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Most of you have probably encountered prewar Mauser sporting rifles with mismatched numbers. I have a couple myself that came out of S. Africa - barreled action has one number, bottom metal and/or bolt another, and sometimes the number in the barrel channel of the stock is also different. And yet the guns are complete and functional and no one would be the wiser if all the numbers were missing. I can understand that African gunsmiths may have used whatever parts they had on hand over the years to refurbish weapons, etc. Obviously this reduces the collector value substantially (50%?), but what about the actual function? Is there any chance a non-matching numbers gun actually came from the factory? Speed's book suggests that a little mismatching may have gone on. Grateful for your thoughts on this! |