Video: 1909 Argentine Mausers

Ben:
Hey, everybody. Ben with Classic Firearms here. Today is Tuesday, October the 25th, and we have something very different for you today. It's a rifle that, frankly, I don't think we've ever had in this building. We're displaying everything that we have in this rifle from the Fair code all the way up to the Excellent. We only have, in some cases, one piece of a particular code or a few pieces of another, but we're going to lay it all out here and let you take your pick.

These are Argentine Mausers, 1909 Argentine Mausers. These were made by the Germans on a contract for the country of Argentina under a government contract. Five-round bolt action. They're 7.65x54 caliber. Don't confuse that with the M91/30's or the M39. It is not a Mosin–Nagant caliber. The 7.65, not 7.62. 7.65 Mauser caliber. Ballistically, that's about equivalent to a .303 British. It's a very powerful round.

Some really cool rifles with some cool markings that you don't see very often. We've got a hodgepodge of conditions here. Jordan's going to come in and show you different grades. I see she's starting down on this end. We have one Excellent-grade gun. Again, these are determined by the importer. We sell them the way they grade them and send them to us. We'll go and show you the tag on this one. We have an X code on this tag just below the product number. That stands for Excellent grade. Then we move on into some of the others. The next few are V code. These stand for Very Good.

Now as far as the camera picking up on subtleties on these four rifles on the end between the Very Good and the Excellent, you see very few little nuances. They're all very close to the same condition. Matter of fact, this particular Very Good, it's non-matching, but it has a beautiful walnut stock with some really nice grain in it.

While we're here, Jordan, on this end of the table, let's go ahead and concentrate on this because we are going to run a custom option for matching numbers. My Excellent-grade gun and two of my Very-Good-grade guns here have all matching numbers. Now, if you break into these guns, folks, if you disassemble them and go to the internals and you find a mismatched part, we're not breaking them down, but every visible number that I can see is a matching number.

Let me show you very quickly the matching number on the receiver. I'll see if I can hold that still. Can you see that, Jordan? As well as the bolt. You good with that? I don't think the camera will pick it up because it is so small and fine, but these even have a matching number. I need to hold that still, don't I? These even have a matching number on the cleaning rod. If it don't show, we'll just move on, but trust me, folks - these even have matching number cleaning rods on them. That applies to these bottom three guns.

Only the others may or may not be matching. I know the other two Very Goods are not. The Goods I have not checked for numbers. We're just letting them go as they are. We have one Fair-condition rifle here on the end. Those are going to be different price points.

Jordan, let's scan that Fair, because that is an ugly gun. I would truly call that fair. I'm certain that it's functional. It's just not a beauty queen. Bolt still operates. Hammer still falls. Seems very good and tight. Again, even the safety works. Good, functional gun, but just in Fair condition as far as cosmetics is concerned. Then we have our Goods and, of course, our Very Good and our Excellent.

Jordan, one thing we haven't shown is the crest, so let's show the crest and the markings and then we'll price them out for the folks and call it a day. They have the Argentine crest on the receiver and, of course, they have manufacturing markings on the other side of the receiver showing that they're German-made for an Argentine contract.

Nice rifles overall, folks. I've got a cheat sheet here because I can't remember how we priced them. I'm going to read it off. We have one Fair rifle on the end. This will be a custom option at less money. The Fair is at $299. Then we have a series of Good guns - basically, these guns between my hands here. The Goods are at $379. We have these two Very Goods and they are very good. Jordan, get in on those a little bit more as my hand is there on them. These two Very Goods are at a $429.99. Those are non-matching. They do not have matching bolts to the receiver, but again, beautiful guns. Both of them have beautiful stocks and very nice markings. Then we have the Very Goods all matching at $449.99. Last, we have our Excellent, as graded by the importer. If you're here in person, you can see the subtleties and the differences as to why they call this Excellent. One of the nicest examples I've ever seen of a very rare rifle, this Argentine Mauser. This one is at $499.99.

Folks, these rifles are going to post tomorrow at noon. That will be Wednesday at noon, under the Argentine Mauser code. Come get in on them. The different grades will be under different custom options. We hope you take a shot at them. There's some very nice surplus. As always, thank you for being with us here at www.classicfirearms.com.