Obviously, pictures of the rifles in it’s current state will only help us cast our votes…who doesn’t love more Mauser pictures?
She's in pieces already currently, but here's an older pic of it. It was/is a 338-06 (rebored by Jes about 10 years ago) when this pic was taken 4 or 5 years ago.
Backstory:
The gun started life as a 30-06, belonged to a friend of mine's dad, who bought it brand new and shot it, a lot, and hunted a little. Later, it belonged to the friend of mine, who had it cut down to 20 inches and carried it for many years as his bear defense gun in the Canadian wilderness (he did a lot of timber cruising and that sort of thing in northern BC when he was younger). He carried it open sights/no scope, with 220 Hornady RN's in it. He had a habit of carrying it un-slung, with his right hand wrapped around the action, so much so that the finish on the floor plate and the action is worn off where his hand gripped it.
After he got out of that line of work, he picked up a Rem 700 that was more accurate/he liked better, so this was his "bang off 500 or so rounds a year at the range at the steel for fun" gun. At some point, he had all his rifles converted to 3 position safeties after his Rem 700 went bang with the safety on while he was hiking. I was never clear why he thought his Mauser needed 'fixing' in the same way the 700 did, but while he was at it, he figured this one could use a 3 position too, so it got one (not sure make/model, it's basically a Winchester safety).
About 15 or so years ago, he got a wild hair, and was thinking about selling it. I told him if he was gonna sell it, he should only sell it to a friend (me), LOL, so he did. It was about a 2.5 MOA gun (throat was WAAAAAY worn - loose estimates between him and his dad are that it had about 8,000 to 10,000 rounds through it at this point, maybe more). So I sent it off to Jes to get re bored and cut-rifled as a 338-06.
And somehow it didn't shoot much/any better as a 338-06, which puzzled me. One day, while looking at the brass close while loading, I noticed the neck to body wasn't square... TF? About that same time, I got a runnout gauge, and then I figured out why the accuracy was likely always "meh" - the original chamber was cut around .006 or so off-center and slightly not in-line with the bore. I went back and found some old 30-06 brass that was fired in it to check that, and it was off too, by the same amount - so that wasn't anything Jes did, that was native to the gun.
Anyway, 2.5 MOA is not bad for a thick woods gun, and it hucks 180 grain AccuBonds near 2900 FPS, so I set it up kind of like a DGR, and held on to it for sentimental value, shooting maybe 10 rounds a year in it, and telling myself I'd take it hunting in the thick stuff sometimes (which I never did).
In the run up to and during Covid, my friend I got it from got divorced, his Dad, the original owner, died from the Covid vax, and various other "going through some s**t" stuff. He got a little 'shack whacky' as they call it in backwoods BC, and decided he was done with civilization. About a year and a half ago, after much talking about it for a year or two, he burned his cell phone, gave away all his stuff, and headed up into the mountains to go live like Grizzy Adams for the rest of his days. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't hear it, and .... I haven't heard from him since.
I don't know for sure what happened to him, but if he really did what he was planning to do (and he's he is the kind that would), then I doubt he survived the winter. And if he did survive the winter and came back to civilization, and didn't call me, I'ma punch him if I ever see him again, LOL. But there's usually 6 to 8 weeks a year where he's at with temps below 0 F (sometimes WAY below - I've seen it hit -46 F (and C, LOL) when I was living up there). So without some sembalance of a cabin and a wood stove (he had a wall tent and one of those wall-tent stoves was all), I have no clue how he could have made it; it would damn sure kill me, anyway.
Anyway... Sooo... that's the history, and with him being (I presume) dead and gone, and I've always loved the gun, here I am getting it rebuilt/rebarreled so I can put it back into real rotation instead of just leaving it as a safe-queen.
Edit: pic turned horizontal for proper viewing on a computer screen.
![PXL_20250801_233304837.RAW-01.MP.COVER[1].jpg](https://forumdata.rokslide.com/file/forumdata/data/attachments/955/955762-e85f62148d56125a9e59392bba8ae625.jpg?hash=RC8y4-ffH- "PXL_20250801_233304837.RAW-01.MP.COVER[1].jpg")
