Originally Posted by BC30cal
Originally Posted by z1r
As Kenny said, Monkey Wards and National Arms? I think it was National Arms but seem to recall mine might be stamped Nato used a barrel with rifling similar to that used by Marlin. MicroGroove was what they called it. More lands and grooves and shallower lands. This makes sense since Marlin briefly offered their model 455 based on an FN Mauser action.

All this discussion about "original" FN Mauser rifles is somewhat pointless since FN sold countless actions to the trade which were used for the basis of "custom" rifles. None of these conform to the FN standards in terms of nomenclature.
z1r;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope you're all getting decent weather down in your part of Colorado and you're well.

In the distant past I recall handling a commercial Mauser with what looked to us all like a Marlin Micro Groove barrel. A buddy bought it for his son to hunt with - this would have been at least 30 years back and I "think" it was in .30-06.

As well, a large part of me wants to say it was marked either JC Higgins or Ted Williams, but I could be confusing it with a different arm too, sorry.

It stands out in a lifetime of looking down the barrels of new rifles friends had purchased, just did that earlier today actually with a Tikka a young friend picked up - but again it stands out as being the only center fire bolt gun I've seen with "Micro Groove" like rifling.

I might be wrong about this too, but I believe the stock was walnut and not too badly done, not beech or stained birch.

Thanks all for the discussion, it's been interesting reading.

All the best.

Dwayne

Hi Dwayne,

The weather here has been beautiful, quite a nice reprieve from the too many days of 90+ degree weather. The recent rains also quite welcome. Thank you.

The JC Higgins branded FN rifles wore chrome line barrel with standard rifling as produced by High Standard.

Monkey Wards sold a hodge podge of rifles built on Mauser 98 actions. Some used genuine FN actions, others used Standard Length Zastava actions (think Mk X), and still others used the Intermediate Commercial actions like I posted above. I attempted to retrieve the "microgroove" variant I have last night but couldn't find it. I'll try again this weekend to confirm the name of the "maker". I believe it is National Arms. When I was at the height of my custom rifle building days, these "sleeper" rifles were great acquisitions for donor actions. They still make very nice rifles as-is in most cases.

The Sears branded rifles used that odd two piece trigger where half is attached to the bottom metal. If these are to be used as-is, the actions screws must be kept tight. If they come loose, the bottom metal can pull away from the action causing an AD. Some of the Wards rifles and, if I remember right, some of the musketeer rifles, came with the upgraded Sako triggers. A bonus. Since I don't care much for trigger mounted side safeties, I typically removed the side safety and installed a 3 Position Safety instead.