Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Tell me what I’ve got here

My FIL inherited this rifle from his uncle, but he’s a lefty so he passed it to me. Other than that it appears to be an FNH with Mauser action of some sort I don’t know anything about it and am hoping someone here can give me some info.

FN commercial action for certain. I’d say an FN Deluxe that’s seen better days. Probably came with a factory receiver sight since there’s no barrel sight but the base for the receiver sight is still present. I had one just like it once.

Wipe the metal down, refinish the stock, and replace the buttplate with a pad, and you’re in business with a solid rifle.

Buehler mounts.

Nice rifle in my opinion. Do you know what cartridge the barrel chamber is?

It’s stamped “.270 cal”. I’m assuming that’s .270 win.

OR, just give the metal a good cleaning and the stock a wipe down with a rag with a hint of boiled linseed oil. Some of us are far more attracted to a well-used gun or knife than a shiny new no personality example.

Cool rifle sir, TY for sharing.

Ccard257;
Good evening, I hope the week behaved and this finds you well.

Pappy pretty much nailed it as far as I'm able to tell.

It's interesting that the bolt shroud is the older military type but the action is already a commercial with no thumb cut. Must be reasonably fresh after the war?

Is the butt plate horn that's been eaten by worms or bugs?

That's another guess by the way, but most plastic doesn't degrade in that manner as far as I can recall.

I'm in the camp of doing a thorough cleaning but not go too far on the restoration as it's a cool representation of "state of the art" coming out of Europe in the late '40's, early '50's time period.

Thanks for sharing and good luck with it whichever way you decide.

Dwayne

My compliments on having the brains to post a "What do I have" question with enough pictures for it to be answered!

P.S. Nice commercial Mauser.

The FN Deluxe had the Military style shroud and a 2 position flag safety. The supreme had a streamlined shroud and trigger mounted safety. I prefer the Deluxe. Nice rifle OP.

z1r;
Morning sir, I hope the weather down in your part of Colorado is tolerable on the first day of March and you are well.

Thanks for the clarification on the bolt shroud, I didn't know that.

Might you know the rough timeframe they were made that way?

As far as I can recall, which admittedly is suspect some days, I've not seen one with that type of shroud.

Thanks in advance.

Dwayne

Begging for use.

It's an FN (the H came later) Deluxe. FN stands for "Fabrique Nationale," which is the national arsenal of Belgium located in Liege. FN built millions of military 98s for various customers around the world. When Europe needed hard currency after WWII, part of the FN factory was converted to build commercial hunting rifles for the US market. The commercial FN 98 is considered among the best sporting rifles ever made, and their actions were used for rifles sold by Montgomery Wards, Sears, and others. Some of the early Weatherby magnum rifles were built on commercial FN 98 actions. It's a solid competitor for the Model 70 Winchesters of the era.

The barrel taper indicates that it was made some time after 1952. You can see the pre-52 barrel taper here: https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...e-mauser-30-06.cfm?gun_id=101099992#lg-4

There were a lot of variations in sights, etc., but it looks like you've got one of the more common ones that had a peep sight. That one looks like a Redfield #70; you can find parts for them on eBay.

It's a little heavy by modern standards, but it's a classic mid-century sporting rifle that should last you for the rest of your life.

The compass in the stock was a common user-made modification after WWII.

My advice is to enjoy it for what it is--a classic hunting rifle capable of handling anything in North America and much of Africa. Don't cut it up or try to hot-rod it. It will never be a flyweight or a carbine no matter what you do to it. I'd update the optics and the buttplate (if it crumbles), then enjoy it. If you really like it, then have it glass bedded and tune the trigger.

It truly is a forever rifle.


Okie John

Thanks very much for the info, all! I'll clean it up a little, shoot it, and report back.

Definitely needs to be pulled apart and the grunge along the stock line removed so it doesn’t rust there. Wipe the metal with a good rust preventer. Pretty sure those were varnished so oil might not do much. Actually, Renaissance Wax might be the best choice.

Nice old rifle. I bought a pretty mint one a number of years ago, a 30-06. I scoped it, sighted it in with a load I no longer remember and put it in the safe. For decades... I was planning a trip to Namibia and thought that it needed to go hunting. I worked a load using the 168 gr TTSX that shot well. A bit heavier that what I typically hunt with but it was a great experience with a great "old" rifle.

The receiver stamping does say Herstal in the pic but the buttplate has the FN logo without the H. Would this rifle have been manufactured in Liege or Herstal, then?

Makes no difference; it's clearly a great rifle, built to last several lifetimes. I have an FN Musketeer and a Belgian FN Safari Grade Browning and always enjoy learning more about the FN rifles.

For that matter, I also have a Browning Hi Power and a Challenger, both made by FN as well. I've never seen anything FN that wasn't absolutely top-notch quality.

That old butt plate is made of horn - not plastic - being organic, it's subject natural "disintegration" - haven't been used commercially for a while now. Old hands always told me to "oil" them with something non-organic to keep the microbes, bugs, etc. from nibbling on them; as you can see in the picture, looks like termites or something similar had a meal or two over the years.

Probably my most favorite bolt action rifles use the M98 action. I have a few commercial FN rifles plus several JC Higgins M50s made for Sears that use that FN action. Many of my custom rifles are based on the FN or a milsurp 98 action.

And as mentioned, the commercial FN was competition to the pre64 M70 and in my not very humble opinion the FN was, and still is, a better rifle than the M70. I only have two chambered to the .270 but both are very accurate. One of the JC Higgins was rebarreled to the 7x57 Mauser round and restocked as a slightly modernized version of a pre-war Mauser sporting rifle. One Higgins is completely all original and two more have had the stocks altered slightly to remove the somewhat clubby feel in my small hands.
I wold be surprised if your rifle didn't shoot decent groups as is. I've never seen a bad one and I've been shooting them since I got my first one around 1955.(Higgins M50)

*You probably won't be able to set a cartridge on the follower and chamber the round. The Mauser is designed to feed from the magazine. The proper way to single load the rifle is to place the round into the magazine and then push the round and run it into the chamber. That way the extractor will control the round as it's supposed to. Just setting it on the follower and closing the bolt may work but could also damage the extractor.
PJ

*edited to add

I like the gun as is. RZ.

Uh, plenty of clues on the gun plus some basic questions posed to the great Google and presto ya got yer answer. Not too hard.