Thursday, March 20, 2008

Gunnie Bleg

Via email:

Have opportunity to buy a Kimber conversion of Swede M96 Mauser to 7.62NATO. Barrel cut down to Ranch rifle and forward sited scope mount permanently pinned into old leaf sight box (minus scope). Price is $250.00 tax & all. Anybody hear of anything about these Kimber conversions? And what scope would you suggest for a "ranch rifle"? Good deal? Bad deal?
Sounds good to me, but I'm not a Kimber person.

Any input?

Seems like a good price, if the gun is in good shape.

2 comments:

Rustmeister said...

Comment from stile over at TGB:

conversions

I don't know about Kimbers conversions but I have shot a few others and have been satisfied.

$250? All else being equal I'd call it a good deal. I think the chances are good that it was a proper conversion.

Just watch those scope mounts pinned to the old sight box. A buddy of mine had no end of trouble with his (but his wasn't a professional conversion either).

I wouldn't use anything over 8X scope for a ranch rifle (4X is my personal favorite) with the largest objective you can get, just make sure (as I know you know) that the long eye relief works for you.

By stile at 2008-03-20 11:59

Anonymous said...

I have a Swedish Mauser sporterized by Kimber but it is still a 6.5, so I cannot speak to the 7.62 conversion. The barrel on my gun is marked “Sporterized by Kimber of America, Inc.” and it has a scope mount in the traditional location with the iron sights removed. IIRC I spent $350 on mine several years ago so this sounds like a good deal.

My only caution would be, did Kimber really do the caliber conversion and the forward scope mount or were they done afterwards by a home gunsmith? Also are you comfortable with the gun being converted to a higher pressure level than the original design.

I was able to google up a discussion on that topic.

http://parallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums. {cut}
yuku.com/topic/24384/t/308-in-M-96-Swede.html?page=1


As to the scope I read that Thompson/Center pistol scopes can work on a scout rifle but I do not have personal experience with them.

Good luck.