doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com interesting rifle, interesting sidemount

I saw this on gunbroker, a G&H Mauser, if you haven't seen it, you might enjoy looking at it.
What puzzled me was the sidemount base. I don't know what it is for. Does anyone here know?

G&H Mauser

I could have went all day without seeing that sad sad bubba'd disaster of a once fine rifle. Stock sliced up without any thought to what was originally there so as to add some height to the stock and length. I think they forgot to add a compass and a couple green inlayed dots. Then to buffet the hell out of Mr. Fugger's fine work to a high shine attempt at a mirror and then hot blue. Oh my. Very sad. The mount appears to not be G&H but don't know. Maybe others can identify it.

No G&H marking on the barrel unless the photographer overlooked it. Wow, a rifle for the price of the floorplate. The scope mount base can probably be modified to fit a G&H mount.

What was the idea with the buttplate - double white spacers??

What am I not seeing here...
The Safety looks like a hand made edition to reverse the SAFE & FIRE positions.
(One of the contract military Mausers has such a design, but right from the Mauser factory at the request of the buyer (Peru maybe??)

But that rear sight,,is it missing the Windage adjustment and LH side of the top bar altogether?

The butt plate could have been made 'White/Black/White/Black/White' ,,but maybe that would have been way too much. Wanted to keep the alteration classic in style.

All in all I think it would be a great project rifle. Lots of work including recutting engraving, but it would be an enjoyable restoration.

I think someone performed some extensive modifications to that Lyman 48, they shortened the base and recontoured it to avoid the big cutout that
you often see on the right side of the stock. They shortened the windage portion of the slide and made it windage adjustable via cutting a slot for
a jewelers screw driver.

I agree with you, I hope someone thought it a great project rifle and will make it into something LRF and the rest of us would enjoy seeing.

But it is not. There, IMO, is really nothing of value that can be made into anything. The stock is trash, burn it. The receiver sight is hosed up and its anyone's guess if it could be fixed and at what cost for parts if you can find them today. The side mount is, well it would have to stay on the receiver and would require a fair amount of work to make it look good and then you would have to figure our rings and a slide. And since it doesn't look commercial that means a lot of homework. I have made these mounts and rings and they take a bunch of work to do. The action may be okay but will take some work as usual. We will mention the engraving in a minute. The barrel, is well a barrel and sadly buffeted the hell out of but that can be saved with work. The floorplate/bottom metal is valuable but IMO would be more valuable if not engraved and monogramed. Because now you have to pay somebody to recut and fix all that engraving which the idiot before you did a great job of F'ing up. Yes as Kutter said it can be recut but how many of you are Kutter and can do that? Even doing it yourself you have to figure the cost. To recut all the engraving it would cost a number of hundreds that I am sure. How much I do not know and wouldn't want to find out. Now remember you already have some $1500 stuck in the rifle.

That rifle could be a project rifle but never a "great" project rifle IMO

In my considered but possibly worthless opinion, this rifle has already been someone's project rifle. The double handful of black and white spacers worked as a stock extension but failed badly in the "class" department. I really think someone had access to parts from enough old rifles that he thought he would just build himself a nice rifle. Well, he built a rifle and it would work but would have been better if he sold his buffer (assuming he did the buffing) and used the money to hire someone to install a decent extension. In reality, this may have just been an early step in someone's education toward quality work. A necessary step in that education is doing work then learning from non-judgmental critique of the work. Even the best had to start somewhere.
Mike

Mike,
I really appreciate your comments — we all have to learn somewhere. I’ve learned the hard way to do my experimenting on scrap and low value pieces. Also, I’ve come to appreciate the saying “If you think it’s expensive to pay an expert, see how much it costs you to pay an amateur”. Again, I learned all that the hard way.

Once there was a great thread on different sidemounts, I never realized until then that there were so many. In retrospect, I wish that there was more attention paid to the bases. Too often
this situation occurs, you see a rifle with a sidemount scope base on it and don't know what the upper part looks like.

IMO it is a German side mount, they often have serrations like this, I assume it is the same affect as a feather board instead of using cam locks. I’ve seen them on 1930’s Mauser Oberndorf products, as well as other vintage American custom rifles. I believe I have a scope and rings for this, but I can’t be for certain.

A fiendish little brain was working overtime when he inherited that rifle. What a disaster. I thought the scope base looked a little like an early Jaeger. And they really improved the Lyman 48. Is it just me, or does the chamber look jugged to anyone else?

Tim

Good catch (pic 35) didn't see that first time thru. That's a game stopper right there. I have no idea how someone could machine that or why they would. Obviously you could make it that way but why. Tim it may very well be bulged or jugged as you call it. I hope there is a 3 day inspection/return policy. Just looked at auction, nope, ***ALL SALES ARE FINAL, NO RETURNS*** sad sad sad all the way around

The mount base "appears" to be a Griffin & Howe extended sidemount. Having quite a few of these, the middle cutout deep serrations do not add up to a G&H. More like an afterthought Jaeger mount. These are similar to an early Paul Jaeger sidemount extra length version. Either that or possibly a German copy. Since the rifle came out of Pottstown, PA. I will stay with Jaeger as the best possibility, considering the origin and backyard barn rifle modifications. Jaeger was based in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. I have one of the spare Jaegers now for a Lyman Alaskan scope, not mounted. Acually, a Jaeger sidemount can be fitted to "some" G&H bases, but it is not advisable.

A rifle like this always makes one wonder what could have been done with a stock by an Al Biesen or Alvin Linden if rescued in time. It does make me appreciate my pre-war and transition Model 70s a bit more. And a custom honest early 1960s Mauser 98 in 30-06 Ackley Improved. Caveat emptor.

The winning bidder knows what he is doing. The end result will appear on his website shortly.