AND A CHARACTER". Will try to post a pic of the letters tomorrow. It sure is a very well made rifle. Thanks for all the info so far. moodyholler

BTW, richj, I sure would like to see a picture of the rear sight on that fine rifle of yours. Thanks, moodyholler

OK moody...z1r...

Here's the pics.

http://home.pipeline.com/~shootzg/misc/krupp/krupp-butt-1.jpg
http://home.pipeline.com/~shootzg/misc/krupp/krupp-butt-2.jpg
http://home.pipeline.com/~shootzg/misc/krupp/krupp-butt-3.jpg
http://home.pipeline.com/~shootzg/misc/krupp/krupp-butt-4.jpg
http://home.pipeline.com/~shootzg/misc/krupp/krupp-butt-5.jpg

and the Irons:

http://home.pipeline.com/~shootzg/misc/krupp/Krupp-irons.jpg

Enjoy
Rich

Thanks Gents!

Fine rifles, both!

Took it to my gunsmith this morning. He said it was a .323" bore, KAR action, cottage gun made between the wars. That sound right? I cannot get the flash to work on my digital camera and will take pics of bottom of action as soon as I can. Thanks, moodyholler