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Kodiak 6mm
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I have come across a Kodiak Arms 6mm heavy barreled rifle.I believe they were manufactured for a short time in the 60's.Any thoughts and value of rifle? Thanks
 
Posts: 112 | Location: Salisbury Mills,NY,USA | Registered: 16 April 2002Reply With Quote
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IF I remember correctly, the Kodiak was built on one of the commercial Mausers available back in the 1960's. One was the "Santa Barbara", and there were others. Some of them were made in Spain, others in Eastern Europe. Quality and finish varied, as did the way they were stocked and barreled. There is no "collector" value to the Kodiak. It is worth as a shooter whatever a non brand-name gun of similar quality and condition is worth.
 
Posts: 13266 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001Reply With Quote
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I have had a Kodiak mauser in .243 that was quite accurate. This was back in the mid 70s. I gave it to the son of a friend for his first deer hunt.
Currently, I have another Kodiak mauser in .358 Winchester. I have also seen and shot one in .308 Norma Magnum.
All of the three that I have either owned or seen have been made on Milsurp Mauser actions. Also, all that I have seen had maple stocks.
As near as I can figure out, and most of this is guess work, after the abortion 1968 Gun Control Act which prohibited mail ordering firearms other than through a dealer. Kodiak scrounged up all the milsurp Mauser actions they could, cleaned them up with new barrels and a blue job and placed them in the ugly but functional stocks. All had FN type safeties, at least on the ones I have seen.
My .243 had a standard weight barrel and after I replace the military trigger with a Timney, was quite accurate. I used it for several years as my go to coyote rifle and took one Mountain lion with it. Groups ran in the .75 to 1.0" range depending on the load.
The .308 Norma belonged to a friend and I only shot one group with that rifle. I'm going on memory here, but IIRC, I put three shots into just about an inch, even with the milsurp trigger.
My rifle in .358 is still a work in progress. It definitely needs a better trigger. I don't care for teh fact that they used a 1 in 16" twist in the barrel and I might have to do a bit of bedding work on the stock.
As far as value goes, I gave $75 for the .243, but hell, that was almsot 35 years ago. I picked up the .358 at a gun show about a year and a half ago, and I picked it up for $200.
If the work hasn't already been done, you might have to spring for a trigger and possibly do a bit of bedding work, but based on the three I've had experience with, all seem to be fairly good shooters. They're not very pretty, but are quite serviceable.
I've never seen one using a santa barbara action, but that doesn't mean they didn't use them.
Paul B.
 
Posts: 2814 | Location: Tucson AZ USA | Registered: 11 May 2001Reply With Quote
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