Need Help with Immanuel Meffert Mauser

[arecord1]

I came here because i recently bought an Immanuel Meffert 8mm Mauser and would like some help getting some info on this gun. I've been looking around for some time now and haven't really found anything so I figured this would be a great place for some help. This rifle is highly engraved on all of the metal and on the stock and I think is quite beautiful. Any info on this would be great although I would like to know what year and make of Mauser it is.



Thanks ahead of time

[Axel E]

Your Immanuel Meffert, Suhl, rifle was most likely proofed before 1912, as the 8x57I sevice load information "2.67 gramm GewehrBlättchenPulver / StahlMantelGeschoss = 41 gr (military) rifle flake powder / steel jacketed bullet" seems to indicate. To date your rifle closer, you have to take it apart and post photos of all the proof- and other marks and numbers under the barrel and receiver. Pre-WW1 everione wanting to build a 98 actioned sporting rifle had to buy in an action from the Mauser, Oberndorf, factory first, as the Mauser patents were still valid and there were no "military surplus" actions then. These Original Mauser actions are closely datable by the Mauser commercial serial number. On those "action onlies", sold to other gunmakers, Mauser stamped their full serial number under the receiver ring, just behind the recoil lug, and on the rear wall of the magazine box.
As your rifle has early, single foot claw mounts on the barrel, it was most likely originally mounted with a long eye relief Voigtlaender "Skopar D" 3x scope like the one on my M1900 Haenel.These scopes were obsolescent by 1914.

The bolt now in your rifle was almost certainly mismatched, as it comes from a WW1 Kar 98AZ carbine. This is shown by the bolt handle with the round ball flattened underneath.

[Axel E]

The engraving was quite a standard feature before WW1. The stock carving at least, if not the whole stock, was certainly done in America. The deer carved into the buttstock means to depict a native American White Tailed Deer. This deer species was and is unknown in Germany. It does not resemble any German deer species.
IMHO the carving rather distracts from any collectors value. The shape of the stock too is more 1950s American than pre-1914 German. My Haenel shown above has the typical pre-WW1 Suhl stock shape.
Still waiting for a pic of the proofmarks.

[Steve Whitley]

Judging from the photos, I don't think the right side of the buttstock was carved by the same person who did the work on the pistol grip and forearm. Perhaps added later?

Steve

[Axel E]

According to the Mauser commercial serial number 4699, the action of this rifle was made by the Mauser, Oberndorf factory in 1902. The barrel blank was made by the Schilling forge, Suhl, S in hexagon mark. 172,28 is an old-fashioned gauge number, it stands for a bore/land (not groove or bullet!) diameter between 7.62 and 7.87 mm = .300 and .310", correct for a 8x57I, .318" bullet. These gauge numbers went out of general use in 1912. The CROWN – crown/N marks show the rifle was proofed using the "4000 atm special proof powder".
The bolt is of later make. The Kar 98a carbine was introduced in 1908, but mass produced only some years later.
The carved stock is certainly not original, as it is made of American black walnut, not the European species. It's buttstock shape reresembles the "Peerless" pre-shaped stocks offered by Stoeger in the 1940s. So I believe, the rifle was restocked in the USA post-WW2. The primitive stock carvings also meet the tastes of the 1950s.
Mounting a scope on the existing bases is difficult at best. Maybe one of the long eye relief "Scout" type scopes may be adapted with custom made claw rings. Finding an old Voigtlaender "Skopar D" scope is near impossible. It took me 5 years here in Germany to find a replacement.
So there is little collector value left in the rifle.