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Originally Posted by trickg Tom,
I have a question for you. I mentioned the sporterized/customized Mauser in 25-06. Dad had made a comment that due to the large number of rounds that had been fired through that rifle over the years that much of the fine accuracy had been shot out of that barrel. (A few thousand rounds under that kind of force and pressure can certainly wear things down a bit!) It was still a pretty danged accurate rifle, but not quite like it was when it was finished, although a little JB Bore cleaner to remove the copper fouling usually helped things.
My question is this: Should I ever get that rifle, should I just leave it as it is, or should I invest the cash to have it rebarreled? This is a sweet rifle in virtually every regard. It was customized by my father, who was the local gunsmith in my home town. There were some things that he couldn't do in his workshop, but only because he didn't have the equipment there in his workshop, not because he didn't know how. (For example, he didn't have hot bluing tanks, he just used Brownells Oxpho Blue for touch ups.) Anyway, the rifle has a gorgeous stock, a custom bolt, it looks beautiful, but it was extremely accurate for a wood stocked rifle. It was meant to be used, not looked at.
Anway, if you have ever done this sort of thing, I'd love to hear what you have to say about it. |
There were tons of surplus Mausers that flooded the market after WWII, as these fine WWI rifles finally were released to the public. Unfortunately those original Mausers had five mile long barrels and massively long wooden stocks so there was, for a time, a booming business in the "customized" Mauser field!
Most had their barrels simply shortened and recrowned and their stocks cut down, reshaped and refinished but some were works of art.
Many people feel that the Mauser action was/is the most reliable and failsafe action ever designed . . . totally over-engineered and fantastic!
TWO CHOICES . . .
Shoot it carefully and see how it groups. If it is under 2 or 3" 3-shot groups (at 100 yards) it should be fine for most hunting (unless you are out West with 500 shots!) If it turns out to be that accurate, you may wish to leave it just as it is and confidently hunt with it . . . as a long-time reminder of your dad and his Mauser.
OR . . .
Heck, it's already customized once, so there's no sin in rebarreling the rifle . . . putting on a new, custom stock and investing in a fine blueing job. The rifle probably won't cost you much and so your investment in beautifying and accurizing this classic rifle would be well worth it!
My gun-collecting brother has tons of rifles . . . but hunts with me with his own chopped Mauser (with it's reshaped and shortened original stock). Last time we hunted together I dropped three deer back-to-back coming down into a bottom I was hunting with my 6" S&W .44 magnum revolver. This pushed a running buck across the ridge of a clear cut 150 yards away where my brother was sitting in a stand. He dropped that running buck at 75 yards with his custom Mauser.
IN ANY EVENT . . .
Take the Mauser to a fine gunsmith and have it thoroughly checked out and get estimates. Lots can be done to make these rifles really shoot!
Sincerely,
Tom Turner