Mauser sporter stuff.

[Nate]

Just finished looking into a sporter that I have had for a while. It turned out to be a
Zella-Mehlis rifle by C. Schuller. The interesting thing is that it dates to 1944. How is it that gunsmiths could be turning out rifles at that stage in the war?

[da gimp]

my guess, mind you guess, is that it is a converted military action , or an action liberated from the factory after the war & turned into a beautiful sporter by a vg gunsmith AFTER the war. It might have been produced to fill the whim of a high ranking Nazi, but doubtful. Put some pix on of all 4 sides of the action, one or 2 of the barreled action & some of the rifle in her stock.Michaelp, Johnny & a few of the resident experts will know......

[Nate]

It has the pine tree in a heart proof mark so I figured it as WW2 time frame. There is no number on the receiver, just 9569 on the barrel.

[da gimp]

We have a beautiful Steyr 98K sporter , marked made in Austria, cal .30-06, all matching #'s, double set triggers, shadow line small cheek pad, that we are pretty sure was turned out by Steyr after the war, or possibly is a "guild gun".

A late local attorney, who was in military intellegence stationed there, bought it & had them put a standard stock on it, discarding the full length Mannlicher style stock. His sons were unsure when their dad got it.

I suspect that neither of us will ever truly know.......

[mike webb]

I had a 1938 dated 98 that began life as a military rifle(42 code Mauser Oberndorf). It was basically a military rifle with the stock cut down and slimmed up. Not the usual hack job, eggshell cheekpiece, nice checkering and schnaubel forend. Very Germanic styling. An old collector friend called them "cigarette rifles" as they were built by some pretty talented Germans who had very little and would trade them to the occupying troops for cigarettes which were practically currency in early post war Germany. Also when the Allies occupied Germany, civilians were required to turn in their firearms and many of the finer examples were swiped by Allied soldiers and taken home especially officers who had a little more leeway getting their "liberated war trophies" out of Europe.

[da gimp]

I had a 1938 dated 98 that began life as a military rifle(42 code Mauser Oberndorf). It was basically a military rifle with the stock cut down and slimmed up. Not the usual hack job, eggshell cheekpiece, nice checkering and schnaubel forend. Very Germanic styling. An old collector friend called them "cigarette rifles" as they were built by some pretty talented Germans who had very little and would trade them to the occupying troops for cigarettes which were practically currency in early post war Germany. Also when the Allies occupied Germany, civilians were required to turn in their firearms and many of the finer examples were swiped by Allied soldiers and taken home especially officers who had a little more leeway getting their "liberated war trophies" out of Europe.

Dad sent home 2 footlockers full of engraved Browning shotguns & Walther PP & PPK pistols at the end of the war, under his commanding General's chop. While he was going to watchmakers/jewelers school in Chicago, they paid for many necessities for our family.

He was only able to keep 2 Walthers out of the whole shebang, my oldest brother has the last remaining pistol,. A lot of guys in his outfit sent back silver, artwork, statues etc taken from high ranking Nazi's homes & businesses, dad was afraid that @ sometime in the future claims would be made for them by someone..... so he sent back firearms found on the list of the burghermeister of the city.....