Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles WTK: Who was the MAker on this 98k Mauser

Here are some marks, one on the bolt handle and one on the receiver.

Nothing on the crest

looks like the Czech lion

I compared it to the czech crest on an isreali and it didnt look the same as it.

No idea as to the maker but it appears to have been a Czech conversion to sporter.

Think I've seen that receiver ring atop image before. Oh yeah! It's termed "ink blot"!

But trying to be serious for a moment (it's tough)... The serial depicted looks suspiciously of a neat & orderly production rearsenal job likely of postwar application w/ new SN applied. Differing or restatement of original, another question. I've seen comparatively few double Alfa digit SN prefixes. Some Chinese such as "AF". Bolts are simply too swapable to typically be definitive as such alone suggesting origin of a sporterized 98 barreled action. (Serial of 'FH" prefix matches French Mas 36 as only bit of dicta. Any under-stock positioned metal markings perhaps of help... or not!

Best of luck with ID!
John

Not a rearsenal, a conversion to sporting rifle. Think Brno.

Hey z1r... i'M going to think "Rearsenala' scrub & SN reassignment likely same time. With all such as 'done deal', sporterization likely following on this side of Atlantic. Just my take.
The 'net' here either case as 'whatever!
Best!
John

And you are wrong. But, hey, just keep guessing.

You are wasting your time as that prick doesn't listen.

I checked both Ludwig Olsen's book and Jon Speed's also. The closest thing I could find was a CZ making that looks similar, but not identical. More like a stylized version.
Look on the bottom of the action on the receiver ring. More markings are usually there.

z1r;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope that you all are looking to have a decent day down in your part of Colorado and you're well.

Somehow I'd missed this thread earlier or more likely read it and this current memory wasn't twigged then and did now. That or the second cup of coffee has kicked in.

Anyways on the topic of sporting conversions, I recall a couple at least that had actions so scrubbed and polished that not only were all the markings and crests removed, but the receiver radius didn't truly fit the bases all that well.

One had a barrel which had a British firm name on it - again I'm sorry I don't recall which but I think I looked them up at the time and they're gone now.

Another one had been rebarreled to .300 Win Mag with a fairly heavy contour barrel so perhaps a gunsmith build and not a factory. The action had no marks left on it anywhere that I can remember, the rear of the receiver was ground too low but otherwise the bolt face and extractor had been well done and it fed okay.

As I type I recall another one done in Austria - Voere - with a wartime action that we did find proof marks and waffenampts on, but they'd not opened up the extractor at all for the 7mm Mag case, so it had always been sort of sticky feeding. The owner had inherited it from a family member who'd bought it new. It was nicely polished and the bases still fit fairly well, so it doesn't exactly fit into the thread, but perhaps a case of factory things which were not always perfect from back when?

So as far as the OP's query goes, some of them were well and truly and seriously and sincerely polished/ground/scrubbed it would seem.

Thanks for twigging the memories and all the best.

Dwayne

Howdy Dwayne, the reason I say Czech conversion was the proof mark and SN. These are Czech, thus John's notion that this was sporterized on this side of the pond seems unlikely. Brno converted many a surplus rifle to sporting configuration after the receives were scrubbed.

Yeah, I always surface ground the front rings to ensure they were lever (front to rear) and to establish a known radius for a scope base to fit nicely. And, to clean up any arsenal attempts to deface or remove crests.

British firm name ?

Parker Hale ?

Craigster;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope the day in your part of California is a bit brighter than we're seeing, well unless you need the rain and then that's good I suppose. Regardless I hope all is going as well as can be.

The name on that rifle was one I'd heard of but didn't see often, so it wasn't a Parker Hale or even a BSA which were really quite common up here.

When I was a kid there were Parker Hale converted LE rifles seen quite often and the Santa Barbara actioned ones were also popular. I'm guessing it was a good dealer network and likely price as well?

Anyways we'd see them and I'm fairly sure that's not the name I'm trying to come up with.

I'll have to see if I can text the owner and find out now. They work away from home so it might be a bit of a challenge.

Sorry the memory banks aren't working a tad better.

Edit;
Well he texted back and it says "Churchill" on it and a British address or town.

Dwayne

Thanks Dwayne.

Does Voere ring a bell ?

https://www.sporting-rifle.com/reviews/voere-2155-review/

Craigster;
Good afternoon, I hope this last Friday in May finds you well and as an aside, holy smoke where does the time go?

Yes sir Voere does ring a bell for sure.

The one I remember most clearly was a military action that had the thumb cutout and even the military bolt shroud still.

The safety and trigger were a bit of an oddball setup where they'd included an extended tang safety and I want to say it was part of the trigger housing but might be wrong about that detail.

They'd installed a plug into the wing safety hole.

It had been barreled for 7mm Rem Mag but the factory hadn't opened up the extractor for the larger rim, so the current owner who was the 2nd owner since it was purchased in the mid '60's said it had never fed for beans. We opened up and polished the extractor and it fed slick like they should.

I want to say the stock was either a very light colored walnut or possibly even beech? It reminded me of the Husky stocks from that era.

In your link they talk about them using Santa Barbara actions, but this one I know was a military action, though it'd been scrubbed enough that we couldn't ascertain which factory had done it.

Lastly, in the back of my mind I think I can see a different Voere I either worked on or at least looked over for someone somewhere, but the details on that one are hazy at best, so we're best to put that into the "questionable data" file.

All the best to you this weekend.

Dwayne