First post...

I'm more of a pistol person but some long guns have a certain appeal. So I'm sorta in the noob category when it comes to rifles that are anything other than modern.

So... a long story short my grandfather was a colonel in the US army and after a slog through France, Germany, and skirting the Czech border he ended WWII in Austria where he became the occupation commandant of an Austrian town. The story I got is that part of the occupation effort was the disarming of the citizenry of the town. He also had the brewery restarted too but that's a different story. Anywho... He had the town folk bring rifles and other arms that could be used for offensive purposes to the town square. Before they were destroyed, he, the other officers and enlisted picked out some of the better ones as 'keepsakes.' It has been 25 years since he passed and I have been waiting patiently... a boxing day gift as it was from my uncle this past week.

My grandfather came home with this... a model 1903 M-S:

Here is a view of the markings... post anschluss "Made in Germany" as I understand it places the make on this between 1938 and 1940.

Came with the Austrian-style scope with snap-on mount

but also has the nice leaf-style sights...

So my questions are...

I need to learn to disassemble this one and have no clue beyond the nice youtube video I found on the specifics of the bolt assembly. Anyone have documents or a video to share for the whole thing? Have not found one yet.

It needs to be cleaned better and I'd like to get a picture of the proof marks under the stock.

I was also given a box of Norma shells, that likely date to the 1960s or more likely the 1950s. Any suggestions to whom might have suitable rounds for targeting and possibly hunting. Or am I picking up a new hobby of re-loading?

Anyway... great forum and have spent the better part of last night and tonight reading things.

Cheers!