FN Colombian M1950 Mauser

[Greasemonkey]

OK, this is a well traveled Mauser, built by FN in Belgium as a contract for the Colombian military, this is the last military contract bolt weapon made by FN. FN was already set up to produce the K98 so postwar it was only fitting to use the equipment to produce contract weapons. The FN49 was starting production during this same time. This is one of the few Mauser's originally factory chambered in .30-06. It is also set up to us the .03A3 stripper clip, because the US was supplying Colombia with ammo. It is also the reason for the notch in the rear receiver.

Now, this is were the fun starts, this rifle is no longer .30-06, it's 7.62 Nato. Colombia surplused or it was a contract overflow and some rifles ended up in Israel, where they were rebuilt and rebarreled. The stock is a surplus German stock Israel installed and denoted the caliber in the butt stock, also the butt plate is painted yellow. The bolt on the orginial .30-06 has a straight handle, when Israel worked them over, they bent the bolt handle as I understand. I don't have a close up, but the crossbolt has a German waffenampt stamp as well. To add a little more confusion, the barrel has a British proof stamp, it has a BNP 7.62 20tons with crossed swords.

So, it started life in Belgium, ended up with a Colombian crest, has Israeli rebuild features, and got British proofed along the way.
And, you can have a true military issue K98 looking rifle in a very modern caliber.

[Worm]

Wow.. What a life.. And now it gets to spend it's retirement with you. Lol

Now THESE are the milsurps i like.. Ones that have travelled all over the gaul darn place. Awesome piece man

[Dannyboy53]

Wow, I love any "well traveled" old warrior like this one, they have class in my opinion! I thought you were going to tell us this one had one of those chamber inserts converting it from .30-'06 to 7.62 that was so popular a few decades ago! Any idea why the butt plates were painted yellow?

Do you shoot this one Greasemonkey and if so how does it do?

[Greasemonkey]

I've though the yellow was like the M1917 Enfield lend/lease rifles that had red paint on the butt stock, to possibly denote caliber, but I have seen some with no paint or trace of paint and I have seen only one other with the yellow paint.

Some speculate they used Israeli barrels and the barrel change was done after imports. But, again who knows, it shoots as good as any other Mauser. It also has what looks like a new barrel to boot, so I don't complain about it considering some of the bores I've seen on South American Mausers

[Dannyboy53]

Greasemonkey, reading your posts is like going to a huge firearms museum!

[Phosphorus32]

Another country missing from my modest polyglot Mauser collection.  Great story and history on this rifle.  A nice companion piece and post to Blicero's Erma K98.  These old warhorses that have silent stories to tell, even if the story remains incompletely divulged, are really interesting