Just picked up this IG 71/84 rifle.  It seems to be in nice shape overall, though there are a couple of issues.  Let's do pictures first...











All of the numbered parts are matching (small parts with the last two digits).  The receiver looks like maybe it has been "cleaned", but also I think "armory bright" types of finish were expected to be "scoured" for cleaning, so I'm not sure this is really an issue.  Almost all of the bluing looks great with just a little bit of wear.

The bore is generally in good condition and very bright with strong rifling.  But there are a few spots that show some pitting (just ahead of the chamber and about 6-10 inches from the muzzle), though this COULD be some leading.

I also noticed when cycling the bolt that sometimes the bolt could not be pulled back all the way to activate the lifter.  Turns out the magazine follower is sometimes slipping past the rim catch and sticking into the action area and blocking the lifter.  I removed the magazine cap carefully and then the spring and follower.  What I found is this:



CLEARLY this is not the original follower, or at best not fully.  I have not yet searched to see if an original can be found.  If not, I would think I could lathe turn a new one with some basic info about the real deal.  The spring may also be non-original...it seems pretty thin and low-powered and just doesn't seem like an original.

The other pretty big problem is that there are cracks in the upper wrist area.  These don't seem like the type of cracks cause by recoil, though.  The stock still feels completely solid here, so I think these are mostly on the surface.  I think a bit of modern glue blown in should stabilize things because I really do want to shoot this rifle!




Anyway...let me know what y'all think.  When I reach 132 years old I doubt I'll be in as good condition.


Rob

One of my Grail guns

That recvr has been aggressively cleaned. The rifle has been restored as best as someone could do and might be one of the Paragon Ecuadorian reworks from 20 yrs ago.

I have some extra followers if you really need one but I would recommend taking the rifle apart first and see if you can remove magazine tube. One issue these have is the tube easily gets damaged at mid band ( Crimped ) and followers can stick. You can sometimes swedge the tube out with a socket slightly bigger dia than orig follower. If mag tube is rusted in your pretty much SOL.

Most shoot these as single shots so if you can live with that it would be the easiest solution. They are stupid forward heavy with a loaded tube and ammo isn't cheap unless you stumble on a stash of old Dominion 43 Mauser ammo.

May be the original spring, as I remember thinking the same thing when I had mine apart. I feel like mine had a different style follower, but it has been a couple years since I had it apart. Dbout the spring was intend to feed the cartridges like we think of now, more just to keep them from moving in the tube.

I hope you have some brass for it, they are a pain to find and were over $5 a case last time I was looking for them.

There is a place that does custom brass that does guns shows here in PA... Ammunition Artifacts... they have some available ($4 a case, sold in packs of 20). I bought some 38-56 brass for my 1886 Winchester that matches exactly the original rounds that I have. Luckily I was able to buy a factory set of Lyman dies for 38-56 for $60 from another vendor at the same show a year ago, and have a 255 grain bullet mold (factory vintage winchester) so I can at least reload the cases I have.

Very nice.  I always wanted one.

BTW...I don't see an import marking.  I don't know if that means it was imported pre-1968, or if as an Antique it didn't require such markings.


Rob

Das Gewehr ist am besten. I really like the model name in Fraktur script, too.