I purchased a 1932 Spanish Mauser in 308 today at a gun show. It appears bubba has had his way with this rifle and I am wondering if I should be concerned the bolt looks like they rewelded the handle onto it and has discoloring on the end that worries me. They also drilled holes to mount rail pieces and cut the front sight down to not interfere with the sights. I removed the rail pieces but am wondering if there's a way to fill the holes that won't look awful. I paid 280 for the rifle minus these few things it looks to be in good shape and can post more pictures if interested did I do alright?



Pictures

I would be concerned about the bolt handle, the drilled receiver, and any unknown issues.  Have a competent gunsmith check it out.  I would probably limit shooting to 7.62 NATO ammunition, or my own reduced .308 loads.  I've never heard of a catastrophic failure with one of these rifles, with 7.62 NATO or .308 ammunition but, there are concerns about wear due to pressure.  The 1916 Spanish Mausers use to go for $130-150.   SAMCO brought alot of them into the country.

I used to have one of these 7.62 converted Spanish Mausers.  I never had any trouble with even commercial .308 Win ammo in it, but I wasn't shooting anything hot-rodded, mostly just your basic white box Winchester.  I think I paid like $75 for the one I had back in the day and sold it for like $125 a few years later.  I'm not sure I'd pay a lot more for one now, but I never really missed it much after I sold it.  Mine had the bolt bent down like this one but hadn't been drilled for a scope mount or had the front sight altered.  The stock on mine was not to prettily chopped down to "sporter" size.  I'm pretty sure it was a SAMCO import.  With one of these things in sporterized condition, it really isn't worth investing in trying to restore it, because even if it were brought back as close to original as possible it still isn't going to be worth a huge amount.  It's just something that is more of a cheap shooter or "truck gun" really.  With one that was already drilled for a scope it could be an inexpensive backup for hunting season.

You got ripped off, those are $300 rifles when not messed with. They are also just at the borderline of being unsafe and that's before all the bubba work.

I would put that back together and sell it and buy a FR8.