Do you know the vintage of this "Steinway" of BA rifles- often G&H in pre-WW2 era would remove the arsenal stamped serial numbers, and re-marked the gun later with their own set of numbers. Here's a possible "starting point" from Silvio Calabi's fine book on Ernest Hemingway's guns- His was made to order in 1930 are bears SN 956-- His as shown full length with the 24" barrel on page 77- I would "eye-ball" SWAG from that about 10.5" to 11" from the front of the magazine box/floor-plate to the tip of the forearm.
What are your primary concerns here? Someone has possibly cut down the fore-stock? Does it have a black front cap inset? If so, I don't think that it has been altered. What is the barrel length- from the chamber to the muzzle, and of shortened from 24" length, was it then re-crowned? G&H had a fairly recognize-able style and form in the 1930-1941 era, so if your prospective rifle is in that serial number range and is unaltered, and it fits you, buy it-- I have a G&H custom on a Mauser square bridge in .35 Whelan made in 1938 (and I have the paperwork on it too) and it is 11.5" dead on in that area you questioned, but it is a Masuer, not an 1903.It is equipped with a Zeiss scope in the G&H detachable mounts- it is rugged, smooth in action, as all the 98 Mauser BOLT ACTIONS TEND TO BE-(IMO anyway) and the wood to metal fit is superb- plus it shoots MOA groups, and at 11 lbs with the scope mounted, recoil is not a problem. Can we perhaps see some fotos of this fine G&H masterpiece??
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 02/20/13 12:52 PM.
