While cruising the aisles of the Allentown, PA gun show in Saturday, I came across a nicely executed custom '03 Springfield. The action had been shortened and converted to single shot. The barrel had been turned down, rebored and lined to .218 Bee, with corresponding alterations to the bolt face to allow extraction of the Bee case. The magazine plate had been shortened and the gun was restocked (very nicely, but with a relatively plain piece of wood) to a varmint configuration. The iron sights were gone, but the gun had an 8x Unertyl in dehorned mounts. It was in near mint condition, with only some minor handling marks on the wood keeping it from being perfect.

The seller, who also had a table full of between the wars German bolt actions, mostly .22 training rifles, but including a couple of legitimate Mauser sporters, told me the gun shoots in the 1 to 1-1/2 inch range, which is not too bad for a Bee, at least in my experience. This was with factory ammo, so I suspect some load development could reduce group sizes at least slightly.

Now the question: What would you think this thing might be worth? I'm intrigued, mostly because of the amount of work that went into it. It would be a fun woodchuck rifle here in Pennsylvania and might also be a tolerable ground squirrel/prairie dog gun if I ever get west on such a hunt. The seller wanted $1,500, which I thought was high (although the Unertyl is worth $400 or so, maybe more).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There are only a few gunmakers capable of shortening a Mauser-style action (including the 1903) to fit a shorter cartridge. Those few guys are generally top end gunmakers who produce works of art ($20K and up). From your post, it sounds like the one you saw does not fit into that category. Nonetheless, in terms of labor I doubt you could get that gun reproduced for less than $5K.

That being said, it is a novelty and novelty guns are difficult to sell for more than $1K. So if you buy it and later wish to resell it, I suspect you would get $500 or a bit more (without the scope). Therefore if the scope is worth $400, I would be reluctant to pay more than $1K for it or you may be unable to later get your money back out.