In my opinion one could hardly go wrong with a M-S. If the bore is not shot out for a hundred year old rifle. And as a Australian/Austrian friend said, if buying a European rifle, and they are relatively cheap in Europe, the bore may even be quite new, only fired a few rounds per year of the rifles life.

He acquired a M-S in 6.5x54 M-S for about A$1600 or even a lot less. A few years back. Main cost is getting it out of Europe and to your country!

A 6.5 mm, 8 mm, would make a nice medium calibre, maybe a 9 mm. And a 9.5 mm and dandy medium/larger calibre lower powered round.

Then there are a lot of other cartridge choices as well.

As for Mauser, great, but choosing an earlier one, and wanting its provenance exact? There can be a lot of shony sellers for a person now knowing what to look for. I can think of a few rifles over the years passed off as something else by the touts on the net.

BTW what sort of calibre are you aiming for? Or is it just for a collection and not a lot of use?

Good luck.