I bought one from a friend for $250 in 1985, which is what he paid for it at a West Palm Beach pawnshop. I didn't really want the gun, but he was broke and needed money. It had a monstrous Redfield 4 X 12 scope on it. I was just getting into deer hunting, and wanted a .270. The Sukalle rifle was a 7 X 57, which meant nothing to me in my ignorance. Neither did the name Sukalle. Several years later, when I moved back to Georgia, I took it to a local gunsmith and told him to clean it up so I could sell it, hopefully for my original $250 investment, and get a .270. Well, he called and told me I had a custom rifle built on a 1949 commercial FN Mauser action with a Timney trigger and the finest barrel he'd ever seen, and that the rifle was worth a lot more than $250. Long story short, I went on the internet, which I didn't have in 1985 of course, and read up on Mr. Sukalle and on the 7 X 57 caliber. I put a Leupold scope on the gun, had a friend hand-load some 140-grain Nosler ballistic tips at 2850 FPS (the available factory ammunition was generally anemic), dropped it into a synthetic stock so as to save the stock that came on the gun, and it is now my opening-day rifle. Best $250 I ever spent.
