Brazilian 1908 non matching Long rifle.

[KneverKnew]

Numbers don’t match. No import marks. Receiver and bolt are in the white still and look nice although possibly polished. Outside of barrel below wood line has significant putting but rifle still groups decent ...2.5” with regular old Remington core lokts. I paid a little over $300 for this rifle. Did I make a bad buy? What’s the real value?

[steamer]

Personally I think you did fine. The metal and wood look to be pretty decent - too bad about the pitting, but from what you show, certainly doesn't seem like anything to be concerned about. All mil-surps have climbed to crazy prices the past few years so if you got a Brazilian 1908 for $300+ then that sounds good to me. I'm sure others will provide their two cents as well but I'm giving you a Enjoy it.

[KneverKnew]

Many thanks. I need to pull the stock and take more pics of the pitting to post here. I’m not too concerned about it since I’ve already shot the Remington loads. I do plan to reload for it and just want to know if y’all here think the barrel is still strong enough for near max loads, within reason of course. My understanding is that these DWM 1908 receivers were pretty strong. Any info on this would be helpful. Thanks.

[indy1919a4]

I so like Mausers in the White like that.. But you have my interest peaked... any chance of seeing a photo of the pitting..??? I am assuming 7mm is that correct??

[KneverKnew]

Yes the rifle is 7x57 Mauser. One of my favorite surplus calibers, next to 6.5 Swede and 7.5 Swiss. It’s a shame the auction company doesn’t allow disassembly inspection before bidding. I feel like I got robbed almost. I guess it depends on how well I can get it to shoot with reloads though. I’m sure there is no resale value in it as is. Here are the pictures of the barrel pitting and on the trigger guard/ magazine housing. There are a few other spots scattered here and there but these are the worst spots by far.






I’m also embarrassed to admit, after checking my final price with the auction buyers premium added in, the price I paid came to $475! Still think I did ok?? I’m not so sure. I was hoping to resale for a little profit. Looks like I may just need to hang onto it as a range toy. I might even hunt with it.

A few other pics. The barrel and receiver seem to have some serial numbers. What do all the other makings signify? Also, I see “98” marked on the Bottom of both barrel shank and receiver ring.



Any clues? For what it’s worth the stock looks in nice condition as well as the crown of the muzzle. I might recrown it to give it all the help I can for range shooting. Assuming there is no collectors value at all, which is clearly the case to me. Please chime in with your opinions. I can take it.

[indy1919a4]

Well I have seen worst.. I have an Israeli 7.62 conversion that had jungle rot under the wood line so bad that it will bring bitter tears to the most callus of you..

It still shoots ok.. Now I refuse to ever tell anyone they paid too much or too little.. each of us have different wants and desires.. But, I will say that I may have been willing to purchase that for that price.. The crest and the white receiver is to die for, The stock is nice... And I do not think it looks unsafe to shoot..

And what is collectors value... please define that... ??? It has value in its condition.. better then I can say for most of us..

Have you shot it yet??

Now here is where I may get a little personal and please feel free to say no, But as a big time Auction whore I gots to know.. Was this an online or local auction.?? What the heck kinda fees did they slap on you to drive it up $150 or so ...???

[KneverKnew]

Well I’m actually starting to feel a bit better about this Brazilian rifle. I was mistaken about what I said I paid. It was a local auction I attended where I bid on and won several surplus rifles and a number of smith and Colt vintage pistols. The intent was to keep certain ones I’d been wanting and sell the others to try and minimize the pain of the cost of the keepers. Or so I told my wife.
Anyway, the auction fee was 20% of the winning bid price. This particular rifle i won with the high bid of $240..total with 20%fee was $312. there was no shipping since the auction was local and since I’m a dealer I was tax exempt. I guess that’s not too bad. I did pay a lot more for other rifles and pistols but they were keepers and in much better shape.

As far as have I shot it yet....YES. I mentioned shooting Remington 170 grain core lokts. They grouped 5 @ 2-5/8” @ 100 yards. This actually surprised me. The bore looked
Pretty dark at first. But this afternoon I decided to give it a good cleaned since I pulled it apart for those pictures earlier. I have to say I’m getting excited. Initial scrubbing with hoppes and a bore brush/patch gave me a nice, bright Bore!! I was still getting carbon and copper signs on patches so I currently have it sitting with Wipe-Out foaming Bore cleaner in it. I’ll patch it out in an hour and repeat until no more copper or carbon signs. I’ll try and get a picture with my Bore cam. It’s for pipes though and won’t fit down Bore. But I can get it down into chamber and get a shot of the first inch or two of the throat.
I also just ordered some Lee 7x57 pace setter dies with factory crimp die. I didn’t want to get hornadies or Redding’s as I usually do since this isn’t going to be a match gun and didn’t want to spend more than I can help on it. I’ll let you know how the Bore comes out.

[indy1919a4]

Well crap.. thats better... I was going to say at 150+ bucks in fees on a $300 purchase stay away from that auction house... ha ha ha.. that would have been your only mistake..

Now I do not know how that house does it, but most times as long as the auction is going you can return an item as not represented correctly.. So in the future if you can pay while the auction is still going on ,take possession.. break it apart then most places will take it back and resell it. Now you need to be loud & forceful & you must do it during the auction. Once the Auction ends its all yours.. There is even case law to back you up. And law to back up the Auctioneer if you do this after the auction is over.. There is a great story of a guy who purchased a Lincoln autograph for big money that was a copy who waited till he got home to find out.

So heck you are worried about nothing this is a nice gun.. A little jungle rot but thats what you get in the jungles of Brazil.

What else you get?? (hey you opened that can of worms)

[sowbelle]

Brazilians have some very nice looking rifles. Unfortunetly 99% have
Some sort of jungle rot on them.
Yours looks better than most I have looked at.
I am glad it shoots well for you and you should be able to do a little
Better with handloads.

[steamer]

Anyway, the auction fee was 20% of the winning bid price. This particular rifle i won with the high bid of $240..total with 20%fee was $312. there was no shipping since the auction was local and since I’m a dealer I was tax exempt.

Certainly that makes a difference. Local + tax exempt is a big plus.

Personally I view the auction fee as a substitute for the time, effort and gas that I would have otherwise spent driving all over town looking at gun stores and pawn shops in the hopes of finding something that I want. Years ago I drew a line in the sand and won't participate in any auction with fees over 18%. (Screw them and Proxibid in that case!)

I view the inevitable shipping charge as a substitute for local (or in state) sales tax. So to me, "I paid the gavel price" for whatever firearm I'm high bidder on. The rest is just a convenience fee. While yes the money is still spent - it makes me feel better to justify it like that.

[indy1919a4]

So Steamer & Kneverknew, is 20% premium common in your states??? Here 10% buyers premium is added. then 7% tax.. Now the fun part comes in that the State considers the premium charge to be a service that the Auction adds, So they charge the 7% tax on the items and the Premium, So you effective surcharge & tax is 18%..

I have a little card that calculates what the end price with the premium as I bid so I kinda bid at the end cost. Now here is the fun I have that set for 20% so when I pay its like I get a little back... I feel good till I get to the car then I cry a little...

[KneverKnew]

Im new to This auction game. The few auctions I’ve atenddd both in person and online have varied from 18% to 25%. As far as I can tell the local house charges tax at the end on top of the fee. Glad I’m tax exempt. I feel a lot better about this rifle thanks to all the comments. I’m going to load up some rounds and see what it will really do for it’s age. How do I determine its build date? Is there a serial number list? Thanks again.

[steamer]

@ indy1919a4 - I'm under the impression that each auction house sets its own percentages? I also imagine that additional % fees may vary with the type of services that the online providers (e.g. Proxibid) offer to the auction house for that event. Honestly, I often don't even pay attention to what state the auction is in since the shipping costs really aren't that much different. Also, since sales tax is typically charged for only in-state buyers, I almost never participate in auctions in my home state.

I only do online auctions (I don't go in-person) and usually I bid off-line as well. My approach is to typically make a lower bid and wait to see if I win anything. However, if you're really anxious to win a particular item, it's always better to participate in the live online bidding during the actual auction. This way you can better gauge the interest in a particular item and increase your bid as needed.

PS Always know, ahead of the live action, the maximum amount you're willing to bid on something based on the all of the factors. Never be afraid to let something go - there are always more items - and numerous firearms auctions every month. Look online at past auctions, Gun Broker, Auction Arms, etc. to get familiar with what something is really worth BEFORE you start bidding.

[indy1919a4]

I have never purchased off a proxibid auction.. I have gone to auctions that have been selling on Proxibid also.. And to be honest many times I have felt that the descriptions on the Proxibid were incorrect or flat out wrong.. And I was glad I was not going to be getting that in the mail.. But those things happen,,

Many times and item is not correctly identified.. but that is what make auctions fun.. You can get the deals with incorrect listings..

So Steamer, please share I have seen Proxibid work, what do you look at to gauge the interest???.. There is no body language to read, just numbers on a screen..

[KneverKnew]

I’ve attended the local auction house in person twice. This last time being the one where I got a number of items to hopefully sell or keep. The nice thing about the local house is you can go inspect the lots by appointment but as I mentioned they won’t let you disassemble which would tell a lot more about the items condition or provenance. Several of the items were misidentified. So I actually got more desirable items for the price of at they were calling “normal” items. Some being a pre-model 10 M&P S&W they labeled as a regular model 10. A Pre victory S&W with rare serial number prefix they labeled as a normal victory. The best was my first K98K dou44 they had mislabeled a zf24???? It turned out to be a GI bring back, no import mark with all matching numbers except the bolt mismatch. But the bolt is all matching to itself. The wood appears to be correct to the manufacture code and is in very good shape. I still paid more than I should have but wanted the rifle as my first K98K and have been told
I did well and it might even be worth a tidy bit more than I paid, should I ever decide to sell.