Mauser Sporting Rifles

[Bucksnort1]

Gents and Ladies,

My father was a 2nd Lieutenant in Heidelberg, Germany from 1946 to 1949. During this time, he "liberated" as he said, two Mauser 98s which were sporterized; one had a Mannlicher stock. I don't know what he meant by "liberated" and I never pursued the issue. I always wondered and again, I did not question him on this, if the rifles were sporterized military 98s or if they were made as sporting rifles inititially. Both rifles were equipped with Hensoldt scopes. The Mannlicher stock 98 has long since been gone but the other rifle was in my hands until ten years ago when I gave it to my nephew.

Does anyone have any infomation about whether these guns were converted or made as sporting rifles initially?

An interesting feature of these rifles is, the barrels are stepped. I have seen some sporting Mausers and photos of same but none have the stepped barrels. This includes the photo of two sporter Mausers in the latest NRA American Rifleman magazine. I found a You Tube video of a disassembled 98K. It has the stepped barrel. Because my father's rifles have stepped barrels, does this mean the rifles ere originally military and later converted by a gunsmith to sporter rifles or by Mauser?

 

[Aguila Blanca]

In a military context, the term "liberated" almost universally means "brought home illicitly." I'm fairly certain that your father's Mausers were military captures that somehow found their way into his footlocker when he returned to CONUS.

 

[44 AMP]

In the military context, "Liberated" means "removed from enemy control". This could be battlefield pick up, or it could be surrendered weapons at, or after the end of the war. "Illicitly" or with official papers has noting to do with it.

After the fighting ended, and we occupied Germany, firearms were ordered to be turned in. LOTS of sporting arms were surrendered to GIs during that time. Sometimes, the GIs just kept them and brought them home when they came home. Sometimes GIs sent them home.

Sometimes, GI's essentially got to pick from stored piles of "liberated" firearms. Sometimes they got the approval and paperwork, sometimes, they didn't.

Sometimes, "liberated war trophies" were won from other GIs in gambling games on the ship home....

From your description, my guess would be those rifles were sporterized in Germany. Post WWII Germany had a lot of skilled craftsmen including gunsmiths, who would work cheap, in order to eat. More than a few GIs serving over there after the war got some really fine work done (and brought it home) for very low cost.

 

[FrankenMauser]

Post-war, a lot of Germans were doing whatever they could to make a buck and put food on the table.
In the realm of firearms, this meant building sporters, customizing, nickel plating, copper plating, gold/silver plating, engine turning, de-rusting and polishing, rebluing, polishing in the white, restocking, and even building guns from scratch.
Even though they weren't supposed to have firearms during occupation, they could get permission to work on or build them. (or forgiveness)

Case in point: It is estimated that 90% of wartime dated, nickel-plated P-38s were done post-war, in Germany, as bored GIs waited for their tickets home. The remaining 10% having been done outside Germany, post-war. No P-38s were nickel plated during the war.

In my opinion, if the rifles had stepped barrels, they were low level sporters.

(I see now that 44 AMP said the same thing in more and fewer words.)

 

[44 AMP]

In my opinion, if the rifles had stepped barrels, they were low level sporters.

A stepped barrel usually only means they kept the original German barrel. Probably the military barrel on a sporterized 98, but its not impossible (if unlikely) Mauser used some stepped barrels on guns made originally as sporters.

Lots of people never wanted more than a "low level" sporter. They kill critters just as well as a high end one, they're just usually not quite as pretty.

Back when I was a teen, our local smith did a number of 98 conversions. He would rechamber, rebarrel, add sights, drill & tap and mount scopes, restock, and even bend bolt handles. I got a couple from him, one in .308, and one in .22-250. Fine rifles. However, the smith didn't bother putting on scope safeties and always left the Mauser two stage trigger. The pulls were quite good for hunting rifles, I'm sure he worked them over a bit, he just never bothered to fit any aftermarket trigger (like Timmeny) before he put them on his rack. Made them a little cheaper, to buy...and was more than good enough for most things.
I added scope safeties to mine, and put a Jaeger trigger on the .308 (what I could get at the time) and a Timmeny target trigger on the .22-250, eventually. Stupidly sold them when I got a bit pinched for cash over 40 years ago. Wish I could have them back, now, as I've reached the point in life where I recognize that some things have more value than the cash investment they represent....

seems like the older I get the more I realize the truth of the old saying "youth is wasted on the young"

 

[FrankenMauser]

I wasn't insinuating that there was anything wrong with a sporter that wasn't built by a famous name.
But when there are hundreds of thousands of them still floating around in the US, intermixed with those done by Bubba in his garage, they have little value to anyone but those that brought the rifle(s) home; and there was likely nothing special enough about them to make them stand out.

Like nickel-plated P38s.
People connected to the soldier that brought it back might place additional value in the example. But its value, overall, is actually reduced by being plated. Not rare. Not special. Less desirable than it would be if it had been left in original condition (even if rusty).

It is possible that Mauser (or any of the other licensed manufacturers) made some pre-war commercial market rifles with stepped barrels, but I am not aware of any. I have seen hundreds, and a friend is a broker specializing in high end and pre-war rifles. Never a stepped barrel in something that left the factory as a sporter.

 

[Paul B.]

I have what I believe is a Danzig sporter that was rebarreled to the .270 Win. There is a very small DANZIG stamped on the receiver which loos like a plain milsurp action. The barrel is the slimmest I've ever seen on a Mauser and is stamped P.O. Ackley. One of these days I'm going to have to figure out how to put a scope on the gun. The receiver ring is drilled and tapped for four screws that surround a deep depression for some kind of mount. I have no idea. Same with the rear ring, four holes drilled and tapped and another hole in the middle. Both holes run about 7/8" square. Lates estimate to square that stuff away was $1,000. OUCH! Rifle stock it typical pre-war sporter style and the rifle has double set triggers. Typical front sight and the rear sight along with the scope mount have long since disappeared. I apologize for not having picture. I don't have a digital camera and no idea how to do it anyway.
Paul B.