Photos. As I stated the grips are aftermarket. I'm not a wealthy man so I buy what I can afford. This one set me back about $800.00. It isn't pretty , but the pistol is in good mechanical condition. I took it apart last night (wow the engineering that went into this pistol is incredible) and everything is solid. The safety works like it's supposed to. The magazine spring is a little worn out and I'm going to replace the recoil spring and main spring as well, but I believe there will be no trouble firing it. The serial number is 55XXXX putting it in the late 1920's or early 30's at the end of the Bolo manufacturing life. I've have wanted a Mauser Broomhandle ,especially the Bolo variant, since I was literally in sixth grade (1979). IT alongside the Webley Mk VI and the S&W Model 27 with the 3.5" barrel are my Grail Guns. I now have the Webley and the Mauser.

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I love the blindly optimistic gun makers who gave a handgun 800-meter sights and rifles 2,000 meter sights.

That's great isn't it. You can find the same type of sights on Browning Hi-Powers and the artillery Luger with the 8" barrel.

That is a beautiful find, J to the C! May not look tip-top but in a way I think that adds to the charm in this case, if that makes any sense. And besides, the mechanicals are good which is what I would consider more the important thing.

I too get a kick out of those sights, my old man had a war-built Spanish Mauser that had the sights for 1600 meters.. a bit optimistic indeed but still neat, I agree.

I call it a nice antique patina. That just sounds high end. I have a Stoegers catalog (now known as "The Shooter's Bible") from 1930 in which the Broomhandle is priced at $100.00. Adjusted for inflation that's a little over $1,400 in todays money. :eek:

The Broomhandle was always a high-end pistol. As I said when I took it apart I understand why it was so pricey. It's actually incredible that Mauser made the pistol for fifty years. Over a million made is the estimate.

You should find a range where you can shoot long distances and try shooting 800 yard targets.

It'll be hilarious.

Awesome Bolo! I actually like the grips, they look period at least! I'd love to get a Bolo but they're just under the barrel length limit up here. I replaced the recoil spring on my C96 with one from Wolff. I'd recommend it.

Wish I knew where it had been . The only proof marks on it are from the Mauser factory. There are no Chinese markings either. There is no pitting so it's been in a dry climate and taken care of. Under the barrel is the stamp from Century Arms, the caliber and Spain. So I am assuming that the Bolo was imported by Century Arms from Spain. A friend of mine who has been in the gun retail business since the early seventies speculated that it was a private purchase in the 1920's and somehow worked it's way to Spain. I ,of course, immediately had images of an American volunteer in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade fighting for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. The Bolo carried along his side. It could work. The U.S. doesn't have a proof house. So a Bolo with no proofs....could be.

Anyway it's one of my grail guns. Since I was just ten years old and watched an old Michael York movie called "Zeppelin" (1971) in which the Germans attempt to steal the Magna Carta during WWI. Several of the Germans in the raiding party carry Broomhandles. It was love at first sight for me. It's only taken me thirty-eight years to finally get one, but it's in my safe now. The fact that it is a Bolo is gravy for me. For some reason the Bolo has always appealed to me the most.

I've got some 30 Mauser on order from Midway. It's Prvi Partizan which I have found to be good quality ammo. I won't be firing Tokorav ammo in it. In a month or two I'll be ordering springs from Wolff.

Well, August 2016 has been my best collecting months in years!

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I picked up two pretty great rifles, neither of which were cheap (especially after sinking several thousand dollars into the back yard) but both were too good to pass up.

The top one is a Finnish Mosin-Nagant M/39, made by VKT in 1942. This came out of a recent import into Canada, which was actually the pick of the litter from the initial US import in the late 80s, which the owner sat on waiting for the prices to rise. And rise they have! It's hard to believe that I paid almost twice what I did for my last (post-WW2) M/39, but this was still lower than what they'd been selling for between collectors recently and came with the original sling and arsenal hang tag. Beautiful condition with all original WW2 parts and finish (most of these have postwar replacement stocks), this a prime example of the best of the Mosin-Nagants and a real WW2 vet.

The bottom one is even more special, a very nice Hungarian Mannlicher 43M in 8mm Mauser. I've been looking for a WW2 Hungarian Mannlicher for about 14 years, and only ever seen one "in the flesh" behind glass in a museum in the States. So when came up for auction I was pretty much prepared to bid my credit card limit! I ended up doing pretty well at $625, and its much nicer than I'd feared based on the low-res auction house pictures.

The 43M is actually the last in the series of rifles that started with the 35M, which was quite similar but was in 8 x 56mm and used a Mannlicher-style magazine. Hungary was a German ally and built for them the G98/40 (to supplement Kar 98K production), which was basically the 35M in 8mm Mauser with a Mauser style magazine and German style sling and bayonet fittings. After that production run was finished the Hungarians decided it made more sense to share ammunition with their allies and came out with the 43M, which was basically a G98/40 with Hungarian style sling and bayonet fittings. Given that Mannlicher didn't actually design the "Mannlicher" turnbolt (interesting story but its really a modified Gew 88 action) and it has a Mauser magazine, calling it a Mannlicher seems kind of questionable, but its the common term! Mine was built in mid-late 1944 based on the serial number, shortly before or even during the Soviet invasion. There are reports of these going straight from the factory to the front lines during the siege of Budapest.

Best part of both these guns, when I mentioned them to my girlfriend her immediate response was "Cool, you should buy that!", even after we spent all that money on the house. Best. Girlfriend. Ever.

^ I agree, hang onto her, man! Nice scores, BTW.

It now seems that same auction company is selling a 35M this Saturday... I'd bet out of the same collection. Looks like this is going to be a VERY spendy month (there's also a pretty nice French M1914 Remington Rolling Block and a Burgess folding riot gun.... but I think I have to limit myself to the Mannlicher!). This time when I told Sarah, she laughed and offered to throw in a few hundred dollars and call it my Christmas present. I am a lucky, lucky man.

I feel you. I drug Jackie around all of middle Georgia in a vain attempt to find a Ruger Hawkeye All Weather in .30-06

You know, when I worked at Cabelas we could hardly give those things away.... except to people from up North where "needs to work reliably" trumped "needs a detachable mag so I can hunt out of my truck."

Don't miss that job.

Post photos of that rifle when you get it.

Okay Buddy. Explain the reasoning behind that one? What does a detachable mag have to do with hunting from your truck?

In Georgia, and most states, it is illegal as all get out to shoot anything unless you're 500 feet from a road.

Oh, it's illegal here too. They needed the detachable mag so they could "transport the empty rifle to the hunting location" and then pop it in when they saw a deer / out when the conservation officer drove up.

Okay that makes sense.

Ah. That does indeed make sense. Yeah, you can have a loaded rifle in a vehicle down here, in some states without a permit.

Apparently Ruger has discontinued a couple versions of the Hawkeye, because much like the Remington 600 and Browning marked FAL-G imports the American buying public is too stupid to appreciate a good rifle if they can't buy it behind the counter at Walmart for $400 and it come with a Banner scope.

Here you can't.... I had never actually considered that a loaded rifle in the truck would be legal in the US when thinking about the popularity of clips vs floorplates on hunting rifles in Canada vice the US. And here I thought they just had fewer truck hunters there. Learned something new today!

Well, I won my 35M. It cost more than I wanted to spend but it beats waiting another 14 years to find one! The 43M arrived a few days after the auction, this one I imagine will take longer since the auction was much bigger. Once it comes I'll try and post detailed pictures of both, although for all of her supportiveness Sarah is definitely NOT ok with rifles on the dinner table so logistics are challenging. :p

Yeah my wife is weird that way as well. :rolleyes:

To be fair, it's a much nicer table than I had when I was living alone.

Hell, I take my gun pictures on the floor. I don't think I have one where you can't see my boots.

The dining room table was her Grandmothers, the coffee table is covered in fabric to match the couch/love seat, as of now, I have no work bench/reloading bench. The garage is nothing but unpacked boxes.

So, for $250 I acquired a Savage Axis in .22-250, a nice Made in the USA Allen gun bag, a box of 55 grain Super-X ammo, a box of Winchester Varmint-X ammo, a box of fired brass, and some no name (CP brand) scope with a big 60mm field of view.

I was really close to buying a Garand at a local gun show. It was selling for 950 and in pretty good condition. But I had just paid a lot of bills earlier so I had to pass on it.

I don't follow US prices very close, but up here that's a hell of a price for a Garand. Can't remember the last time I saw one for less than $1400. Makes me chuckle to remember paying $400 for mine (sometime around 2003) and thinking I overpaid.

I finally got my 35M on Friday. It's not as nice as the 43M (which makes sense, seeing as it probably went through Stalingrad), but quite decent. The bore is frosted, but has strong rifling so it should still shoot OK. It's made in 1940, so it would likely have gone through the entire Eastern front from the invasion of Yugoslavia on.

I snapped a picture of the two together, the 43M on top and the 35M on the bottom, with a clip of ammo for each (8mm Mauser on a stripper clip for the 43M, 8mm Mannlicher on an en bloc for the 35M). You can see most of the differences, with the two different magazine systems, the straight vs bent bolt and the finger grooves on the 35M stock. The 35M looks to have a walnut stock, whereas the 43M is beech or birch. If you look really close you can see the hump on the receiver of the 43M for the clip guides.

I had army all weekend so I haven't had time to take detailed pictures, but plan of getting a whole set showing the differences between the two for one of my collector's boards. If there's any interest I'll post them here too.

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Bright spot in what's otherwise been a particularly awful Thanksgiving weekend where we lost our dog, today I received a surprisingly nice 1930s H&R 922 revolver. I bought it almost on a whim, partly because I've been looking another .22 revolver (my H&R top break is interesting but a crappy shooter and my Woodsman only seems to like Remington Target and I can't get it locally anymore) and partly because I'll buy pretty much any vintage handgun for under $100.

It's a pretty simple design, a 9 shot single / double action that's loaded / unloaded by pulling out the cylinder rod and dropping out the cylinder. It actually does have a cutout in the recoil shield you can fiddle a round through, but it's pretty impractical. Surprisingly, it has a quite decent trigger and sights, espescially when my H&R Target top break has neither. Can't wait to put some rounds through it.

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H&R sold a ton of those revolvers back in the day. We think of H&R as being a cheap handgun maker, but I've got multiple shooting books written in the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's that give glowing reviews to the H&R rimfire revolvers. Even Elmer Keith had nice things to say about them and Hatcher thought they were great.

Honestly I bought it more as a curiosity but I'm really surprised at how nice it actually is. The trigger is way better than my other H&R and the sights are actually usable, I think this may be my main .22 plinker until I can figure out some ammo the Woodsman cycles reliably.

Enjoy it. Vintage guns are great.

Quite so. I'm finding I especially appreciate prewar rimfires more and more - my credit card has taken a beating over the last few months (it's unbelievably expensive to NOT save a dog's life) but I think when that's done I'm looking for an H&R Sportsman.

I wouldn't mind having an early S&W Model 41, but it will take some looking and meanwhile I still have that Model 19 4" that I'm looking for.

41s are awesome guns. I've played with Margolins, Browning Medalists and all manner of Hi Standard target guns and none of them compare.

Love my 41, most accurate of all my 22 Hushpuppies.
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Ohhhhhhhhh.

Anyone here have any pistols with armbraces?

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I have my Scorpion Evo 3 with a Thordsen Cheek piece and it is awesome. I've been planning on building an AR in .300 as a pistol because the .300 is awesome for short barrel weapons

I built this one last year with parts I picked up on "Black Friday Sales"
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300 BO, I run a Radical Firearms 308 can on it mostly:
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You should try the new SB adjustable brace http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2...lapsing-brace/

Those wont work on an AR.