Traded a 24/47 Yugo for one of these. A guy in our gun club said he had a "Chinese" Mauser that was from a shipment advertised as coming from China that he bought from Century Arms quite a while back. I looked at it and pointed out to him it might have come from China but was made in Berlin in 1938. He didn't care, still wanted to trade and said he'd pay for the paperwork.
It doesn't have a bright shiny bore but still has strong rifling and otherwise is in VG condition. From everything I've read about Russian Capture Mausers this one is the real deal. The receiver's marked S/37 which indicates it was mfg. by the Berlin Lubegker company in 1938 and these rifles supposedly went east. It has an electro penciled bolt, no guard screws or front sight hood, the stock was also given a thin coat of red shellac.
It's my understanding the Russians initially disassembled these rifles and on reassembly didn't think the guard screws or sight hoods were necessary. The bolts were also initially put in a pile and some form of crude headspacing was done on reassembly. They were then electro penciled with the serial no. of the rifle they were matched with as was the stock. Most of them were shipped off to eastern European communist satellite countries and communist China.
I realize there were a lot of these and it's not a collector quality Mauser but it's a good shooter. From a history standpoint I wouldn't mind seeing where this rifles been and I'm glad I wasn't with it.
