Aside from any historical value, what attracts me is that the rifle is cheap. Actually, less than half the price of an unaltered German Kar 98k. The Russians refinished the wood in a crude kind of varnish, and assembled the rifle from a mized batch of parts, with electropenciled serial numbers on the bolt and elsewhere. Overall, it does remove some attractiveness, but it's still a Kar 98k and a German made one at that.
Their job of rebluing is actually quite nice too. A great hot-dip blue job, which is dark and handsome.
This particular one coded S/243, denoting that it was made in the Mauser Borsigwalde factory, and dated 1937. The bore has a little frost from having used corrosive ammo but on the whole is very good. The strong points of the design are well shown. I picked up a stash of both Equadorian and Romanian ammo, and a goodly supply of FN AP and Tracer. So far, it likes both, and is a pretty accurate shooter. Careful grouping usually stays under 3 inches, and with the limitations of Mauser sights, thats just fine for me. 8mm Mauser ammo is a pretty hot number too, pushing a 196 grain .323 caliber ball at 2550 fps or a 150 grain ball at 2900.
Cheap surplus ammo abounds, a great hunting rifle with some rockin stopping power. Tough as nails to boot. For $325, a righteous buy.
