I have in my possession a very odd Oberndorf action. I can find no reference in Kuhnhausen, a commercial action retailed by Rigby, marked 1899 on the front ring, 7.620" hole spacing and a small ring action. Very similar to a 1936 Mexican but a commercial action. Anyone ever stumble upon one?

Chapter 19 in Speeds book had the answer, an early transitional action made up from left overs from the GEW tests.

Kuhnhausen is a poor book for the less common quirks of Mausers.
Speeds, is, as you just posted.

Post cost me a few bucks, Had meant for years to pick up Speeds last book to maybe identify a engraved Mauser with few markings I picked up a few years ago. Read this post this evening and figured it was time. Picked up a new copy of his third book for $90 bucks on Amazon. Wanted his second book, but they've gone up to over 2 bills.

Phil

I’ve wondered, for some time, if the the small ring mex98’s are simply the transitional 98, as seen on very early 275 Rigby sporters. I briefly owned a DWM 1902 Mex98 action, and it seemed the same as the 1910 and ‘36. A custom transitional style 275 would be sweet.

Mex 98s are a small ring, small thread 98. The salient feature of a "transitional" 98 is the firing pin interlock/safety shoulder. Which the Mexican actions do not have. Making a 275 on one of them would be good; call me if you want one.....I have actions. And barrels. And bolt handles. And stocks.

All 275 original rifles were 98 Mausers with the long front ring, all of them..I recently sold one and that info came from the horses mouth...I had more information but sent it with the gun, and its now in Rigbys shop being restored and documented..Im supposed to get a photograph of the completed rifle when it becomes available, I will have someone post it, maybe the buyer..

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
All 275 original rifles were 98 Mausers with the long front ring, all of them..I recently sold one and that info came from the horses mouth...I had more information but sent it with the gun, and its now in Rigbys shop being restored and documented..Im supposed to get a photograph of the completed rifle when it becomes available, I will have someone post it, maybe the buyer..

The small ring transitional 275 Rigby’s are quite rare, but they do exist. The Rigby 98’s in 303 Brit were built on large ring, but short ring intermediate actions. Jim Corbett’s famous tiger killing 275 Rigby was built on one of these actions, but with a 7x57 magazine, of course. The 303/Corbett 275 actions front rings are even slightly shorter than standard 98’s. The horse you spoke with should know this, since they had Corbett’s 275 in house for a while, and exactly reproduced it. The vast majority of 275’s were built on the large/long ring, small thread commercial intermediate action. Corbett’s rifle was also large thread.

I have Speeds book as well. It is a wealth of knowledge + just damned good reading. Someone posted here a year or so back that they were looking for a copy + that it was now unavailable. Does anyone know about that? Is it out of print?

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
I have Speeds book as well. It is a wealth of knowledge + just damned good reading. Someone posted here a year or so back that they were looking for a copy + that it was now unavailable. Does anyone know about that? Is it out of print?

I understand there have been two or three small run printings. My copy is from the second run, and just before that run, new copies were being offered on-line for over $500. Speed’s “Mauser Archive” is also very good, and full interesting Oberndorf Mauser Minutia.

ColoradoMatt; Any idea how many of the short intermediate actions ended up as .275 .Tried asking this in Medium Calibre section but didn't ring any bells . As best I can tell from Speed's measurements my 1903 .275 Rigby is a short intermediate action .

Sorry, I have no idea. I learned about Jim Corbett’s 275 from a member of the Nitroexpress forum who actually handled the Corbett rifle at Rigby’s shop and discussed its composition with them. That would be a question to submit to Rigby, as they have the old production ledger. However, it may be that all of the exact action details, such as the front ring length and barrel tenon diameter, are not mentioned. If this is the case, I suspect that Rigby would be delighted to here about your rifle. Does anyone know about what time Rigby started marking their Rifles as 275s, rather than 7mm? Looking at several pics of small ring transitional rifles, none seem to be marked as 275’s.

quote:

Originally posted by harry hepplewhite:
ColoradoMatt; Any idea how many of the short intermediate actions ended up as .275 .Tried asking this in Medium Calibre section but didn't ring any bells . As best I can tell from Speed's measurements my 1903 .275 Rigby is a short intermediate action .

To find an exact answer would be impossible, but you could look at Speed’s Archive book and look at the sales to Rigby.

If you are looking for a copy of Speed’s book on Mauser Sporters, I would recommend the German Gun Collectors Association.

Also for those interested, Mr. Speed is currently working on a second Sporter book.

In regards to the action mentioned, there are a few other differences, but in essence are very similar to a Mex 1902.