I bought some guns at an estate sale on Wednesday. One was an SKS, one was an old double hammer shotgun that needs a new stock and the other was a 1918 Swedish Mauser. I knew it was a Mauser before I made the deal because of the bolt but I am not well versed in Mauser types. The good news: Carl Gustafs Stads Gevarsfaktori 1918 is on the barrel. All the numbers match, bolt, barrel, mag cover. If my internet search was correct then they produced 115,000 Mausers at this factory and this serial number, assuming they were sequential, makes this one of the last 5,000 produced. It has a 17-18" barrel. The bad news from an authenticity point of view: It has a very intricate sport stock apparently made by Bishop Stocks, at least the buttplate says Bishop. The sights are not original but were made by Williams Gun Sights. This gun was assembled to be used for hunting it appears though it is not drilled for a scope. I sent a message with a picture to Bishop requesting info on the stock so that I can "value" the gun for insurance reasons.
Will this rifle work well with modern ammo? I do not reload but have a friend who can do whatever I have. I will take it to my gunsmith today so that he can make sure everything looks good inside. I read a couple of posts here on THR about ammo but I want to make sure I don't use something made for a modern rifle in this 100 yr old piece unless I feel confident it will not damage the barrel..
What about scope options? It looks like it would be a cast iron biotch to put a scope mount on this. I may shoot it 5 times and then bury it in my safe somewhere or I may try to hunt with it some.
Will this rifle work well with modern ammo? I do not reload but have a friend who can do whatever I have. I will take it to my gunsmith today so that he can make sure everything looks good inside. I read a couple of posts here on THR about ammo but I want to make sure I don't use something made for a modern rifle in this 100 yr old piece unless I feel confident it will not damage the barrel..
What about scope options? It looks like it would be a cast iron biotch to put a scope mount on this. I may shoot it 5 times and then bury it in my safe somewhere or I may try to hunt with it some.