Adley
“one of the salesmen at the shop--someone whom I know to be pretty knowledgeable in fine guns--recognized the name, Kohle, and said it was good maker.” With respect I think the important word here is SALESMEN ask him when and where he worked. It was not uncommon for a German maker to mark the name of the town as well as his own name on work.
If you can have them take it out of the stock and record everything on barrel and action, it might answer some questions. If the Mauser markings were removed it’s hard to tell a military from a commercial, the best way is that all military have a round bolt knob and most commercial have a pear shaped bolt knob. Greener safeties are sometimes found on German bolt guns. If you say the work looks good chances are he knew what he was doing. From what little I know about the rifle sounds like it might be a good one. If the shop can do a chamber and bore cast have them do one. Look at the forend piece from the top and tell me if it’s one piece butted to the stock or if the stock was thinned down and the forend tip put over the wood.
Good luck,
MP (Michael Petrov)
