Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles G33/40 rifle

I saw this on GunBroker. The minimum bid was 1000.00. I can’t believe it sold for that, so it was right 1200.00 to get it in my hands. It has a couple of safe marks, scope needs to go down the road. It’s 8mm Mauser which I like. I feel like I did good on this. I didn’t need it but I like the G33/40’s a lot.

any more pics?

I only took the one, just removed junkie old Bushnell scope and rear sight. I need medium extension rings to mount Leupold gloss 3x9x50mm scope I had laying around. It should look OK on it. I’m eager to see how this rifle shoots. I have some 150 grain Sierra Pro Hunters to try. I think I have 180 grain ballistic tips too.

The G33/40s exude a cool factor. I have a friend who has a custom 270 built on a G33 action. That rifle is simply a treasure. Yours looks like a gem too. Good luck with it!

I have two now, will take pic of both when I get scope mounted in the 8mm. The other is an 06.

Nice looking rifle.

I have never seen an all original G33/40 in the flesh

I’m of the generation who thought G33/40 Mausers were really special. As I got more financially mature, I started indulging some of my rifle desires. I have two sporters built on those actions. The first is a 7x57 that was done by Al Biesen and his son Roger. It is one of the last rifles that Al had a hand in before his stroke. The second is a 6.5x55 done by Roger alone. Sadly, both of these artists have passed. Each of those rifles accounted for a fair number of Scottish stags. One of the gamekeepers begged me to sell him the 7x57 saying he would take care of all the paperwork. I politely declined.

They’re pretty rare because most of them were turned into sporting rifles. Any in original condition are quite valuable. I don’t know where or how the Biesens got the action for the 7x57. I bought a sporterized G33/40 that was a heavy barrel 6mm Remington with a stock that had a 12” lop. I suspect it was built for a youngster or woman. I bought it just to get the action and sent it to Roger Biesen for my custom 6.5x55. So in that instance I didn’t “ruin” a collector item.

"Back in the day" they weren't uncommon at the better gun shows around here. I bought one 45 years ago for around $120 which was a fairly stiff price for a military Mauser. (And by the way it wasn't a pleasant gun to shoot, what with its short barrel and lighter weight.) My intent was to build a sporter but an acquaintance (ie: stranger loitering in a gunshop) declared himself to be a Mauser collector and wanted it to ensure it never got desecrated. I was happy to turn a tidy little profit.

Back then "Mauser collectors" were a rare breed/odd ducks, most guys including myself (and I still do), viewed them as a basis for sporterization. Perhaps it was the fact that original Mausers were omnipresent and dirt cheap that drove that attitude. I think too that there were still enough WWII vets in circulation who viewed them as spoils of war - not iconic relics to be venerated. The only reason I'm not tempted to mess with building Mauser sporters anymore is twofold: cost due to "collectability", and my interests have shifted, otherwise I would have zero compunction in "Uncle Bosey-ing" an original G33-40 to build a nice trim sporter - spoils of war and all that....

I've seen and examined 'all correct' G33/40 carbines. I have one, "945 1940" that the metal is all correct and matching right down to the cleaning rod and the bore is fine. The stock is "almost" correct as Bubba did a bit of sculpting to frame the ejector box and fluting the stock comb. To me, there is rarely any legitimate Collector value to "nearly correct". A miss is a miss!' Mine is a miss and at best a 'filler in' until the correct one comes along. I bought it "at a price and some four decades later, yet value it for what it is!

Continuing the "value" context, the "value added" of such a carbine is in originality. Once it is sporterized, it functionally moves to a class where it competes with both an entire array of other great milsurp actions AND actions commercial of origin for sporting purposes. There, it's simply an "also ran" but for "hybrid" context adherents and notions of lighter action. Further "sporterization" in barrel/chambering changes, low scope bolt alteration, safety modification; such 'in the cards', further move the action as modified to "remnant" status. There are simply a host of better commercial actions of 'get-go' sporter designs!

A moment to admit my weakness for some several decades. '17 Enfield sporters which by the eighties era past, they'd largely lost their glow. I was part of a likely one-man 'rescue society'. Still have most! As now my attention long turned to the commercial Remington Model 30 equivalent. There! Now you know my "closet context" proclivity!

You invited frank opinions and you now have mine.
The best of luck to you and my sincere wish that you enjoy that new acquisition which does look well done!

John

That's a good looking rifle.

Mauser collectors are still weird, ask me how I know. That’s a beautiful 33/40, I love them all original, and even then I still appreciate a beautiful custom on one.


@iskra

John, I didn’t know you were after model 30’s these days, I stopped at a shop last week with a beautiful example, I think I may have even taken a couple of pictures. If that sounds interesting drop me a message.

I’m very happy with my Whitworth and J. C. Higgins Model 50 Mauser actions. But there’s an extra dimension to those G33/40 actions. Sometimes I think about where and how they were built, the workers who built them, and where those actions have been and what they’ve seen before ending up as the basis for my customs. I’m kind of silly that way.

I came across an action only about a year ago. It is getting a 9.3x62 barrel and a manlicher stock. Hope to have the wood done by fall.

No telling the unspeakable things those rifles have seen.

Mauser G33/40’s make beautiful sporters. Wish we had more photos of yours.
I have one in original condition right down to the worst sights I’ve ever tried to use. I thought when I got it that I might enjoy shooting it in original shape but I can’t hit with those crude sights. So, now it is just a safe queen, but a beautiful one.

Found this one at a local gun show. It was poorly bedded into a large ring stock, probably an old Bishop or Fajen.

Originally I had planned to rebarrel in a .257R or 7x57, but nearly all who see it, including my barrel guy, think that it should be kept with the original barrel in 8x57.

Finally got a scope mounted, need to find another gloss Leupold to go on the 30-06.

Thanks so much Kid for thinking of my interests in the Model 30. I just noticed your kind post & offer in respect of one available. How kind even as no longer my game!

I still seek to talk a good game but my collecting-acquisition days largely ended long ago as reduced to a trickle and now over past decade, as zilch! The 'age thing'; time to fold! A decent photoset and XL spreadsheet 'essentials' as complimenting my functionality as keeping the chess pieces in active play! Nowadays, talking a good game as timely infirmities having their way! Yet 'the good life' largely persists as a matter of attitude & intent!

Best to you & yours!
John