Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles first Mauser, first 220 swift

Sometimes ya find yourself buying things ya really don't need, and here I am doing just that. Older local gentleman was selling his dads old custom coyote rifle, and well, I found myself needing it. So what did I buy? Any input from anyone with further info. other than what I've figured out so far would be great from the wealth of knowledge here at the fire. Anyone willing to give me a rough estimate of worth?

So far I have figured out that my action was built by Mauser AG Oberndorf in 1939. The barrel is 25" with 14" twist. The gunsmith stamped on the barrel CREITZ GUNSMITH SHOP, Topeka, KS and I can't find any info about them so guessing they long ago closed up shop. The old scope that came with it doesn't have a brand name but looks to be a fixed 10 power with fine duplex and adj. objective lense. The seller included 150 rounds of ammo with the gun, some 50 gr. and mostly 55 gr. sp.
The stock has SUPERIOR stamped in it and I can't find any stock makers of such a name.
The trigger has MASHBURN ARMS CO. on the side of it. Feels like it breaks at about 2-2.5# without any creep.
Here's a few photos.
IMG_20240114_153444794_HDR by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

IMG_20240114_141354145 by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]
IMG_20240114_145711364_HDR by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]
IMG_20240114_150235832_HDR by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]
IMG_20240114_141322425 by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

Nice, looks like a solid rig.

Heck of a cool rifle! I wish I knew more about it.

I’m relatively new to the .220 Swift but it is one of my favorites. Mine is a Ruger M77V tang safety, with a Douglas premium 1-12” twist barrel. It has a Canjar single-set trigger and a Leupold VX-II 6-18x40mm AO scope. The 50-55 grain Nosler Ballistic tip bullets are what it likes best.

I just figured out that the old scope that came with it is an old Weaver K10-60.1" c 1955 with fine cross hair. Not much use for it but it'd probably still put a bullet on target.

Back in the day, rifle scopes didn't get much more powerful than 12X other than the real long target scopes like the Lyman, Unertel and B&Ls. I have one of the Weaver 10X scopes and it is a winner.

Hip

very cool rig!

If you're gonna upgrade the scope, hold onto that old one, they're great on 22's, and you can always find an old 22 needing an old home. Or just put it in the classifieds here

TRnCO;
Good evening to you sir, I hope your weekend went smoothly despite the chilly temps and you're well.

Regarding what you've bought there, if z1r believes it's a solid piece, in my experience here that speaks volumes.

Way back in the day, the early '90's more or less for me, there were a couple shooting buddies who had Swifts, one on a Ruger 77 with it's 26" barrel and I shot it enough to want one of my own.

What I ended up building was a .22-250AI with a 1:14" twist 26" #4 Douglas barrel which IT&D was still able to ship up across the medicine line back in those days. Mine is on a wartime military action with a Timney trigger which looks for all the world like your Mashburn trigger truly.

As you likely know, Mashburn was a fairly well known gunsmith out of Oklahoma and was well thought of as far as I've been able to understand.

While I know your rifle is a Swift and mine is as mentioned not, when I measured the capacity of the formed .22-250AI case, it's about a grain more than the Swift cases I was able to get my hands on, so I just use Swift reloading data.

On buddy's Swift and in my .22-250AI, a chronograph is really a good thing to use I believe as it's a fairly big case with a reasonably small hole, so it's nice to know what the projectiles are actually doing.

I've shot mine mostly with 50gr assorted, 53gr Match and 55gr Ballistic Tip and VMax bullets. The 55gr buck the wind noticeably better and the local coyotes didn't appreciate them all that much. When I first built it I tried all sorts of powders from as slow as H4831 to IMR 3031 on the fast side. I want to say that the current coyote load remains H4895, but honestly that's mostly because I found something that worked in it years back and haven't revisited any new powders or projectiles in that rifle since.

Other projects and all that I suppose.

With the new faster twist barrels and better BC bullets, the 1:14 twist and 55gr bullets are not optimum for shooting beyond perhaps 500yds, but within that range - again being limited by wind drift they work well enough to have some fun.

As to what an old school build is worth, truly I'm not sure what it'd go for up here, much less down in your part of the world, sorry.

Here's mine, snow camo barrel wrap and all.



Hope that was at least somewhat useful for you or someone out there.

All the best and good luck with the old school coyote bomber.

Dwayne

Thanks for the replies guys.

Duanne, after I posted last night I did some more research and found, as you mention, Mashburn was a pretty well known builder from OK back in the day. I think he may have also made the stock on this rifle as it is stamped with SUPERIOR, and from some reading, that name comes up with the Mashburn name as well. Not 100% sure on that.

Also I need to edit the info about the scope. Upon closer inspection I found that it is stamped as Weaver, but it's only an 8X, not that that changes anything.

Biggest question left for me is the barrel maker.

The old steel bodied US made rifle scopes are usually of good quality. An older scope of quality that has been well cared for can last a lifetime. I have several old US made steel bodied scopes that I bought when they were 30-40 years old and have now been on my rifles for 40 years. The single power 10 or 12x scopes give good service for varmint shooting.
If the 220 Mauser sill shoots well, sub 1/2" at 100, just put the rifle and scope together and enjoy them. Value, approximate, scope,$200, Rifle $400, trigger $200. A military Mauser is always a conversion, even if well done, unless it is by a very well known builder. The straight grain stock appears to be a cherry wood stock, which was more common in the 50s than it is today. Cherry is denser and heavier than walnut and was a favorite for single position shooting with varmint rifles in the 50s.

TRnCO;
Top of the morning, I see your light is on and hope the fire is burning bright and the coffee made down there as it is here.

Regarding the 8X Weaver, I've always had a bit of an affinity/addiction for steel tube El Paso Weavers, among the collection is perhaps a similar 8X to yours?



This one came by way of a trade with a 'Fire member here, the rings marked "Kesselring" which was a gun shop in WA state back in the day and still might be, I'm not sure.

It's old enough that the reticle doesn't stay centered as one adjusts it, so if you look at that front double dovetail base on the barrel of the Cooey 75, that was made starting with a block of steel, a good Nicholson file, lots and lots of measuring and of course trial with an extra measure of error thrown in.

The result is that the reticle isn't down in one corner, but neither is it perfectly centered.

The scope works fine for a single shot .22 fun rifle however and being me, I love a conversation piece which it surely is.

I mean now many 8X target scopes would Weaver have made back then?

All the best with the new project rifle.

Dwayne

One thing to remember, the Swift is semi rimmed. So, unless the builder installed or modified the existing bottom metal with a slope to the mag box, you will have to single load the mag or make sure that the rim of the cartridge on top, is in front of the rim of the cartridge below it.

Both my swifts are tack drivers but both have heavy barrels. I build myself a .22-250 AI with a fast twist and heavy sporter contour barrel. It too drives tacks and much easier to carry.

one of my favorite cartridges i never go any place in my truck without a pistol ,12 gauge and a 220 Swift rifle. the 220 Swift is also a fine deer cartridge too we use Nosler partition 60 gr. bullets ,i also use this bullet for coyote hunting too . good luck you made a great choice,Pete53

Mr. TRnCO: That's a neat old rifle!! Thought I'd share some info re: the Swift. If you've not had one, I think you'll really enjoy it. I'm an old school hunter/shooter that prefers old-er rifles. I prefer old Winchester 70s and hunt almost exclusively with them. Quite a few years ago, shortly after Ruger brought out their 77 MKII heavy barrel with the laminated stock, I bought one in the Swift: Still have it. I used it mostly to shoot a few deer (whitetails). Then a couple years ago I decided to have a M70 re-barrelled. Douglas has tooling that will duplicate the pre-64 M70 barrel profiles, so I had them do a barrel copying the original M70 standard grade 26" contour, but used a 1-12 twist vs. the 1-14. My intent was to use it primarily for our local coyote population which is rather low right now. I had used Hornady's 60 gr. SP bullet successfully in the Ruger for deer so thought I'd use that one for coyotes as well as for deer if I chose. There are lots of good powders, but I've kind of settled on H414. I ended up shooting a buck last year with that rifle/load and it worked just fine. So: you have a rifle that should give you lots of fun. Thanks much for sharing that. Oh, by the way: I don't have an old-school scope for mine: kind of wish I did. I use a Leupold 2 1/2-8 but an older Weaver would be just the berries.

When it comes to Mausers "need" had nothing to do with it!!!!
Beautiful old rig!!!

When I lived in Nevada back in most of the 1970s, I worked part time for the local gunsmith. Guess my job was to relieve him of some of the more onerous chores like cleaning a customers gun or mounting a scope. Many times just sighting the rifle in. That gave me a lot of shooting for free and I got paid as well.

Anyway, there was a small group of somewhat older gentlemen who shot the .220 Swift almost exclusively. More than once one would come into the shop saying his rifle's barrel was shot out. I'd give that barrel a really deep cleaning including lapping with a mild grit and finishing off with JB Bore paste. A good flushing with solvent, dry the bore and lightly oil the bore, then one pass with a dry patch and the barrel would shoot like a brand new replacement on test firing.

My point being, if that rifle doesn't shoot as well as you think it should, try a serious cleaning to remove all metal fouling before declaring the barrel bad. Nine times out of ten that worked for our customers.
PJ

just an update to the old rifle.

When I bought the rifle, along with it came about 120 rounds of factory ammo and about 30 rds. of reloads. Pulled the bullets on the reloads but decided to mount a scope and put the rifle to use this winter on coyotes, especially since pelts are worth a plug nickle. But when I put the rifle on paper I wasn't impressed to say the least. Here's what it did to start with at 100.
IMG_20240120_160941041 by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

So I had noticed that the barrel had full contact on the stock and in doing some research it sounds like the gunsmiths back in the 60's weren't aware of the benefits of free floating barrels yet although there were some gun manufacturers producing guns with free floating barrels, so I decided I had nothing to lose if I went ahead and opened up the barrel channel on the stock. And after getting that done here's the difference it made. I liked the results and shows the gun has potential, and shot well enough to take it out, even though I hate shooting without suppressors these days.
IMG_20240120_160945310 by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

So with it now sighted in and shooting decent I took it out for a day. Told my friend to shoot first any time more than one coyote came in and I'd shoot clean up. I even wore ears plugs on each stand in anticipation of the big boom I had coming. Not much fun with the ear plugs, so I figured once I drew blood, I'd switch guns. Just wanted to draw first blood for the old rifle. Got the chance on this nice male at 200 yards. Bang flop, just as is expected from the mighty swift.

IMG_20240121_111006810_HDR by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

So it was time to get the barrel threaded. Off to the smith where we decided to chop the barrel down a whole 1.5". I had found that the barrel had some rough spots, possible rust, just an inch from the muzzle and I didn't want to make the mighty swift into a .22-250. Once I got the barrel back and screwed on my .22 cal suppressor I again sighted it back in but found that the rifle didn't like the .22 cal suppressor any more than it liked the full contact from the stock. BUT I happen to have a .30 cal suppressor and adaptor so I screwed that on and was back in the business. Not excellent accuracy but good enough to shoot a few coyotes at reasonable distance, so this last weekend the rifle got carried the whole time. Longest kill was 373 yards with a close 2nd at 361 yard.

IMG_20240218_174701809 by .com/photos/156405073N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

All in all pretty happy with how the .220 has turned out, although z1r made a comment earlier about possible feeding issues and he was at least partially correct. If I load all 5 rounds in the mag., the rifle doesn't want to feed, but if I load 4, the first may hang up but the bottom 3 rounds feed without issue. Would like to get that issue resolved at some point.

That is a fine looking rifle.

I'm a tad late to the party, but the following information may be interesting.


The Creitz Gunsmith Shop was owned by Vernon Creitz. Apparently he had a national
reputation, because B&L advertized his endorsement of their scopes in 1953.
.

.

Knowing his first name, you can probably find more about him with web search engines.
I was able quickly to find that he apparently started his firearms career at an early age in mid-Kansas:

.


--Bob

that is an interesting tidbit.

I've now gotten the barrel threaded and for the rest of this late season coyote calling action, it'll be the rifle that I will be carrying.

Thanks for that bit of info.

I've had pretty god results with RE-15 in mine.