Hello All,
Way back in the mid to late 1990's, I purchased a shitload of 1895 Mauser actions (barreled, complete) from an importer. All of these were Ludwig Lowe manufactured, so no FFL required. They were literally shipped to me, wrapped in brown oil paper.
Some were heavily used. Most were damn near new. All were converted to 7.62x51 NATO.
I have a lot of experience with these, including taking two to the range for a shootout. One was pristine, and the other was beat to shit. We put 2,000 rounds down range that day from each one. In those days, 1200 rounds of Portuguese NATO ammo cost about $85.00.
Both rifles were then sectioned and destroyed to evaluate whether or not there were any significant issues. None were detected, and all of the parts were magnafluxed as well to detect any microfractures. Again, none detected.
Most of these rifles were then sporterized, blueprinted, and re-sold as common sporting arms. Even though they did not require FFL transfer, I did it anyway. Oops, my bad. Sorry.
My cost for the entire process was $92 per rifle, and that included the scope mounts. You can guess what I paid per rifle, and it was not much.
Bottom line. Most of the 1895 Chilean Mausers were converted by Styer, and those rifles did have that forward gap you see in the website listed above. There were a number of rifles done in Chile, and those were less professionally completed. There were markings on the barrel that you could use to determine if the conversion was done at Styer, but I can not find that info anymore... I had 9 of the ones that were NOT Styer converted, and those were rebarreled in 6.5 Swede. It should be noted that not all of the conversions to 7.62 NATO were done with existing barrels. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 22% were just rebarreled. Again, these were marked with very clean, very new markings and had no old proofs on the barrels.
This is now almost 18 years ago, so my memory is not terribly reliable. I decided to post this because there is a lot more to the story than what that website would have you believe.
The last of these that I owned was sold to Mr. Posthumus. He seems very satisfied with that rifles' performance. That rifle was one of the Styer converted barrels, and was a bit more "handled", displaying some pitting on the receiver below the wood line, and pitting on the outside of the barrel as well. The bore was nearly pristine, and that rifle would print 5 shots in a 6 inch circle at 600 yards (which is why I kept it for so long).
The 1895 Chilean Mausers were truly a work of art. If you find one marked as being made in Berlin, and made by Ludwig Lowe, BUT IT. It is a true 1895 manufactured rifle and worth it's weight in something.
Just passing on what I know. Comments welcome.