Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 416 Rigby Custom Square Bridge Mauser - recently acquired - History

Hello All,

I brought this over from another forum to share.

I've recently acquired another Dangerous Game rifle that has an interesting story.

Back in June, this rilfe was originally posted on Gun Broker as follows. I've abridged the ad and pictures below.






As you can see, it was a "no reserve" auction with a buy-it-now of $5,500, and an opening bid of only $4,000. I was somewhat surprised that nobody had bid, as I thought a Magnum Square Bridge Action alone, would be worth well over the $4,000 opener.

The photos in the auction were not the best, so I emailed the seller and asked for additional photos. Of those he sent, one showed the left side receiver was marked as "MAUSER-WERKE ASTORIA ^C". Although I'm not a Mauser expert, I consider myself more knowledgeable than most, and have a lot of Mauser reference books.



I had never seen such a marking. Although there are many different Mauser stampings, the standard marking for Mauser-Werke was "Mauser-Werke A.G.OBERNDORF ^N" like shown below.



I searched through every single Mauser book in my Library. And after all the searching, I was unable to find any such marking in any of the books. This was a real puzzle.

The seller also told me that the top of the barrel was marked; "S.KING - E.ATKINSON ASTORIA, OR". Searching the internet for these two names and similar barrel marks, also proved fruitless.

I was now convinced that this was NOT an original Mauser Square Bridge action, and related this opinion to the seller. I indicated I still had interest in the 416 Rigby rifle, but only as a "shooter" and not as an original Mauser, and surely NOT at the expected asking price he had. I made a significantly lesser offer for the rifle - and that offer was quickly turned down.

"End of Story"..........................

Well, not exactly "End of Story"

Moving ahead - 4 months later, out of the clear blue, the seller emails and asks if my offer still stands. Although by now I had moved on, I reluctantly said I would honor my offer, and I purchased the rifle. This was more out of curiosity, than need. (I had since filled my 416 Rigby wants with a Ruger RSM77) However, I was very curious about this Mauser Magnum rifle and I wanted to know what it really was. By buying it, I could examine it in hand and hopefully find answers to my many questions.

These are some pictures I took when it arrived.





This was a pretty nice rifle - what ever it was.

A close examination showed that this was a "stretched" action from a time when Magnum length Mauser actions were not as readily available as they are today. When rating the work on a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the work as an 8-1/2 to 9. It was very good.

Features included;

Barrel-Band Ramped Front Sight with a push-button Removeable Hooded
Dovetailed Interchangeable Front Sight Blades - (now with an ivory folding Moon Bead)
Express Rear Sight with 1 standing and 3 folding leafs.
Barrel Band Sling Swivel & eye swivel in stock
Drop-Box magazine with 5 shot capacity (4 plus 1)
Double reinforcing bolts in the stock
Figured Black Walnut Stock w/ "under-wrap" forend, & "over-the-top" wrist checkering (very difficult to do well)
Steel Pistol Grip Cap with hinged compartment for extra front sight
Silvers Red Recoil Pad with "widow-peak" inletted black spacer
Black anti-glare, rust-oxide finish on all the metal

This was a serious, no-nonsense, Safari Rifle. And, this rifle was really cool .....!

And ..... it looked virtually new - never hunted.

Proof marks and inspection stampings on the action showed this to be an original Standard Oberndorf Mauser "Banner" action, but not an original Square Bridge Magnum. This was an all custom Mauser by S. King & E. Atkinson, ... who ever they were?

Now the researched started, and the Story continues..........

The Story continues,

It took me nearly 3 weeks to locate S. King - He was "Scott King" and He's alive and well, and still in the business. Here is what I found.



I talked with Scott, and he told me a story about half-a-dozen men, back in the early 1980's, that belonged to a local gun club in Astoria, Oregon. He was one of them. One evening they had the idea to build themselves a bunch of custom Magnum Mausers Rifles in Afican Safari calibers. He told me E. Atkinson was "Ernie Atkinson" and that Ernie was also still alive, somewhere in Oregon, but he didn't know where.

I proceeded to call every E. Atkinson in Oregon trying to find him - there were about 10. Five that I contacted said they were not the man I was seeking. Two of the remaining 5 never answered their phones, and for the other 3, I left voice messages on their answering machines. I labeled their numbers in my cell phone; Atkinson1, Atkinson2, and Atkinson3. After 2 weeks with no results, my phone finally rang with "Atkinson2" visible in the display. He said, "I'm the guy your looking for".

I talked with Ernie for over an hour. I was finally getting the whole story of how this rifle came to be. The 6 men each had gunsmithing or machining expertise. One had a gun shop, another a machine shop, another a welder, another was a stock maker, and so on. All of them had a love of fine guns. They came up with a plan, and over the next many months, (some into years) they took 12 standard length Banner Mauser actions, and cut them in half, off-center. They made special tooling jigs and fixtures to tig weld them back together to Magnum Length specifications. It took 2 Standard length actions to make 1 Magnum length action. They machined, polished, blued, and perfected them as required. Each man utilizing his specific tallent. They either modified, or custom machined from scratch, all the sub-components such as the bolts, firing pins, magazines, floorplates, followers, springs, etc. They even machined specially shaped steel bars, and tig-welded them to the rear of the actions to create the Square Bridge. (These modifications were so professionally and expertly done, that you would not notice them unless you knew what to look for.) They used top grade Douglas Supreme Barrels, and state-of-the-art sights. They chambered the rifles, in 416 Rigby, in 404 Jeffery, and 375 H&H. They built these rifles for themselves - not to sell.

But nothing is forever. Over the next 34 years, all but one (Scott King's) have been scattered to the far corners of the Country and beyond. Some were swapped at Gun Shows, some were traded in private deals. Ernie traded his to a Game Ranger in Botswanaman. Ernie sent me a picture of the man standing with the rifle and his harvested Cape buffalo.

I asked Ernie about sacrificing 2 actions to make 1 - "wasn't that wasteful?" He said they used the short left-overs to make 6 short length actions in 22 hornet, 7mm BR, and such. He went on to say that building the "little" actions was boring - building the "Big" actions was fun.

I exchanged email addresses with Ernie, and here is one of the emails he sent me a few days thereafter.

Hi Buckstix,

I have only a few pictures left of all the crazy things we built back in the 1980's. I keep giving the originals away but I think I might have found a picture of your rifle in the white. If not, at least it will be representative of what you have. I could send you a copy, but the real glossy pictures would probably be more fun. Send me your mailing address, and I will send some real photos of stuff for you to keep.

It was a good day for me too. I don't think there are many people around like us anymore.

Best to you,

Ernie

Mauser Werke-Astoria a/c retired��sort of�

Here are a couple of the several photos that he sent me.

[img]http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/rigby6.jpg[/img]

When I examined the photos closely, I could see the serial number. These pictures were of "my" 416 Rigby Mauser.

I couldn't wait to call Ernie and tell him so. We talked for another hour. Later he emailed me with more specifics of my 416 Mauser rifle.

Hi Buckstix,

I had a hunch when you described the rifle to me that I knew which one it was. The rifle was owned by Sky Olsen the guy that had the gun shop where the threading and chambering took place. I did the action work and put on the sights. Sky did the feed work, and regulating of the sights. Yes I shot the rifle several times when it was still in the white. Scott King did the stock and the checkering. That rifle has a Douglas Supreme barrel. Sky has moved back east somewhere, so I don�t know who blued the rifle. .... The guy on the left in the Africa picture is Douglass Strunk, the Game Ranger in Botswana. I don�t know the other guy. The rifle is the.404 that I traded to him for other rifles.

.... The Champlain Firearms ad (sent with the photos) is of a .404 that we built and traded away at the Portland Gun Show. And, there it was in Champlain�s ad years later.(2005) ..... At least he knew who we were. (The ad mentioned Ernie and his fellow Custom Gunsmiths by name - Champlain sold that rifle for $4,400)

I sent you the real pictures because I knew you wanted the real stuff. I am glad you enjoy them and the history.

Best to you,

Ernie

Mauser Werke-Astoria a/c retired��sort of�

[img]http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/rigby7.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/rigby8.jpg[/img]

During my many conversations and emails with Ernie, I finally asked about the "Mauser-Werke Astoria ^C" marked on the rifle. He explained; "Original Oberndorf Mausers were marked as MAUSER-WERKE (Mauser Works - the factory name) OBERNDORF (the city in Germany where the factory was located) and ^N (the city Oberndorf was on the Nekar river) .... We were very meticulous and exacting in our work, and since we didn't want anyone to mistake our rifles as Original Magnum Mausers, or have some susequent owner pass them off as originals, we marked them in a way that was unique, and could NEVER be mistaken as Original Magnum Mausers."

".... MAUSER WERKE (Mauser Works - "our" factory name) ASTORIA (the city in Oregon where "our" factory was located) and ^C (the city Astoria was on the Colubian river)...."

These Men had real Integrity.

Shooting this rifle is a real joy. The 24" barrel and the rifle's 9-1/2 pounds gives it good balance. And I like this rifle even more now that I have the History and the full story of its making. Sadly, only half of the guys in the group that set about this project, are still with us. I agree with Erie, there aren't many people like them around anymore.

Neat story!

Thanks for sharing a very cool story. Would have been a great group to hang with. Oh, and she's a beauty.

Thanks for the fine story.

Very very cool. I'll never hunt Africa, but have a large desire to own a DG rifle

You got yourself a bargain! Grand story.

What a great story. Thanks for sharing it. A great rile with a great story.

Great story and a great find. Thanks for posting.

What a wonderful story. Thanks so much for taking the time to put all that together.

I'll keep an eye out for these.

Amazing! Glad you were able to put it all together!

Very interesting rifle, and a cool project for the builders. Kudo's to the stock maker, he really captured that English rifle essence with that stock.

Pretty neat. Love the short forend, I mean I truly love that.

Great story and LOVELY rifle Buckstik. Now it needs to go to Africa and use it Cape Buffalo or even Elephant.

Beautiful rifle and a very cool story. Always amazing what experienced craftsman can do!

thanks for sharing. That is one of the cooler stories I've read around here in a while.

Very interesting story due to some dogged investigative work on your part. Thanks for sharing!

It would make a fine magazine story, IMO.

yep....very cool story

Incredible story. Thank you.