$450 would be top dollar to me. Everybody's right re: checking headspace. It's a 75-80 year old army rifle which we don't know its provenance, what kind of crazy hot handloads it may have been subjected to in its life, who customized it, and if they knew what they were doing. Looks little fired you say? Could be headspace is excessive and the previous owner got tired of having case separations and after a few mishaps tucked it away- there's just no way of knowing. Whenever buying something like this it's always a good idea to check headspace, and not just with go and no-go gauges, you need a field gauge too. If the bolt barely closes on a no-go gauge it may still be sort of ok to use, but don't expect long case life. The kiss of death is if it closes easily on a no-go and then also closes on a field gauge which indicates way excess headspace. Still ok to buy, if you can at that point get it for a steal of a price, and you have access to a bucket full of M98 bolts that you can mix and match until you find one that fits better.
You do know also to check headspace with the extractor removed? Leaving it in place makes it impossible to feel how the bolt interacts with the gauge, and can easily mislead you.
Trying fresh factory brass in it tells you nothing.
Good info
Specially about removing the extractor .
Thanks.
