PSA - Dewat Spanish 1916 Mausers

[cipherk98]

I am putting this out there as a warning. Recently a ton of Samco Spanish 7mm Mausers hit the market. I recently picked one up at a gun show for $100 after digging through a pile of ugly guns. It had shellac on the stock but metal was pretty decent. When I got it home I tore it down for a clean up and found a pretty horrible surprise.

Three holes drilled in the bottom of the barrel. Yep, deactivated parade/drill gun. There are absolutely ZERO marks externally on the gun to suggest this is the case. Had I been careless and put live ammo in this gun without checking it, it would have been a disaster. The holes were pretty cleanly milled and not obvious when looking down the barrel, with the minor burrs present being easily confused for gunk/cosmo in the bore. A few runs with a .270 jag to clean the bore went fine.

The only external signs to watch for is a shellac finish on the stock and black paint on the rear sight. Mine was the original 7mm caliber, mis matched bolt, no crest. Firing pin hole on the bolt like normal, and the firing pin protrudes when deocked. These guns will very likely fire if loaded with a live catridge.

Not even going to try and salvage this, as it had a fairly clean bore. It had to be deactivated for some other reason so I won't dare try my luck by fitting a new barrel.

So as always, thoroughly check out and clean your milsurps before shooting but be on the look out for these. At this point I am considering getting a hold of the seller to see if I can swap it out for a live but ugly one, or maybe get a refund. I do not have the time right now but will try to get pictures out tomorrow.

Edit: There was one more of these on the table when I was there. The gun show was in PA, known as the Oaks Show. I may have gotten a one in a million gun but the presence of one other made up like mine suggests others may have slipped in with other retailers or lots.

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