1948? Commercial Mauser 22-250 Question

[Mike85]

Hi Everyone,

I’m new to this forum and have a question about a mysterious (to me at least) 22-250 that I recently inherited from my grandfather.

We are from Kalispell MT, and my grandfather and uncle were very good friends with a gunsmith by the name of L.H. Brown. I now have many custom rifles with modifications from Mr. Brown including a 03-A3 re-barreled in .308 Norma Mag and the gun in question, a bolt action bullpup 22-250.


As the story goes, this bullpup was made to shoot gophers out the window without having the barrel hang out the window. Because cops.



It is obviously extensively modified but, to the best of my knowledge (which admittedly isn’t much when it comes to pre 64 Mauser rifles) the rest of the rifle appears relatively original.

The only markings are:

Right Side

“FN 1948”
“Made in Belgium”


Left Side

“BR”
“.22-250”
“175”



I believe this is based on a commercial FN Mauser action for Browning made in 1948, based on the obvious, but the 175 (serial number?) throws me for a loop. Could this actually be the 175th rifle made? I’m assuming not.

From my research, the US model 1948 rifles had “Chrome Vanadium Steel” marked on the barrel, which this does not have, but that may have been modified by L.H. Brown?



Can you guys help determine the date of manufacture or really any information on this rifle? Or is too modified?

I could be completely off base, and I just learned about the commercial Mausers from internet research, so please don’t hesitate to tell me I’m wrong because I almost certainly am.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

[SBS]

It is a 1948 Commercial FN Mauser action. Much too early to be connected with Browning. FN made shotguns on contract for Browning at the time, but was much later before they made Mauser action rifles for them and then with some modifications. Browning bought out FN a few years back, but up until then, FN simply made firearms on contract for Browning. FN also exported just actions to the U.S. up until the late 70's and these were not serial numbered until the 1968 Gun Control Act took effect and required them to do so. However, their complete rifles exported to the U.S. were serial numbered on the receiver and on the barrel. I suspect this was sold as an action and perhaps serial numbered by the gunsmith. It's also possible that it was a complete rifle originally and that this was a factory serial number -- the numbers are about the same size as the ones on early complete FN rifles. FN was busy making rifles for the Belgian military just after the War and it was a few years before they started exporting rifles. I've seen a lot of FN actions and never saw one marked with an earlier date than 1948; but they might have exported them earlier. Also when FN made A5 shotguns for Browning, they started serial numbers all over again each year. This could have been the case with this action if it was originally a complete rifle. The BR in a circle is a puzzle. It's obviously a custom barrel since there are no Belgium markings, as was the case on complete rifles. This was a popular wildcat in the beginning of BR competition, although it was generally known then (1950's) as a .22 Varminter. Both Winchester and Remington proof stamped their barrels with letters inside an oval or rectangular outline. Is it possible this was a proof stamp of the gunsmith Brown? Do your other rifles by him have a similar stamp? It's certainly a 1 piece stamp that someone had made special and would have intended to use a number of times.

 

[jasophil1]

1948 was the year it was made.

 

[Mike85]

Thank you very much SBS. I really appreciate your knowledge on these rifles.

However, their complete rifles exported to the U.S. were serial numbered on the receiver and on the barrel. I suspect this was sold as an action and perhaps serial numbered by the gunsmith. It's also possible that it was a complete rifle originally and that this was a factory serial number -- the numbers are about the same size as the ones on early complete FN rifles.

That makes a lot of sense. With today's regulations, it didn't even cross my mind that this was pre-68. I wish I could ask him, but from the stories my uncle told about how close my grandpa and LH Brown were, it likely would have been an non-serialized action. And rifle number 175 makes much more sense if its the gunsmith's marking as opposed to FN.

The BR in a circle is a puzzle. It's obviously a custom barrel since there are no Belgium markings, as was the case on complete rifles. This was a popular wildcat in the beginning of BR competition, although it was generally known then (1950's) as a .22 Varminter. Both Winchester and Remington proof stamped their barrels with letters inside an oval or rectangular outline. Is it possible this was a proof stamp of the gunsmith Brown? Do your other rifles by him have a similar stamp? It's certainly a 1 piece stamp that someone had made special and would have intended to use a number of times.

OF COURSE!! The circled BR stamp doesn't stand for Browning, it stands for Brown!
From what Ive pieced together over the years, I believe LH Brown played with most, if not all the rifles my grandpa and uncle owned, but there are only 7 that have his stamp on the barrel. And what do you know? All but one have the same "BR" stamp.

This is the 03-A3 chambered in .308 Norma mag with the same marking.


I truly appreciate your help on this SBS! I really enjoy learning about the history of these! I know how revered the pre-64 Mauser action is, and I know how to use the search function so feel free to disregard this, but are these early post war actions better, worse, or not much different than other years?

To test my luck: any idea on the scope? the only markings are "made in Germany" and I haven't had time to determine the power, but I believe it would be from the same time period up to the early 1950s based on the manufacture date of most of the rifles in his collection and the fact that it doesn't specify East or West Germany.

Thank you again!

 

[SBS]

That appears to be a German prewar Ajack 7.5x50 scope. If so, the tube diameter will be 26 1/2 mm diameter and it will be about 14" long. The number 50 indicates the diameter of the objective lens (mm-about 2") not the diameter of the front housing. Germany was partitioned at the end of WWII until it was reunited in the late 80's. Anything out of West Germany during the partitioned period would have been marked "Made in West Germany" -- nothing came out of E. Germany except a few lucky souls that managed to escape. So, being simply marked "Germany" would indicate a prewar scope, and I don't think Ajack scopes were made after the War, never saw them advertised at least. I think you may have confused Winchester firearms with Mauser concerning the pre-64 term. It is applied to Winchester firearms manufactured prior to 1964, when Winchester made some cost cutting moves as a result of higher labor costs, in an effort to save the company. Many deemed the changes to be detrimental to the main CF rifles produced after that, primarily the Model 70 and the Model 94. Most of the good popular rimfires had already been discontinued prior to that date. The efforts failed, as Winchester was sold in 1981. As far as I know, 1964 had nothing to do with any Mauser type rifle production. My personal experience with the very early FN's is limited. I do remember that the earliest ones were not drilled and tapped on top for scope bases and I've seen a number of them that were poorly D&T by owners or would be gunsmiths. Personally, I think the best finished rifles were made in the late 50's and up into the 60's. As far as the quality of the machine work, I never did much measuring, so don't know how this compared over the years they were imported. As far as finish goes, the FN Deluxe was a gorgeous rifle with deep rust bluing and a large FN crest on top of the front receiver ring. Many actions were exported to the U.S. and other countries. Most of them coming into our country were in the white (not finish polished and blued), so the quality of finish you see on rifles made from imported actions cannot be attributed to FN. FN commercial actions were also sold to Sako in Finland and Husqvarna in Sweden not long after the War. These firms built rifles on them until they developed a modern long action of their own to compete in the local and world markets. My Sako .375 H&H is a factory rifle made on a FN action, before Sako developed the L61 action. The Swedes were primarily producing sporting rifles on the 94/96 type action, which was not large enough for the .30-06 and magnum size rounds. A few years later they replaced the FN with the HVA Swedish made action. FN was able to use their prewar tooling to make commercial Mausers for worldwide sale and a good thing because nations were no longer interested in buying bolt actions for their armies. Eventually, they no longer exported FN Mausers in any quantity as production costs got higher and higher and even Browning moved most of their rifle and shotgun production to Japan in the late 70's. Edit: I had a FN employee on vacation visit me some 15-20 years ago and said they were still manufacturing small quantities of the FN Mauser action, which I had believed was long out of production.