Interesting story Joe. Seems I recall Nash Buckingham mentioning a Mr Hysmith in some of his writings, is this the same man? Some years back an older gentleman I had done a bit of work for showed up to pick up a non-traditional muzzleloading target pistol I had built for him per his drawings. He had asked me up front if I would be interested in a "Trade" for the work & I said yes. What he had was an 1895 Chilean Mauser in fantastic condition. I was very pleased with this rifle for what I had in it. As he prepared to leave he said to come outside with me I have a few things I'd like to show you. He was driving a big Chevy SUV with the double doors on back, He opened these up & across the back floorboard was laid all matters of old, mostly pieces of guns & gun parts. To make a long story a bit shorter ha had lived in California for most of his life & worked for the US Postal Service. He had moved to TN on retirement. He had picked up these items from city Dumps, where he had made a deal with the attendants to pull out in gun parts which they saw come through. He would give them a few dollars along so had very little in them. He sais he had come to realize he would never do anything with any of them, so he just Gave them to me. Among them was a Large Ring 98 Mauser dated to 1938, the year I was born. It still had the numerical makers code rather than the alphabetical one. I ended up selling it to a co-worker. He had not done anything with it & a bit late I had something he wanted & offered it back in trade which I took, as had sorts regretted selling it as was from my birth year. One day soon after this I was looking for something in the pile of parts which it had been a part of & picked up a part & the SN jumped out at me. I got the Mauser Action out & looked & sure enough, it matched. I then went through the pile of parts & the barrel was there along with virtually all other metal parts, missing only the wood. From one of the Surplus parts dealers, I found a correct type stock & was able to put the entire rifle back together. Some years prior to this my late Father -inLaw had given my son a German Bayonette he had brought back from WWII when stationed there. My son now has the rifle & yes, it still has its Nazi Markings on it. With a bit of searching, I found it was built in the Obendorf factory, per the code letters.
