Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters ed some help in identifying a Wards Western Field Mauser.

A local pawn shop has a Wards Mauser marked FJN 757 for $350. It is a large ring commercial Mauser with a military box magazine, Supreme side type safety, & sculptured trigger guard. The stock is in good shape but of poor quality.

Anyone know who made the action? I'd probably have it made into a 9.3x62.

Thanks.

Without pictures it's a guess but I would be darn surprised if it is not a commercial FN.

That would be my guess as well, but as Ed said photos would help.

I had a Wards .308 Winchester for a while, which was pretty well made. Bought it partly because I was curious about who made it, because something about it looked familiar. Took the barreled action out of the stock and found it was made by Heym--and what I'd recognized was the Heym barrel contour.

You might not want to shoot the rifle if you pick it up! There's that old saying about not shooting the donor....

ga,

Before you purchase said rifle, BE SURE you know what you have...

Without seeing it, I can't be sure, But Wards imported a Mod: 720A and a 720B. I've only seen one in 7x57, but I've owned two in .30-06.

Measure the distance between the action screws, and KNOW what the distance is supposed to be for a LR standard length Mauser.

Both of the ones I've owned are medium length. i.e: 1/4" shorter than a standard Mauser. Great for x57 length cartridges, but a smidgeon short for a x63mm case, and probably also a bit short for a x62mm.

I'll wager if you remove the bbl'd action from the stock, just fwd of the action, you will see the stamping: F.W. Heym

I sold one that I owned, but still own the other... It is now a .376 Steyr...

GH

Had a Wards Westernfield Mauser last year it was a FN EJN-753 in 308 W. It had a hard wood stock, low swing safety on the cocking piece and the mag had a metal block in it that was really well done. The barrel was a Marlin micro groove from the original build for Wards. They had some gun shop on the east coast put them together. It shot well but I converted it to a 22LR High Std target pistol. Google Ward Westernfield rifles for the story. Magnum Man

There is a Heym Western Field in '06 Here

Does the action look like that?

Gee's my Uncle George had a 308 that was a Monkey Wards rifle, made by Sako. It got stolen in the mid 1970's and he ended up with a Mauser one of the new ones. Till the day he died he bitched a lot about that Ward rifle, I told him a number of times, just buy a Sako and be done with it. Back in the 1950-60 and lot of good gun makers make guns for the big box stores with the Stores name on them. After GCA-68 a lot of that just when away. I hope I live long enough to see GCA-68 repealed.That one has no business being on the books, considering were it really came from.

MD,

Besides the trigger, did you notice any significant differences between the MW Heym Mauser action vs the Sears JC Higgins FN made Mauser action?

I doubt the action was made by Heym. Instead it looked like a military 98 action that had been remodeled, though the job was done quite well. It definitely wasn't an FN action.

your link doesn't work.

Sounds like one of the Santa fe / Santa Barbara Mausers. I just passed on one in 30-06 @ $300, it later sold on GB. Would give you a link, but I think GB is not working for me right now

Ok, here is alink to a closed auction, hope it works ok

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=411496212

Sorry 'bout that... Fixed it! Try it now...