I've got a embarrassing story about my Mauser history. My father brought home from WWII a Mauser MS410 (as best as I can remember). Dad found it in a bombed out store with one shelf still standing and on that shelf was the Mauser .22 LR still wrapped in the protective wax paper. It was as near as I can remember in new in the box condition. Dad gave it to me as my first rifle when I was 5 years old. From then on I took excellent care of it including cleaning it every time we shot it or even took it out hunting. Move ahead until I was 18 years old and going to school at Western State College in Gunnison Colorado. I was getting ready for deer and elk season and for some stupid reason I thought I had to own a .357 Magnum. There was a gun shop on the western edge of Gunnison that had a used S&W Model 28 Hwy Patrolman Special. With my father's permission I traded off my beautiful Mauser for a .357 that I wouldn't give anyone $50 for now. Step forward several years and my wife and I had been married for about 5 or 6 years. I started getting a hankering to have that Mauser that I traded off back. I spent several years looking and ended up finding a pretty nice what I believe is a MS420B (prewar) I purchased it in about 1983 for $400 if my memory serves me correctly. The barrel was a bit longer and it didn't have the snabble forearm but just about everything else was the same. It is a wonderful shooter but I also missed the more sporting look that the original had. About 3 years ago I found a CZ 452 at a gun show in Elk City Oklahoma that really reminded me of my original Mauser and it was a great price so I picked it up. Here are pictures of them both. Now both rifles are beautiful shooters but my first Mauser turned me into a .22 LR nut. 29 years ago when my daughter was a week old I purchased her a Belgium made Browning .22 BAR. My now 14 year old son started with a Henry Mini Bolt which he has graciously already passed on to his sisters 10 month old son his nephew and my grandson. I've also got a Winchester Model 61 S,L, & LR pump that is a very sweet rifle that first belonged to my uncle and my aunt gave it to my father to keep out of the hands of one of my idiot cousins.
The moral to this story is not to say yes to your kids if they think they need to trade off a special rifle. I lost my Dad at age 91 two years ago and I always regretted trading the Mauser off.
I'll cling to my God and my guns, and you can keep the "Change".
The moral to this story is not to say yes to your kids if they think they need to trade off a special rifle. I lost my Dad at age 91 two years ago and I always regretted trading the Mauser off.
I'll cling to my God and my guns, and you can keep the "Change".