Dutch Carbine

One of my "list" rifles might be available. I won't get a chance to look at it until Friday. Said to be complete and correct but the bolt does not match. It is a carbine with the hand guard that ends at the bayonet lug. Stock is said to be typical, dinged, dirty. Metal is brown patina to rust needing cleaned with substantial original finish underneath. Dated 1904 Hembrug.

Does not appear to be an Indonesian conversion. No idea if the cartouche is still on the stock. Rifling strong but bore dark.

Anything I should look out for? It does not come with any clips or ammo which while I have found clips, I have not found ammo. It is also missing it's sling. I have only ever handled one of these in the past. I do not believe this one would have originally had the wood cover on the magazine but do not know if they were added to them later. I don't know if this has one or not.

Keep us updated.

Ammo is going to be tough to find and expensive when you do. Buffalo Arms is out of stock atm, prices vary from $3 to $5 per round when in stock according to their website. Theres a guy by the name of William Widener in upstate S.C. that deals in obsolete ammo. A friend got some .577-450 MH ammo from him not long ago and should still have the contact info if you're interested. Widener may also have clips.

Well I didn't expect the ammo situation to be that bad. Now I have a problem to sort out. I want to have a representative rifle from each combatant but at the same time want to be able to fire it if need be. Not that I would ever have to fire this I suppose. Hopefully, the price will be right, then I'll worry about a box of ammo.

I actually just located privi partisan for $25 a box. I can live with that.

Getting better, Privi Partisan for $20.99 a box.

Never mind, wrong blasted ammo. It's Greek Mannlicher, not Dutch.

I got to look it over this afternoon and it isn't looking good. A guy was looking at it ahead of me and circled it on his paper and wrote VG $300.

It isn't VG, it's good at best. It's suitable for my purposes to have a representative example but I don't think it's $300 good. The cartouche has been sanded but probably during an arsenal rework as the finish looks original and very old. The sling has been moved at least once and the original location filled. Bore looks strong with some light surface rust. There is light surface rust on most of the metal that still has bluing and the receiver is just a flat brownish grey. They say it is none matching but I couldn't locate the serial number on the receiver, just the bolt. There are numbers on the barrel band which do not match.

I'm still going but this is the auction from hell and I'm not being optimistic about it.

Good luck!

The nuts bid it up to $450. I don't know if I am missing something or not but I really don't think so. You guys have taught me pretty well what to look for over the past few years and I don't think the condition of this rifle warranted the high price.

As a consolation, I waited for 10 more guns to sell and picked up a project Italian Vetterli Carcano. It needs a middle barrel band and a repair done to the front sight but the bore looks good and the action functions fine, stock is pretty decent and I got if for under $100. It fits my WWI line as it was rebuilt to the new caliber in 1916.

You can form cases for the 6.5 Dutch / Romanian from .303 Brit or .30-40 brass. A bit of trimming and reaming and away you go. Clips are a "challenge". I have a handful of both cartridges and clips in the back of the ammo cupboard. No Dutch carbine, though.

Obviously, a Greek MS carbine is a whole different thing, but, fortunately, ammo is pretty much "off the shelf" stuff. The Dutch round is effectively a rimmed version of the MS cartridge for the Greek rifle.

Pretty sure this rifle just showed up on Gunbroker for $500. No bidders. Guy is close enough he can be coming to this auction and it looks like the same rifle. I got the date wrong, it was a 1906. Description fits the original auction house description pretty close too.