Dad ( Popbear here at the Campfire)came wandering in this past Saturday with a custom Mauser 98 .25/06 built in 1952 by master stock maker Hal Hartley.

My poor photography skills cannot do justice to this fine rifle but I took a few pictures anyway.


Its a 1929 dated Mauser 98 action that has totally been worked over.

The bolt handle as been changed and set up for a use with a scope. The underside of the bolt knob has been flattened and checkered.

Any traces military Mauser roughness is gone and this thing runs as smooth as a Model 70.

The bottom metal is an aftermarket unit with a slot fit front and rear lever floor plate and an aftermarket magazine box.

Its drilled and tapped and fitted with a one piece Buehler mount and rings.

It has a Buehler safety and an aftermarket trigger that breaks at 2 pounds 1 ounce.

The barrel (Unknown maker) is 26 inches long and measures .680 at the muzzle.

It is marked ".25/06 Standard."

It also carries a nice high polish bluing

The stock is maple that has been torch striped and it has hand cut Fleur-de-Lis checkering and a Pachmayr rubber butt plate.

The LOP is 14 inches and the grip is "open" It fits my long ape arms and big cabbage clutchers pretty well.


It weighs 8 lbs 11 ounces sans a scope.


I can't wait to shoot it and may just have to confiscate this from the old man.


















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Classic signature Hartley with the Suigi maple stock. Great old stuff.

Good luck getting it from the Old Man...I bet he's too smart to let it go.

Here is how guns and gun magazines should be. On page 39 is an article by Hal Hartley on rebarreling your Mauser action.

http://www.gunsmagazine.com/1956issues/G0256.pdf

SHHHH....don't say that too loud.

I am the one HBB is referring to as "Old Man". But as usual I am one step ahead, whether he knows it or not. But I do like the custom rifle.

Old Fart that is what you are an Old Fart

I saw a Nosler ad that had prices. Putting the price for .308" 150 grain Partitions through the CPI inflation calculator it seems the bullets are cheaper at my local store now than they were by mail order in 1956.

I wonder if the Partitions being made in 1956 basically by hand on a lathe instead of modern mass production equipment is the reason for the relative price differences?

Lovely,simply lovely.

Great catch Popbear.

The only problem w/ owning that rifle would be putting it in the safe. I'd want to leave it where it could be fondled at will.

mike r

Very nice wood!!

POPBEAR grab that custom! Don't let the younguns take it!

My son grabs all my favorite fishing rods....so I gotta buy duplicates.

I always liked those maple stocks of Hal Hartley.......that is a sweet deal.

I glom on to duplicates too.

Clingers.....

HBB: I suppose you toss the Old Man in the back of the boat,too? That's where I end up....until we need to get bit. Then I get the front.

"Age and treachery".......you know the rest.

I really think you are too young for a rifle built before you were born anyway....LOL!

That's POPBEAR's rifle!

Back of the boat. I tie him to the end of the trolling line.

Nice Wood!!!

I'd have a hard time putting that one down.

Gorgeous! I'm lovin' the old school customs. Thanks for sharing.

And I'd give anything if my "old man" was still around. ANYTHING!

Thanks for the kind words folks.

Beautiful; I love it.

Hillbillybear: Wasn't Hal Hartley from your neck of the woods?

Yep, his shop and home is/was located near Lenoir, NC about 30 miles north of where I currently live.

If it shoots as good as it looks, it'll be a death ray. Let us know.

Will do. I am itching to try it out.

Right now its just waiting on Dad to decide on a scope.

Read a Hal Hartley article in Guns magazine.
http://www.gunsmagazine.com/1956issues/G0256.pdf

Looks like an FN bolt handle.

It may very well be an FN or FN style bolt handle.

I was just thinking about Hal Hartley and his stock making this afternoon.

On his maple stocks he didn't use a stock blank or buy a commercial semi fit stock and finish it.

All his maple came from trees he selected and cut in the mountains near his house.

He then trimmed them down and dried the wood before cutting them into stock blanks.

He did all his own torching of the maple and the final cutting, finishing, and fitting of the stocks to the barrelled actions.


It would be interesting to know if any current stock makers control the whole process in the same way.

That is what custom rifles should look like

Roger Vardy carves a few and he is in control from growing to the end. He sells no blanks that are air dried less than 10 years.

Thanks for the information. Its good to know there is still someone who does it this way.

Looks very similar to the Rifles my Dad left to me 2yrs ago...I'm smitten...Congrats on a fine Piece of history...Now get out n shoot it ...ScottyO.

Its too damned hot to go shoot right now. 92 in the shade and high humidity just plain sucks.

Finally got a short range session with this rifle. We mounted a Bushnell 4200 2.5-10 and headed out.

The 90 grain Sierra GKHP and the 100 grain Nosler BT with H4350 both turned in 3/4 inch groups @ 100 yards and 3337 and 3309 fps respectively.

Both bullets also shot to the same POI @100 which is a nice bonus.

Pretty good results for a 62 year old rifle and two "let's start here and try this loads."

I could no doubt squeeze more accuracy and speed out of the gun but for what this rifle will be used for (the occasional groundhog or other varmint and maybe a deer no further than 300 yards maximum) it will work just spiffy as it sets right now.

Old Hal liked his maple. I've collected custom rifles for about 50 years and Hartley currently isn't one of the darlings of the market.

I'd guess that the rifle is woth $2500.00 minimum and $3500.00 max is you can find the right buyer. Tastes change and you'll never lose any money hanging onto it.

Nice gun.

Lovely rifle and stock. Agree about the current market and prices. Current values are not what they were and buyers are out there but not easy to find. There are some great deals out there on vintage custom rifles with brown stocks the likes of which we will never see again. In the meantime, keep it clean and enjoy it.

Hi there, come here often for information, ideas. Came across this old thread on Hal Hartley and Barney Conlin. I bought a nice bolt action on line with barrel stamped CONLIN 30-06, 24" barrel, looks like #5 taper. Nice bluing but someone did a horrible job of what appeared to be 20 year old varnish that I scraped off and resanded stock, stained, sealed. The disassembly was difficult as an equally poor job of glass bedding locked up the threads on the action screws and spilled over and around the magazine well insert (box). The barrel had bedding nearly half way down the stock. I carefully removed all bedding and now have a free floating barrel. When I removed the Pachmayer rubber butt piece I could see that the stock had been shortened for the pad as there were two old screw holes. The stock looks like a twin to the rifle pictured in this thread a while back identified as a Hartley , tiger striping in the wood and beautiful deep glints of golden hue. I have read that the two collaborated on some rifles. I had also read that Hal initialed and occasionally numbered his work. If it was his and present, gone now to the shortened stock, I wish I had that piece of wood and history. I tried to load some pics but said file too large. I would love to share the pics somehow as I have convinced myself it is a Hartley after looking at many of his,, incredible lines, deep handcut checkering, rosewood grip cap, rosewood for-end, deep comfortable grip with great checkering. It has a Mark X action with jeweled bolt, factory target trigger with 3 adjustments for travel, overtravel, and pull weight. Very easy to adjust and super crisp pull I set at 3.5#. Thinking of a simple 3x9 to set in the beautiful rings and one piece base, Ruger I think. So, any help on how to share the pics, I think the finished project is an honor to both of them. Can't wait to shoot it, the bore and action internals look pristine. Thanks, sorry so wordy, Roger, Aberdeen, SD

I can't view the photos, it's odd they are blurry but the next photos are clear. Too bad I really like Harley's work.