I brought an interesting Mauser home with me this afternoon from the Boise Gun Show.
Nazi proof mark on the right front of receiver. Round barrel in 257 Roberts, with the initials R EW on barrel where it swells and is threaded into the receiver. 23 and 1/2 inch barrel with ramp front and Redfield rear. P L

The rest of the rifle is neat pre-war custom. DST's, floor plate with side lever release, moderate amount of well executed engraving. Checkered on the grip only, slight schnable, shotgun trigger guard. Underside of bolt is flattened and checkered, steel grip cap engraved lightly. Floor plate has a center oval outlined with a rampant English Lion, and is stamped GREI something.

The odd thing is the sort of crockpot shaped safety on the left side about two inches of where your thumb rests. Two position push forward to take safety off in a kidney-shaped milled recess.

Any thoughts? I need to get NPD345 over to take pictures for me.

Rich

I do believe they are referred to as stalking safeties. I've seen a few over the years.

It is pretty neat, but I am afraid to take the barreled action out of the stock to find the maker. It has a military safety as well, but I can fix that with an FN commercial shroud.

Rich,
The rampant lion you describes sounds like a Griffon & the GREI stamping is probally short for the maker Greifelt & the kidney shaped safety is commonly known as a Greener side safety. Having the original flag safety as well as the Greener side safety was quite common on the nice Custom Mauser rifles.
Hope this helps answer your questions,

m4220

I have a couple of Walther Mauser's, a 7x57 and an 8x57, that I thought had "stalking" safeties?

Here's the 8x57.

As said before it is called a Greener safety, more common on SxS shotguns but I've seen a few on rifles. Can still be purchased new from NECG I believe. Personally I would not change the shroud if for no other reason than the fact that taking down the bolt is a breeze with the original but to each his own. Sounds like a neat old rifle. --- John

Thanks Duane, and the rest. I just had only seen one or two in pictures of very high grade ones.

This one goes forward to fire. Back shows an "S" in the slightly recessed oval. It also has an interesting notch where the charger cut out is. There is a half circular cut out in the stock to match.

I'll try and get pictures up in a day or so.

Rich

Here are the pics.

Very nicely made gun!

Nice. Would you call it a guide gun or cigarette rifle?

I don't know what to call it. Obviously a replacement barrel on a brought back rifle.

I found out that the safety is not a stocked item from NECG, nor the side lever floor plate release.
They thought the only chance to have either item would be somebody like Prechtel.

Now a bit of a quandry; is it too neat "as is" to drill and tap to put a scope on it?

Today, at least, it is.

Rich

What makes you think it's a replacement barrel? With the EW initials on the shank I'm not so sure. I would pull it out of the wood & get some pic's of the markings on the bottom of the barrel which will provide additional info. It has survived for 80-90 years unmodified why would you want to be labeled as the Bubba that UPGRADED it? I have 1 in 9x57 with just sights as well and just live with it as built, I have some others with proper traditional scope & mounts for the the times I need the optics. It does look as though stock has been shaped to accept a side mount on the left side of the action ahead of the thumb cutout, but that would also require drilling & tapping as well, but would allow the use of the sights with the scope mounted. I would leave it as is or sell/trade for another with traditional mounts & optics. Just my opinion.



m4220

I'd leave it just as it is, but it's your rifle, not mine.

it is pretty cool. As long as I can see that front bead clearly, I am not touching it.

thanks for your advice and opinions gentlemen.

Rich

If I were in the mind of guessing I would guess the rifle was a WWII rifle brought back after the war. It was probably a very nice sporter in some caliber factory ammo was not available for at the time. It looks as if it has been reblued by someone who knew how (this judging by the color of the spring in the boltstop which usually comes from hot tank bluing) to polish properly. The barrel was replaced at this time to obtain a standard caliber. It probably had some type of side mount judging by the wood removed along the left rail. Probably not a low scope as the bolt appears to be a stock military of the period between the wars. The stock may have been altered in the foreend just guessing by no checkering. The receiver sight is a Redfield 102 which was the cheapest receiver made between and shortly after the war. Indicating it may well as being an ExGI on a budget just wanting a nice hunting rifle. The work could have been done in Europe except for the receiver sight being what it is. Just would doubt this would have been used by a European Smith. The bottom metal seems to be modified military with the guard and double sets added. A simple project I have done several times. Flaigs used to sell just such a trigger/guard setup for replacement. The neat stippling and rather above average engraving was representative of between the wars decoration. I would actually guess the barrel was half octagon with a rib. As to whether to drill and tap for scope and modify the bolt handle and safety,why not. For my self absolutely as I don't see well enough to use irons. There is no crest and there are no markings on the left rail indicating any commercial manufacture. A neat set of bases would cover very little and the bolt can be VERY tastefuly done. Safety can easily be a Beuhler/FN type on right or left operation. I personally would even go so far as to have a nice corresponding checkering pattern put on the forearm. As you probably know from some of my contributions I am not a purist of any type and believe a firearm was made to be used to be of any real value. All this assumes ,of course,that the rifle shoots accurately. If not it is merely a nice rack filler unless rebarreled.

Yes...it is a stalking safety or in German "ein Pirschsicherung". There are several types...this is the most common in my experience.