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Garde-Schützen WMO 1899 Restoration Complete

mauser1908

mauser1908

Senior Member
Well it took me almost a year to finish it but it's complete for all intents and purposes. Unfortunately, I only have piecemeal before photos. Basically it had an Argentine 1909 barrel mounted as well as having a cut down stock. In my assessment, it was most likely just a bad duffle cut. While I had to use an Erfurt barrel and 400 meter bases, beggars can't be choosers when it comes to these I found. Ultimately, I'm happy how this one turned out, it really exceeded my expectations, as I've done a handful of projects like this and few were actually worth it in the end. In the end it turned out being a barrel and front band mis-match.

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Looks very nice! Too bad the original barrel was replaced. I would think most of these ended up with a 400 M rear sight at some point.
 
It looks great and certainly a worthy project! How rare is something like this?
 
What makes this one rare is the unit mark and the fact that the bolt was never updated in this rifle. It still has narrow gas ports and early style firing pin. This rifle lacks a receiver firing proof which would be correct for a rifle with an early bolt like this. In terms of how rare, the experts will have to illaborate on that one. Not sure how many have been reported.
 
Very few rifles are worth the effort to restore, - and I mean VERY few - they are almost never worth the expense or effort. This rifle is the exception. Not only is it rare in any sort of matching-original state, they are practically unheard of... though this maker-date is slightly more numerous than other early maker-dates (a total of three or four depending upon how you expand upon the definition of matching-original, the best known on this forum is the one that is in England of all places, with an Irish/Ulster past, 2070 a)

I remember when this rifle came up for sale, or auction, I thought of all the rifles that came up in the last ten years none came closer to making me consider go back into collecting rifles. It is a marvelous project rifle, all it needed was a barrel, - often as not replaced when found anyway - and a few trinkets worth of parts, a front band and foreend?? The original bolt (next to impossible), perfect receiver, TG group, most of all the original stock! And talking about unit markings! They don't get better, super rare and desirable... especially attributable to a maker-date, usually these unit marked items are stocks only or muzzle covers.

It is not known exactly how many of these Mauser delivered in 1899, only that 1898-1899 were numbered sequentially without rolling over, all were believed delivered in 1899 (the first delivery occurring in March 1899, if I am reading Jon Speed's documents right about 2400 rifles). "Probably" about 13,000 rifles were delivered by Mauser during this time frame, but only Jon Speed might have the full figure because he has the official sales/delivery records. Typically in our comparisons (trends compared to final official figures) they run fairly accurate insofar as official records exist.

Anyway, I can't remember seeing a rifle more deserving of restoring, - at the time I remember a couple collectors saying ti wasn't worth it, which is certainty true most of the time, but that combo of maker/date and unit (they don't get better) was just a irresistible combination. Sam did a wonderful job!
 
Paul, thank you, and thanks for the great info! Thanks for educating me on this one when I bought it. I was lucky they were able to turn the barrel in such a way the serial number is not visible.

Loewe said:
Very few rifles are worth the effort to restore, - and I mean VERY few - they are almost never worth the expense or effort. This rifle is the exception. Not only is it rare in any sort of matching-original state, they are practically unheard of... though this maker-date is slightly more numerous than other early maker-dates (a total of three or four depending upon how you expand upon the definition of matching-original, the best known on this forum is the one that is in England of all places, with an Irish/Ulster past, 2070 a)

I remember when this rifle came up for sale, or auction, I thought of all the rifles that came up in the last ten years none came closer to making me consider go back into collecting rifles. It is a marvelous project rifle, all it needed was a barrel, - often as not replaced when found anyway - and a few trinkets worth of parts, a front band and foreend?? The original bolt (next to impossible), perfect receiver, TG group, most of all the original stock! And talking about unit markings! They don't get better, super rare and desirable... especially attributable to a maker-date, usually these unit marked items are stocks only or muzzle covers.

It is not known exactly how many of these Mauser delivered in 1899, only that 1898-1899 were numbered sequentially without rolling over, all were believed delivered in 1899 (the first delivery occurring in March 1899, if I am reading Jon Speed's documents right about 2400 rifles). "Probably" about 13,000 rifles were delivered by Mauser during this time frame, but only Jon Speed might have the full figure because he has the official sales/delivery records. Typically in our comparisons (trends compared to final official figures) they run fairly accurate insofar as official records exist.

Anyway, I can't remember seeing a rifle more deserving of restoring, - at the time I remember a couple collectors saying ti wasn't worth it, which is certainty true most of the time, but that combo of maker/date and unit (they don't get better) was just a irresistible combination. Sam did a wonderful job!
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