MilsurpDan
Ultimate Member
Won this last weekend at the auction in Union Bridge. Overall it was a fun day but it seemed like prices were all over the place. Lot's of good o'l country folk like me but with too much money to spend. Some decent rifles and pistols went for decent prices like two Colt 1903's went for $300 each, 1911's went for $1,200 and some sporting guns went for cheap, but jeez, some people really let their wallet take a beating. A heavily bubba'd and pimp shined M1 Carbine went for $700, a run of the mill refurb SVT-40 with a pitted bore went for $1,150, a terribly sharpened, polished and rusted Japanese Sword went for over $700 if I remember right and a host of other guns went for above estimated value. And the prices I mentioned were BEFORE the 10% Buyer's Premium, 6% Sales Tax and Transfer Fee. I ended up leaving about halfway through after I won something.
Anyway, there wasn't much there that I was interested in unfortunately but I spied this Fabrique Nationale made Sporter in .30-06 on the table. At first I thought it was a finely done bubba job, but I realized it was factory done. FN made sporting rifles from the late 40's through the 60's and supplied actions to a number of U.S. companies for them to use. This one is a complete FN rifle, not assembled off a barreled action. As far as I can tell it was probably made in the early 50's. It was so beautiful I had to have it.
I thought I had won it for $200 but somebody else decided to jump in at the last second and bid me up to my max of $450. I was a little annoyed but low and behold I won. With the buyer's premium, tax and transfer fee, I'm in it for about $550, so I might have paid a little too much. But heck, where else am I gonna find a nice FN made Mauser Sporting rifle for a good price? I was planning on buying one of Simpson's Husqvarna's, but none of them seemed as nice in this price range and I didn't want a sporter with an M96 Action. I prefer the M98 action such as this.
Hopefully it'll perform well for me in the woods this year. I wish it was drilled and tapped for a scope but I can always get another rifle if I want one with some glass on it. The Lyman 57SME it's got seems good enough for now. Unfortunately the buttplate looks like it has a little bit of damage. Does anybody know a good way to fill in the holes? I'm guessing dyed epoxy?
Anyway, there wasn't much there that I was interested in unfortunately but I spied this Fabrique Nationale made Sporter in .30-06 on the table. At first I thought it was a finely done bubba job, but I realized it was factory done. FN made sporting rifles from the late 40's through the 60's and supplied actions to a number of U.S. companies for them to use. This one is a complete FN rifle, not assembled off a barreled action. As far as I can tell it was probably made in the early 50's. It was so beautiful I had to have it.
I thought I had won it for $200 but somebody else decided to jump in at the last second and bid me up to my max of $450. I was a little annoyed but low and behold I won. With the buyer's premium, tax and transfer fee, I'm in it for about $550, so I might have paid a little too much. But heck, where else am I gonna find a nice FN made Mauser Sporting rifle for a good price? I was planning on buying one of Simpson's Husqvarna's, but none of them seemed as nice in this price range and I didn't want a sporter with an M96 Action. I prefer the M98 action such as this.
Hopefully it'll perform well for me in the woods this year. I wish it was drilled and tapped for a scope but I can always get another rifle if I want one with some glass on it. The Lyman 57SME it's got seems good enough for now. Unfortunately the buttplate looks like it has a little bit of damage. Does anybody know a good way to fill in the holes? I'm guessing dyed epoxy?
