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Against my better judgement, I'm posting the story of how I acquired this here 1937-built Mauser ES350B .22 calibre rifle. More details of this top-of-the-line sporting and leisure-time rifle can be found in Jon Speed's definitive book 'of the .22cal Mauser Rifle' - more from him later.
Here is the item itself -
Back in the late 80's, three or four of us in our gun club, RAF Alconbury Rifle & Pistol Club, based on the ranges at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, started up a kind of syndicate of revolver shooting based on Police Pistol and IPSC. The side-effect of that was the need to buy bullets by the 5000 at a time, as we were often shooting between 300 and 500 a week on a regular basis. Our local dealer, in Bedford, was the small but very-well stocked Bedford Target Sports, run by the late Chris Fordham and his wife, Sandy.
So it was that I was wont to haunt the place about once a month, buying 158gr hard-cast bullet like they were going out of fashion, and while I was waiting for the sack-wagon to carry them out to the car, I'd have a look around.
As one does.
The store had a few gun racks, with little to interest me, TBH, except one, mainly for .22s of all kinds. At the end of the rack was this lonely-looking rifle, catching my eye by virtue of a couple of things -
1. It was a full-size rifle in all respects, not any kind of reduced-scale for younger shooters, no sirree.
2. It had no rear sight, although it did have an odd-looking set of grooves, about ten inches long, where the back sight should have been. It was also grooved for a scope.
Hmmmm. Well, I looked at it, and moved on, after all, I already had a few .22 rifles...
However, this thing called to me, and it was there every time I went in for the next year or so, maybe three. I've mentioned before here, ad nauseam, that here in UK we can't just waltz into a gun store and leave with a real-live bullet-shooting gun of any kind, without a lot of PITA paper-work and applications to acquire and possess a Section 1 firearm blah blah...suffice it to say that around 1992 I'd applied for another two .22cal rifles, and had them authorised, so all I had to do was go buy what I fancied, and what I fancied was that odd-looking old Mauser gathering dust and cobwebs on the rack behind the counter.
'I'll take it, Chris, while I'm here, okay?'
'About bloody time, if you ask me', replode he, 'let's write it in then', taking my Firearms Certificate and entering it in the 'sold to' section. 'I'm sure I can find a back-sight for it somewhere, no doubt', says I, with no real hope of doing so, after all, HE'D not found one, had he?
Money changed hands - a small matter of a measly £80 - at that time, around $150 or so...
Bewhiles, his wife, Sandy, watching the ongoing business with an eagle eye, said as an aside as she made her way upstairs, 'I'll go and dig that old scope out of the cabinet so you can take it with you...' and clumped up the stairs to the storeroom, fnurgling around for a minute or so, clanging an old metal cabinet open and closed, and then back downstairs, clutching an old paper carrier bag in her hands.
Her husband, visibly moved to a barely-concealed measure of ire, looked at her and uttered through clenched teeths, 'WHAT scope is that?'
'Well', quothe Sandy in all innocence, 'back around 1980, when we took it in from that widow lady to sell after her husband had passed away, you got me to remove the scope because it was forever catching you as you passed by, but here it is now, all safe and sound for you, tac!'
Chris, who had just rung up the sale in the one register and booked it out of his his dealers' register, just looked at me with sparks coming out of his ears, 'Aren't you the lucky one today?' and stomped off to see to somebody else.
Sandy winked at me. 'Enjoy', she said.
Here's a view through the scope...clear as the day it was made, right?
Current value of the rifle in that condition in the US of A hovers around $1100-1500, and counting.
The finding of the back-sight will have to wait for another time, but suffice it to say that it took almost fifteen years to find one.
Here is the item itself -
Back in the late 80's, three or four of us in our gun club, RAF Alconbury Rifle & Pistol Club, based on the ranges at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, started up a kind of syndicate of revolver shooting based on Police Pistol and IPSC. The side-effect of that was the need to buy bullets by the 5000 at a time, as we were often shooting between 300 and 500 a week on a regular basis. Our local dealer, in Bedford, was the small but very-well stocked Bedford Target Sports, run by the late Chris Fordham and his wife, Sandy.
So it was that I was wont to haunt the place about once a month, buying 158gr hard-cast bullet like they were going out of fashion, and while I was waiting for the sack-wagon to carry them out to the car, I'd have a look around.
As one does.
The store had a few gun racks, with little to interest me, TBH, except one, mainly for .22s of all kinds. At the end of the rack was this lonely-looking rifle, catching my eye by virtue of a couple of things -
1. It was a full-size rifle in all respects, not any kind of reduced-scale for younger shooters, no sirree.
2. It had no rear sight, although it did have an odd-looking set of grooves, about ten inches long, where the back sight should have been. It was also grooved for a scope.
Hmmmm. Well, I looked at it, and moved on, after all, I already had a few .22 rifles...
However, this thing called to me, and it was there every time I went in for the next year or so, maybe three. I've mentioned before here, ad nauseam, that here in UK we can't just waltz into a gun store and leave with a real-live bullet-shooting gun of any kind, without a lot of PITA paper-work and applications to acquire and possess a Section 1 firearm blah blah...suffice it to say that around 1992 I'd applied for another two .22cal rifles, and had them authorised, so all I had to do was go buy what I fancied, and what I fancied was that odd-looking old Mauser gathering dust and cobwebs on the rack behind the counter.
'I'll take it, Chris, while I'm here, okay?'
'About bloody time, if you ask me', replode he, 'let's write it in then', taking my Firearms Certificate and entering it in the 'sold to' section. 'I'm sure I can find a back-sight for it somewhere, no doubt', says I, with no real hope of doing so, after all, HE'D not found one, had he?
Money changed hands - a small matter of a measly £80 - at that time, around $150 or so...
Bewhiles, his wife, Sandy, watching the ongoing business with an eagle eye, said as an aside as she made her way upstairs, 'I'll go and dig that old scope out of the cabinet so you can take it with you...' and clumped up the stairs to the storeroom, fnurgling around for a minute or so, clanging an old metal cabinet open and closed, and then back downstairs, clutching an old paper carrier bag in her hands.
Her husband, visibly moved to a barely-concealed measure of ire, looked at her and uttered through clenched teeths, 'WHAT scope is that?'
'Well', quothe Sandy in all innocence, 'back around 1980, when we took it in from that widow lady to sell after her husband had passed away, you got me to remove the scope because it was forever catching you as you passed by, but here it is now, all safe and sound for you, tac!'
Chris, who had just rung up the sale in the one register and booked it out of his his dealers' register, just looked at me with sparks coming out of his ears, 'Aren't you the lucky one today?' and stomped off to see to somebody else.
Sandy winked at me. 'Enjoy', she said.
Here's a view through the scope...clear as the day it was made, right?
Current value of the rifle in that condition in the US of A hovers around $1100-1500, and counting.
The finding of the back-sight will have to wait for another time, but suffice it to say that it took almost fifteen years to find one.
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