I recently bought a 96/38 Swedish mauser. The stock had been sanded and refinished the action and barrel parkerized and a Timney trigger installed. The disc is stamped a "1" and all the numbers match. I was thinking of drilling the action and installing a pistol scope mount and then using a 2X scope. I think this swede is beyond saving as far as collecting value, but I still have reservations about drilling the action - any comments.

have at it, especially if the smaller parts are not matching. these make up into wonderful sporters. i am working on a boyd's walnut stock right now for mine, which still is sitting in a cut down military stock until after deer season. it already was sporterized when i got it: barrel cut and crowned at 21 inches, beautifully installed bolt handle; two-position wing safety; drilled and tapped perfectly for redfield-style one-pice base/base installed; barreled action and trigguard assembly nicely blued. killed one deer with it. hope to bag another saturday. this is my favorite of all the mausers and my favorite chambering for whitetail.

If the action was filed or sanded a lot during the refinish, drill'er. I've tried to salvage old actions, and while they make great shooters, they aren't worth dick to a collector.

I, like most can spot a worked over action from 20 feet.
I've got 2 Mausers to work on right now that were poorly done sporters. One is going to be a "short" walk around, in 8mm and the other? Still thinking about it.

You know, if you really don't want to drill the action, you can easily make a "scout mount", using the rear sight base.
There are several on the market, but all are too "tall" for my tastes. You can mill, or file off the rear base ears and drill and tap for Marlin 336/ Weaver base. It doesn't take an hour to make one. This way you can get the scope centerline to within about .750" of the original sights.

Make sure you have a smith that knows how to drill and tap it properly and do a good job.
I had a "smith"??? ruin a gun once . He drilled right through the lug meat area and the holes werent centered and he pluged and redrilled on the rear bridge twice and F^cked up the hole thing.