What's a Fair Price for a Siamese Mauser Action Barreled in .45-70?

[Gray Fox]

I've been considering having my Siamese Mauser in .45-70 restoced, but I may just sell the barreled action. This rifle was apparently sporterized on the original stock many years ago. The action was nicely polished and blued, The bolt was machine turned and the bolt handle was cut and nicely welded in a standard low position. It was rebarreled in .45-70 in a heavy profile Federal Barrel Co. 24" barrel with matching blueing. It has a Williams ramp front sight and aperture rear. Bore is pristine.

Can anyone give me a rough idea what it might be worth? I've got two Marlin Guide guns and a Browning 1885 in the same caliber, so I guess I'm set if I sell this one. All comment will be appreciated.

Have a Happy Easter. GF

[3006guns]

Fifty bucks, max. Where do I send the money?

Oh, alright.........if the work was nicely done I'd say in the $250-$300 range. I have a spare Siamese action that I've earmarked for the same treatment as a 45-70 bolt gun makes for one heck of a hunting rifle!

[StrawHat]

...Oh, alright.........if the work was nicely done I'd say in the $250-$300 range. I have a spare Siamese action that I've earmarked for the same treatment as a 45-70 bolt gun makes for one heck of a hunting rifle!...

As much as I liked the E.R. Shaw 45-70 I had, Iif I were to do another, it would be done in 405 WCF.

Kevin

[duckmafia]

I have been looking for a bolt 45 70 or a Siamese Mauser action to build a bolt 45 70.

[UBER7MM]

I have been looking for a bolt 45 70 or a Siamese Mauser action to build a bolt 45 70.

This isn't a Mauser, but it looks affordable:

Gunsmithing: Mosin Nagant Conversion to .45-70 Govt. (Gunworks):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IekTNJDHGB8&spfreload=10

I hope this helps,

[Artful]

checking some of the sites the complete rifle's (Gibbs or Navy Arms conversions) seem to be going between 450-699 + shipping depending upon sights and condition. So I'd say 250-300 is decent price guess.

[Multigunner]

I've noticed that the Siamese Mauser is often recommended for medium pressure cartridges, is the action suitable for belted magnum level chamberings?

Is there any hard information on the metalurgy and heat treatment?

If these rifles were manufactured in Japan during the 1920's I would hope they were as strong and at least as well made as the contemporary Arisaka rifles.

[Larry Gibson]

I've noticed that the Siamese Mauser is often recommended for medium pressure cartridges, is the action suitable for belted magnum level chamberings?

Is there any hard information on the metalurgy and heat treatment?

If these rifles were manufactured in Japan during the 1920's I would hope they were as strong and at least as well made as the contemporary Arisaka rifles.

Read P.O. Ackley's books referencing the quality and strength of pre-war 6.5 Arisaka's. The Siamese Mausers were made of the same quality, same quality steel and heat treatment.

I have pressure tested all of my own loads for my 450-400-70 (45-70) I built on a Siamese Mauser in the mid '70s. I have a couple loads (Barnes 400 gr Original SP over RL7 and Lee C457-500-FN over RL7) that push 60,000 psi. I don't shoot many simply because not too many lions, tigers, elephants and rhino's escape from the local zoo......and the recoil is fierce from the 8.5 lb rifle.

After much testing the 45-70 on a properly made and throated Siamese Mauser action actually takes loads to a 4th level.......one above we see published.

Larry Gibson

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[Multigunner]

I don't shoot many simply because not too many lions, tigers, elephants and rhino's escape from the local zoo.
Aside from Black bear and two killer elephants, one a circus elephant the other a bull elephant kept at the Knoxville zoo as a breeding experiment none of the trully dangerous big cats or Grizzly have escaped locally.
Which is a good thing since we have breeding facilities for Bengal tigers and the Great Apes, and a really creepy jaguar that never takes his eyes off the kids that wander past his enclosure.
When the elephants escaped the local LEO had no rifles big enough to do more than get them even more PO'ed.

Some years back a facility in another state for cross breeding Lions and Tigers had a mass break out, once again the locals had few if any African game level rifles to deal with the situation.

Goes to show you just never know what might happen.

Thats a fine looking rifle.

There was a one off Mauser chambered in .303 British designed for an eastern european country who's machine gunners had received WW1 surplus Vickers guns. The magazine and floor plate were copied from a Rigby/Mauser African game rifle intended for large case belted or rimmed cartridges. I suspect the Siamese Mauser magazine is also based on that design.

[UBER7MM]

....There was a one off Mauser chambered in .303 British designed for an eastern european country who's machine gunners had received WW1 surplus Vickers guns. The magazine and floor plate were copied from a Rigby/Mauser African game rifle intended for large case belted or rimmed cartridges. I suspect the Siamese Mauser magazine is also based on that design.

Czech made Estonian Model "L" Short Rifle.

[Multigunner]

Looks like the Model L may have influenced the Siamese mauser design afterall.


CZ Model L Short Rifles (chambered for .303 British) in 1931 [3 ].

This often-cited purchase seems not to have occurred. Rather, a rifle was designed with a M95 Mannlicher style bayonet (with the catch on the hand guard), Mexican-style sights and other modifications including a curved bolt and fore-end sling swivel, and a few test pieces were sent to Lithuania in 1926 (thus the "Model L" designation). Samples of the same model were sent to South America in 1929 and Siam in 1930.[ 5]
http://www.freeexistence.org/lith.html

One source had claimed these had never been manufactured, that only a single prototype had been made for Lithuania.
This is likely the rarest of military Mauser rifles.
In those days it was not uncommon for machine gun crews to be armed with rifles chambered for the same cartridge as their machineguns, even if the MG cartridge was radically different from any other in use by the infantry.
Since smaller countries often made do with lower cost surplus automatic weapons from major powers this could result in some unusual purchases.
Sweden bought a few K98 styled rifles chambered for the 8X63 long range machinegun cartridge, similar to the 8mm-06 wildcat cartridge. most of these were later rebarreled to 8X57 or 7.62 NATO. A very few survive in the original chambering. These have an unusual muzzle brake to help tame the blast and recoil of this very powerful cartridge.
The cartridge has an unusual appearance since they had to seat the specially designed long ogive bullet deep in the neck to reduce COAL enough to operate in the Browning machine gun.

[Ed in North Texas]

"Looks like the Model L may have influenced the Siamese mauser design afterall."

Perhaps the reverse? The Model 45 "Siamese" Mauser, 8x50mm Rimmed, was adopted by Siam in 1903 (Siamese/Thai calendar 2445). Later produced in/converted to 8x52mm Rimmed with a Spitzer bullet and designated the Model 66.

[bouncer50]

Did the German make a few Siamese mauser for them. Also did England make ammo for the Siamese. I would say 300.00 would be a fair price for a barrel action. I have 3 Siamese action it would cost me more to build one like E R Shaw would charge. I would say a complete Siamese action alone is worth a 100.00 bucks. They were common to find 25-30 years ago Siamese parts but not now. I have a complete rifle in very good + shape that will be never be chop up.

[JohnMiller]

Remember most of Siamese rifles were made under license from mauser with the manufacturing taking place at the koishikawa factory in Japan. As far as german made Siamese mausers I think only a small under of 1903 models where made in Germany. Growing collector interest and scarcity have increasingly made full military variants harder to find than 45-70 etc sporters.

[CHeatermk3]

Back to the OP's question--your originally-stocked Mauser is "worth" whatever you can get for it...

If it were up to me and I had to sell something it would be one of the guide guns and keep the Mauser.