doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Griffin & Howe Columbian Mauser

Good evening,

So here's an interesting one. Griffin & Howe presently has a 30.06 Mauser that, although not marked Griffin & Howe, they assure me is a G&H piece. The folks at G&H are as always very gracious and they identify it as their work and note based upon its source (I assume whoever they purchased it from or have consigned it for) that it's one of theirs - they think it dates to the 60s.

Kind of an interesting piece, it looks very much like a sportorized 1950s era FN Columbian Mauser. It seesm it was probably made as a 30.06 (not converted) and actually made after ww2. I suspect its story is that when it was intially sportorized G&H made the stock and for whatever reason minimal metal work beyond that was performed in the context fo the sportorization. It is still wearnig what would have been its origional(but likely shortened) military stepped barrel. Beyond that it looks like they just removed the military gunsights. The stock is sort of G&H reflective - I am not sure I have seen many G&Hs without forend tips. The folks at G&H think it is not G&H marked because they did not do the metal work which kind of makes sense.

I think the gun is sort of fascinating due to its likely G&H stock and its origionality to what is likley a post WW2 mauser. I appreciate it for what it represents in the "spirit" of sportorization of military rifles. It's really just a good conditoin, barrel shortened, well stocked sportorized military mauser. It is still very much a military mauser - yet it is also a sporting rifle. To me it is really what a sportorized military rifle should be - it is still very much what it used to be.

Ok folks I need some help - G&H has quite a price on it and I could buy a regular used G&H for pretty similar money. If I could get G&H to give me a letter of authenticity and get the price down would this be worth pursuing? I'm thinking low to mid 3 thousand range - am I crazy? They have placed a pretty strong price on it, and although I know they are in business to make money they also have a good reputation to protect which keeps them from misrepresenting th/grossly overpricing things. I've bought from them in the past and they were more than fair and I trust them.

Here's the lsiting - thanks in advance!l

https://griffinhowe.com/product/griffin-howe-fn-mauser-30-06-316/

Just me, but, you haven’t defined an exact use for this interesting piece. I’ve been looking at some of the same guns for the last decade, at the same dealers, G&H included, that haven’t gone anywhere, and won’t go anywhere in the next decade.

This might not be all on the dealer. I can well imagine kids and widows clinging to a price they saw on the internet, and expecting the same or more for old Harvey’s rifle, God rest his soul.

Do you think you could quickly sell the gun, at the asking, or, your imagined better price? If you doubt that, it is priced too high.

Pragmatic, and not romantic, I know. But, you asked.

Good luck.

Best,
Ted

For me, it would have to be in the mid 2's. But then that is just me. Selling bolt rifles around here, of any sort, is difficult, of course.

Looks like a great rifle, but without the G&H address and build number on it it’s just another really well made unmarked custom rifle in my book. I’m not claiming they didn’t do the work because I think they did. Someone saved money on the front end by not having them do All the metal work and that equates to a rifle that’s not valued as high today as one they did do it all.

it would be interesting to see the receiver ring under the scope mount....fn did a run of military 98's near the end of their production, that had a shallow relief groove on the rear of the ring. it allowed loaded 30-06 rounds to be cycled thru the action with the bullets still in the case. from memory they were made for Luxemburg. the bolt head is military, with what looks to be a buehler after market safety....and the bolt handle lacks the cross-hatched flat of the commercial 98's.

however, the barrel looks to me to be the contour of the early deluxe sporter barrels - from 1948 until 1953 (?) - proofs are in the right position.

stock is beautiful, checkering fine, but that "crack" at the toe, looks more like a break being held in place by the recoil plate - that looks like $1k hickey to me.

i'd judge it to be worth about half their asking price.

best regards,

tom

Post WW2 FN mfg 98 were made for a number of countrys in 30-06.
We supplied great amts of surplus ammo to many countrys after the war as a friendly gesture and converting older rifles to '06 as well as buying new ones in 3006 made sense at the time.
Even the Belgian military bought 2 contracts of them in the early 50's.

This one has that relief cut in the top back edge of the front ring as already pointed out . For stripper clip loading the 30-06 rd .
The same feature is also present on older, pre-war Mauser rifles that were modified post war to 30-06 usually by the owner nations arsenals.
These latter often have an additional relief cut in the ring at 3 0clock right at the loading port edge. This to afford smooth ejection of Loaded rds of 30-06 as well.
I don't see that 3 oclock feature on this rifle.


The post war guns will have the H cut/broached internal bbl abutment shoulder. Pre-war machining was done in the C cut style where oly the RH lug cut was made thru the shoulder.
This you can easily see by removing the bolt and glancing into the breech at that bbl abutment ring.
Just a change in mfg'rg.
Some will argue that it cheapened the grail 98 and even made it weak.
I don't buy into that

This rifle has the Military style lock screw(s) on the trigger guard for the action screw(s). That was also used on the post war rifles and a continuation from pre-war specs.
Sporters were devoid of them though some early sporters used x-military parts and will still have the feature.

Post war recv'rs are a thru-hardened steel unlike the pre-war guns using a low carbon&case hardened steel.
Much stronger and much nicer to work on!

Looks like a very nice sporter. But I think the price is too high.
JMO of course, but there are lots of high qual sporter custom built rifles around in that $$ range that would seem to offer more.
A connection to G&H or it's Gunsmithing SHop just doesn't mean that much to me at least to bump the price into that range.

I would feel more comfortable with the G&H connection if it had a G&H side mount, which was a reasonably priced item in earlier times.