Buying a Mitchell Mauser from a buddy

[NRA]

All matching Turk? Hmmmmm.....

Matching Turks of any kind are almost unheard of, as a matter of fact downright rare.

You cut it down for a sporter? Well, as you said, it's your rifle. "Parts is parts" as an acquaintance of mine used to brag when he did this sort of thing.

I know it is his rifle but reading this it kind of brought a tear to my eye

[OLDER THEN DIRT]

All matching Turk? Hmmmmm.....

Matching Turks of any kind are almost unheard of, as a matter of fact downright rare.

You cut it down for a sporter? Well, as you said, it's your rifle. "Parts is parts" as an acquaintance of mine used to brag when he did this sort of thing.

I`m not a BS`er, matching #`s. And now "For the rest of the Story". After I aquired this rifle, I did a lot of research on the 03/38 Turk & was told that they are a dime a dozen, I way over paid ($295.00) for it, which I probably did, it will only be a shooter & it will never have any collector value to it. So I did what I did. Do I have any regretts, no because it`s one hell of a shooter & that`s what I wanted? End of story. Here it is.

[Aragorn243]

I checked my records and I paid more than I thought. The list price was $325. That came with all the accessories but no ammo. My actual out of pocket expense was nothing as I had enough points to cover it. Rifle is all matching, looks to have never been fired and according to my wife is "pretty". It's about the only rifle I have that has gotten that distinction. So for $50 more for 60 rounds of ammo, it depends on the type ammo. New production soft points are more expensive than that, old surplus not so much. But like I said earlier, it isn't a bad deal, if it's something you like, go for it.

[gew8805]

I`m not a BS`er, matching #`s. And now "For the rest of the Story". After I aquired this rifle, I did a lot of research on the 03/38 Turk & was told that they are a dime a dozen, I way over paid ($295.00) for it, which I probably did, it will only be a shooter & it will never have any collector value to it. So I did what I did. Do I have any regretts, no because it`s one hell of a shooter & that`s what I wanted? End of story. Here it is.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...1001575v-1.jpg

Yes, you could say that 03/38 Turks are "a dime a dozen" but 99.99% are mismatched but still sell well at about $95 - $125 apiece as mis-matching military rifles because they shoot great. A matching numbered rifle is on the collector's wish list since they are practically non-existent and being matching would probably have sold at about what you paid when you got it so you didn't do badly. Nowadays, it would be worth about twice what you paid or more since the Turks are finally coming up in value, especially if matching and still in original, un-messed with, military configuration. It looks okay so as long as you are happy, that is what counts; if you wanted to sell it you could probably get what you paid for it.

[bearhunter]

Mike Venturino really likes the Mitchell Mausers.

He has one he bought that they had rebuilt into a sniper clone and found it to be very accurate. They have new made, laminated stocks and all parts have been matched or stamped to match. The blue job on them is very good to say the least. They look like new rifles and shoot like new rifles.

For you folks in the US, they are a very good deal. Here in Canada, those rifles would sell for around $500+ or higher.

I agree, they are shooters, not collectables.

When they first started selling them many years ago, some of them were actual war time dated and maker marked K98 rifles. They admitted that they were refurbed completely and rebarreled with appropriately marked barrels. I had one of those. It was gorgeous. It shot better than I could shoot it.

They claimed the rifles were refurbished by master craftsmen in north eastern Europe.

It was obvious that they were put together from parts as some of the parts had the original numbers polished out and matching numbers restamped.

Overall though, the rifles were correct in appearance and did exactly what they were advertized to do.

Many purists screamed blue bloody murder when these rifles were released on the market. To bad because they save the real thing from being slowly shot out by neophites.

[Bubba's friend]

That is a fine looking rifle. Should make any person proud to be the owner.

The older one gets the more they can appreciate the beauty of variety.

[FailsafeOperator]

Update:

I took advantage of a nice sunny day here in the big KY and took a trip to my buddy's range. I was worried at first that maybe the front site might be off as it wasn't completely centered but after drilling a 5x5 plate @ 100 yards repeatedly, I was more than satisfied. This thing shoots like a dream, the action is nice and smooth and the bore is like new. I've got myself a shooter fellas. The wife even shot it a few times.

This one is destine to be used for hunting.

Should I refinish the stock or leave as is? Also, does anyone know what kind of wood the stock is made from?

Thanks

Fail

[Aragorn243]

To refinish the stock or not is up to you. Do you like how it looks.

Looking at your photo, it appears that Mitchel's bleached it heavily to clean it up. Did they apply any type of finish to it after that?

I've used wood bleach to get rid of rust stains and the color usually comes right back with BLO but maybe not with this one, some of theirs they really go overboard. Yours doesn't look that bad as is, just a little pale.

[bearrowland]

That stock screams for a good BLO'ing...it looks dry as all get out.

[Calif-Steve]

Many of the Yugo rifles had European elm as the wood. Looks like Teak, but isn't. They are nice shooters as well.