This year's elk stick.

[TREE ‘EM]

I dial with my feet

I'm appropriating that quote.

 

[marshland_max]

Fantastic Rifle and Cartridge!

Quick Loads shows lots of options!

Hit me up if you need help.

 

[robtattoo]

Fantastic Rifle and Cartridge!

Quick Loads shows lots of options!

Hit me up if you need help.

Thanks Max, I absolutely will!

 

[tdot]

My Father in Law picked up a Swedish Mauser, in the 9.3×57, just before bear season. What a fantastic rifle/cartridge, the recoil was pretty tame, the results on game were fantastic. I dont think I've ever held a rifle that shouldered so well. It looks very similar to his, similar lines to the stock. Hopefully it shoots well, if so you've got a winner on your hands.

 

[kowalski]

Beautiful old Mauser. Any idea where it was put together?

 

[robtattoo]

I received some further info (Kudae from the Nitro Express forums; an actual German, Mauser historian! In Germany!! )



"This rifle was proofed at the Suhl proofhouse in 1912 as the bore/land (notgroove/bullet!)diameter is marked as 7.8 mm, but the service load info is still given as 2.75 gramm smokeless rifle powder and a steel jacketed bullet. The CROWN + crown/N marks indicate proof using the 4000 atm special proof powder, according to the proof rule of July 23, 1893. The rifle was proofed only once for the 8x57 I cartridge. As it is rebored to 9x57, it lacks the mandatory reproof . So the reboring was probably done about 1920, when the „military“ 8x57 was prohibited and proofhouses were not operating due to revolutionary turmoil.
As the worker’s marks under the receiver show, the action is a Gewehr 98 one of military production, smuggled out of the Erfurt arsenal. A „grey market“ action, sometimes encountered at that time.
The crudely scratched name on the barrel is probably of a former owner. No reputable gunmaker would have signed his gun with such scribbling.
The rifle was once mounted with claw mounts. As the scope was not „liberated“ too in 1945, the now useless bases were removed and the front base dovetail in the receiver ring filled in. "

So basically, from a combination of the info I've researched & received: It was built at the Oberndorf munitions plant sometime after 1898 & before 1901 where it languished until it was sent to the Suhl proof house in 1912 (common for rifles to be bulk manufactured, then batch proofed as needed) From the it was shipped to the arsenal in Erfurt, where some enterprising young nerk decided he needed it more than the military & nicked it! Sometime after the Great War, during Germany's 'reconstruction' effort, said nerk (unlikely, due to being probably incredibly dead) or someone else had it bored out to 9mm, to avoid the military caliber ban, but it somehow managed to evade being re-proofed (the equivalent nowadays of owning a suppressor without a stamp. Very slap-on-the-wristy) Time passed, it passed through the hands of one Karl or his brother Kurt Schüler, deer were probably killed & then a really keen 19 year old (probably) American GI decided to throw it in his sea bag & bring it here! God only knows who he was, or where it came in, but it ended up in Alaska, where my old mate Bob picked it up, carried it to Africa, killed at least a lion (and lord only knows what else) and then it ended up in my sticky mitts!