Forums.NitroExpress.com

Sometimes you may have luck at internet auctions, just as buckstix had recently, see:
http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat....true#Post233888
All it takes is a seller with inferior knowledge, a very rare item nobody knows, an erroneous description and substandard auction photos.
I had such luck some years ago, though on a much lower level than buckstix. A gunsmith from southern Germany offered on EGUN a "very early Mannlicher-Schoenauer, serial number 299, altered to .30-06, with claw-mounted old 4x Kahles scope, seems to have seen little use, some dings and scratches on stock from storage." On the one small auction photo I noticed some "earmarks", an unusual (for a M-Sch) 3-leaf "express sight" and a foreend slightly shorter in front of the sling stirrup than usual on M-Sch rifles. The starting price of the auction was Euro 300.-, about US $ 390.-. A few minutes before the auction ended there were no bids at all, so I placed one and won the auction at the starting price. This is what I got:

It is a M1924, virtually unknown in Germany as it was made for export to the USA where it is known as the "Sequoia model" for the name of the importing company. According to legend the Steyr factory had a contract with Sequoia for 1000 such rifles, but the deal fell through some time. So few serial numbers above 300 are known among M-Sch collectors. According to about 1930 German mail order catalogs remaining stocks were offered on the European market, together with the M1925 "High Velocity" model, but at a 10% discount for the then foreign to Europeans .30-06 chambering. As the M1925 was offered first in 7x64 and 8x60 Magnum, the inscription on the receiver ring of these left over rifles was altered from "M1924" to " Kal. 7.62x63", the metric designation for the .30-06. So the inscription only was altered, not the caliber. #299 came with a then factory optional Kahles, Vienna, "Heliavier" scope on Vienna style "Schnäpper" mounts. Scope and mount are numbered to the rifle.
I posted this rifle before, but repost it because user buckstix had similar luck with a double rifle at $ 2000.- and Nordmann doubted anything good may be had for little money from the net.

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