Lancaster, thank you for posting the pictures. I do it so infrequently I am relearning each time. I’ll have to go back and figure out what I did wrong.

Re the .318 bore, that is quite welcome as I’m already resizing.323 bullets down for a wonderful pre-war Merkel double rifle that is a tack driver.

Can you imagine the number of days this rifle must have spent afield to have this much finish wear?

Lastly, I was quite lucky with the price as it was sold by a small auction house that didn’t describe it well at all. There was a second lot similar to this that closed yesterday. Different auction. Only 2 dark pictures and a description of only “beautiful commercial Mauser”. I have just made a number of buys and stayed away from that rifle out of fear of angering my wife. She tolerates much but notices a deluge of long boxes arriving within a week.

Chris