doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Is this a genuine Westley Richards magazine rifle?

Mauser model 1904 in 7mm with a five round capacity and a 25.5" barrel. This rifle has been "Sporterized" with a new Monte Carlo style stock and the mid barrel sights removed. Red Head brand rubber butt pad. Solid wood checkered one piece stock. Blued bolt, receiver, barrel, magazine floor plate and trigger. Pacific brand adjustable peep hole sight. Front fixed blade brass bead sight. All visible parts with matching serial numbers. Ports in the stock for mounting hardware for a shoulder strap. Rear of bolt safety switch. Left side of receiver bolt release. Marked with Nitro Proofs on the barrel. Marked on the receiver "Waffenfabrik Mauser A.-G. Obendorf A/N 1907 BV". Marked on the top of barrel "Westley Richards & Co London 7M/M Nitro Proof BP BV NP 36938".

Why do you think it is a WR rifle? The action is marked, the stock checkering isn't correct, and the sling eye or stock oval near the stock butt isn't correct.

Ken

Marked on the top of barrel "Westley Richards & Co London"

It is not the original stock to that rifle, look at the loading port cut out. Nothing on the gun looks Westley to me, none of the signature features Westley used.

Looks like an intermediate action with commercial proofs, always appealing and not that easy to find.

The Mauser Modell 1904 was a short- lived Mauser Export military rifle in 7x57. Both Colombia and China bought some. It was built on the same intermediate length action as the Turkish 1903, the Peruvian 1909 as well as most pre-WW2 commercial sporters in 7x57 aka .275 Rigby.

As the receiver shows contemporary Oberndorf BU civilian proofmarks, it was originally delivered from the factory as a type C Army hunting rifle. Those humble sporters were often built on rejected or leftover military parts and keep military markings and serial numbers. As Rigby was the sole official Mauser importer in the early 1900s, other British gunmakers like Westley-Richards circumvented the monopoly. Often they bought complete military rifles through the international arms trade and tore them down for the actions. But there was a black market too for actions and parts smuggled out of the German factories, government arsenals as well as DWM. But more likely W-R here merely reworked a humble model C and sold it as an economy sporter.

Much later the barreled action was modified. The bolt handle was bent back, the action drilled for scope mounts, open rear sight removed and the Pacific receiver peep sight put on. Finally the barreled action was mounted in the orphaned stock of another Mauser actioned rifle. This stock was originally for a standard length action. Look at the right side photos: the ejection/ loading port cutout of the stock is too long for the shorter intermediate action. So the longer receiver ring overhangs this cutout to the rear by about 5 mm. These alterations were most likely done post-WW2 in the USA.

Dear Mr. Shotgunner

Thank you for your email and details of the early Mauser based Westley Richards rifle that you have. We have very little information on rifles from this serial number range, however I can confirm that the rifle was built circa 1908.

I hope that this information is of interest to you.

Yours sincerely

Anthony Alborough-Tregear