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............or perhaps the title should be ' A salutory lesson'.

In 2007 a friend of mine who is in the same business as me had a stroke and his family asked me for help in running his business. ( We both grow Orchids and export the flowers, he had just restructered and hired new staff). It was in the middle of our flowering season and although I was working 20hr days I rearranged my work and spent considerable time training his new staff and supervising them so that he didnt lose his crop. He came to see me a few months later and wanted to pay me for my time which I refused. A couple of months after that he arrived on my doorstep and insisted that I accept a gift. We had a 'discussion' about how friendship worked but the end result was he insisted that I accept a token of appreciation. He then went to his car and handed me a rifle bag and said " I want you to have this. Dont open it till I go." He then left.

This is what I found in the rifle bag.

Most if not all of you will recognise it. For those that dont, it is a 1908 'model B' 10.75X68.

Here are a few more pics.

Also included were approx 5 packets of cartridges along with a few fired cases.

To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement. I spoke to him shortly after his visit and insisted that it was too valuable but his reply was that he knew I appreciated firearms and wanted it to go to a good home.He also said he was looking forward to hearing a 'range report'.

When I inspected the Mauser I found that the bolt number didnt match the serial no of the rifle. I posted up on a Mauser forum back in 2008 from memory and one of their members ( I think it was Don S) gave me a lot of helpful info regarding the rifle. The non matching bolt worried me somewhat so after I stripped it down and cleaned it, I sent the rifle to a local gunsmith to have it checked for headspace etc. It got the all clear and I subsequently took it to a friends farm where we had a range set up with the idea of shooting a couple of rounds through it.
When I went to load it, I found that I had difficulty in closing the bolt on a cartridge. My buddy and I looked closer at the cartridges and they appeared to be handloads ......we figured that they had not been sized properly and subsequently fired 2 rounds with no problems apart from the 'sticky' to close bolt. I then cleaned the Mauser and although I toyed with the idea of using it further, I always seemed to bypass it for others in the safe.

Fast forward to November 2011. My 'Benefactor' was diagnosed with cancer and asked me to take his other rifles and convert them into cash as he didnt have anyone to leave them to. ( he had mentioned he had a couple of other guns but only ever referred to 2 shotguns and a couple of .22's)

When I picked up the other guns, he hands me another Mauser.......( can you see where this is going yet?)

Here are a couple of pics of the second Mauser..........This one is an 8X57J with a Pecar scope.

I decided to give all the firearms a clean but when I went to remove the bolt from the 8X57 I had to take the scope off as the bolt wouldnt clear it. The scope mounting screws showed signs of having been removed often judging by the marks on the slots. I also noticed that the bolt serial no didnt match the rifle. The 4 digit number looked familiar however and so I checked the 10.75.............and found that at some stage he had mixed the bolts up!

Thank god for the strength of the Mauser actions.

What I cant understand is the fact that the gunsmith who checked the 10.75 and pronounced it 'safe to fire' was also given a packet of the ammunition that came with the gun, and when I picked it up after he checked it, he mentioned that, apart from the bolt being hard to close, everything checked out.

And yes, I do feel embarrassed about the incident, and it has given me food for thought regarding my approach to any firearms related matters.... the main one being 'Never take anything for granted'.
A combination of a lot of events, coupled with a lack of knowledge could have had disastrous results.

The history of the 10.75 is this.......It belonged to the grandfather of my friend who left Holland and emigrated to Africa. He subsequently moved to New Guinea and passed it down to my friends father and subsequently to him.It was used both in Africa and Asia to hunt Cape Buffalo/ Asian Water Buffalo before it eventually arrived in NZ.

When I uplifted the other firearms he also gave me about 4 wooden boxes full of what looked like fired cases and 'bits and pieces'.

When I started unpacking them to catalogue what was there, I found over 700 8X57J projectiles, still in their original Norma boxes, sets of relaoding dies for 303, 308, and 8x57 ( with interchangeable 'pins' etc for loading .318 & .323 dia cartridges. There were also about 10 packs of Norma Olympic grade Match 8X57J cartridges. Here is a 'bench shot' of some of the 'bits and pieces'.

I have managed to sell some of the rifles, but still have the 8x57J Mauser.........and the last time I spoke with my friend, he indicated that he wanted me to keep it for helping him out.

Hope you enjoyed the 'Tale of two Mausers.'
(Apologys for the crappy pics, they dont do either rifle justice)

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