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A fellow hunter asked me if I could repair the stock of his "old Mauser rifle". Due to a fall the no-name, Bakelite buttplate was broken and the stock had a bad split extending into the hand. As it turned out, the rifle was made by Walter Röll, the last head of the Mauser, Oberndorf sporting arms department up to 1945. (ö and oe are interchangeable in German) Immediately after the war he assembled some sporters for the French occupation forces. Later, he was allowed to open a shop of his own.The French sold the leftover stock of Mauser commercial sporter parts and tools to him. roell continued making sporting rifles up into the early 1960s, using original Mauser and new made parts, but of course continued to make his quality rifles to the same "late Mauser sporter" style, incorporating changes only due to then popular demand. Roell even extended the Mauser commercial serial number range, which had ended at about 126600. Alas, he had the original Mauser factory numbering stamps and did not change his habits after 1945. So, Roell made Mauser rifles are often hard to distinguish from later originals, except for the lack of Mauser trademarks and inscriptions.
The rifle I have to repair is a B type with a hogback buttstock, fashionable in Germany during the 1950s - 80s. It is in 8x57S, "Mauser" serial number 128141, Ulm proofed 160 = January 1960. The serial numbers match on all parts, like they do on commercial Mausers.

After unsoldering the ring-type front claw mount base, I found these on and under the barrel shank:

inside the barrel channel:

Walter Roell had his own bottom metal assemblies made of a light alloy to the Mauser commercial shape, see Jon Speed's books. The magazine floorplate is steel. The integral double set trigger mechanism is the Mauser commercial factory design, not the separate housing "hairpin spring" design used by others post war. The front trigger even shows the post-WW1 "Mauser trademark" recurve.

I will epoxy repair the split stock, reinforcing it with two brass pins, glass bed the recoil lug with a hidden crossbolt, install a red buttpad, remove the offending hogback and refinish the stock. Result will be posted when the job is done.

Edited by CptCurl (30/12/13 03:27 AM)

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