New Addition to the Family

When at the gunshow a couple weekends ago, I was wanering around and not seeing much I was interested in. A very strange predicament, indeed, though it turned out that I was just not looking hard enough.

As I made my way down the last ailse on my second pass through the venue, I spotted what eemed to me to be a very well refinished K98 Mauser. Nicely redone stock, excellent rebluing, and upon closer examination, numbers matching.

The other thing I noticed was that there was no crest on top of the receiver and that “Cal7.62” had been professionally pressed into the side of the receiver.

With these identifiers I knew this to be an Israeli K98. I have also heard them called “Redeemed Mausers”. You can find the history of them about halfway down the K98 Wiki page.

And so went the negotiations until I got to a price I could stand paying and I picked it up this last Saturday. In talking to the previous owner about Mausers, it ends up that he is a friend and aquaintence to Robert Ball, who writes books such as this one. While Ball never owned this rifle, it sat next to a couple of examples pictured in that book in his safe.

My apologies for the horrible photos. They seriously do not do it justice. I intend to get more and better ones in the near future during a range test.

The stock is absolutely perfect, with some of the best graining I’ve seen, though without being too pretty to take out of doors. The barrel is a wonder in reflection. Pit free and plenty of rifling left. The action, while a bit stiff, is smooth as any other Mauser I’ve handled, either mil-spec or BRNO aftermarket.

As nice as this rifle is, it will be going through a slight transformation in short order.

We have written and posted on the topic of Scout Rifles at RNS in the past.

The concept is a simple one: Approximately one meter in length and six pounds with a forward mounted telescopic sight. At just over 43 inches, the rifle is a bit long, but I balance it out by being taller than average. Likewise, it’s weight with a scope mounted on will be about seven and a half pounds, but that is considered “lightweight” compared to my G3 (10.5lbs) and my Boomershoot boltie (15lbs).

And even with the cost of the scope and base added in, it will still only be about 25% of the price of the Steyr Cooper rifle.

At Boomershoot 2007, David’s T/C Encore pistols wore these scopes. My Mauser will do the same.

But if I may ask a hand from you all, this seems to be the only “Scout-type” scope mount I could find for the rifle, though I know there to be others on the market. If anyone out there knows of any others, price not a real factor, please leave a link in the comments.