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Let's see if the photos follow:

I'm trying to find out who in Austria made this custom rifle. There is no maker's name or even calibre marked anywhere on it, even detached from the stock. The scope mount may perhaps have covered up some info.

This rifle originally started life after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. The receiver was marked DOU 44. This secret 3-letter code in 1944 stood for what was then called the Waffenwerke Brunn AG in Bystrica. At that time the occupied factory was making Mauser K98's for the German military until it was severely bombed in 1944. The original serial number 4023 and German markings on the receiver ring, along with the DOU letter code, were all subsequently filled-in and blued-over in the gun's new life in Austria, but with time they are faintly visible again. Where the king screw meets the action there's a Z inside a tiny circle which I presume stands for Zbrojovbka Brno.

It was typical for most Austrian custom gunsmiths to use surplus Mauser's after WW2. This receiver was then given the new serial number HS 135. It's tempting to speculate if the "HS" might mean Ferlach gunsmith Herbert Scheiring. Ferlach proof's in the form of an eagle and NPF (and "67") appear on the upper bolt handle and also on the action along with 315-67. I assume this means the 315th proof done in Ferlach in 1967. None of these markings are in the style of the Ferlacher Guild, 2 numbers, a dot, and then more numbers, so I have to presume this rifle's maker was not then part of the Guild. My requests to the Ferlach Proof Office for the original record details have so far gone unanswered.

The barrel fitted in Austria is .270 Winchester. The walnut stock is of the Bavarian cheekpiece style and the forend is Schnabel finished. The scope has both windage and elevation turrets and a duplex crosshair, (7A?). The previous owner was a chef working in Haast, New Zealand, whose father back in Austria brought it for him new as a going away present, apparently getting it directly from the gun-maker, a personal family friend. This rifle when traded had only ever fired 43 rounds which had accounted for about 20 red deer and chamois in the NZ Southern Alps.

It would be very interesting to know who the rifle's custom maker is, not least because this rifle will need to be registered here in New Zealand and a blank space for "make" will very probably fail to satisfy the bureaucrats! The very existence of the long-gun registry here is being reviewed in June 2024.