This is a Mauser-action sporting rifle, one of the few rifles I've ever owned that was not of, or altered from, a military type. This one's receiver is commercial production, lacking the military-style charger guide or thumb cut. It's fitted with a rocker-style thumb safety instead of the military type mounted on the bolt shroud. Chambered for .308 Winchester, it's drilled & tapped for scope bases and at some point was fitted with a Lyman 57 SME aperture sight. The stock is painted wood with a blind magazine holding only three rounds, and the barrel appears to be free-floating. The action closes on a Forster NO-GO headspace gauge, but not with a couple thicknesses of scotch tape added. The rifle also came with an Uncle Mike's 9-place cartridge carrier and Limbsaver recoil pad, which I've kept; and a Butler Creek padded sling which is also slightly elastic, which I'll be replacing, probably with a GI nylon carry strap - fortunately it came with 1¼" swivels. For the rifle with the Lyman sight and no scope, I paid $100. Here's how it appears in April 2008, after mounting a Tasco 2.5-10x44mm:
So far only 28 rounds have been fired from it, some of those by Yuri Orlov and all of it years-old Remington factory rounds. But the results, from the bench at 100 yards, are already very encouraging:
Changes will be made, specifically:
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: 11 August 2009: Over the past year and more I've installed a Fajen synthetic stock and a Bold target trigger, and acquired from a reader the magazine box necessary to complete the rifle in the standard stock. This stock is contoured for a heavy or varmint barrel, while the M100's actual barrel is of a common lightweight sporter contour. The larger stock channel, to my mind, guarantees free floating and aids in cooling. On 8 August I experimented with handloads and got some adequate results; the following day I entered a long-range rifle match with this weapon and, while I finished dead last in my division, I did learn the rifle has potential. Before the actions of 8-9 August I added a cheekrest of packing foam and duct tape, which does not appear in this later photo of the rifle:
I still have to replace that sling. I have a Shooter's Ridge bipod, similar to a Harris, which attaches to the forward sling swivel stud, but the one I chose has legs that are too long for proper use in the prone position; likely I'll sell the bipod. The Uncle Mike's flip-open scope covers will not stay closed, and the forward one slips off in recoil; to protect the lenses I'm now using a much simpler Butler Creek bikini-type. The Fajen stock's recoil pad has been removed and replaced with the slip-on LimbSaver which the original wood stock came with; this slips off easily to open the large space in the synthetic stock, in which can be stored tools, survival gear, etc.
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