OK, time for an update. This gun was a WWII bring-back by one uncle, but ended up with another uncle. Both uncles are long gone.
Somewhere I have a photo of the gun hanging on a wall and you can see that the original buttstock had one of those German cheek rests on the left side. I wish he had left well-enough alone.
I'm not set up to do a chamber cast, but I have been able to determine that the gun has a very long chamber. But the magazine looks to be standard, so this gun is either chambered for the standard 8mm Mauser, or maybe the longer 8x60 Mauser.
I have a handful of 170-gr 8mm Remington Core-Lokt jacketed bullets. One of my Lyman reloading manuals shows an OAL with this bullet of 2.85". My chamber measures long enough to seat one of these bullets in a cartridge 3.509" long - so something seems odd.
I'm not sure how to accurately measure the barrel length, but the bore (from bolt face to muzzle) measures right around 23-5/8" (or right at 60 cm).
One of my cousins has some brass fired in this rifle and I've asked him to send them to me.
The bore looks strong, but needs a good scrubbing - good winter project. There are no manufacturer or gunsmith ID marking on the gun - anywhere. There is a neatly stamped "H.M." on the underside of the barrel. Not sure if that designates the barrel manufacturer, or maybe rifle company or the gunsmith?
Bubba mounted a scope using a "Marbles Game Getter" see-through mount - which really puts the scope up there high. The bolt handle has been altered to clear the scope, and one of those Buehler low-mount safeties has been put in place.
Here are a few pics. I likely won't do much else with this gun right now, except to clean it up and reassemble the parts (triggerguard, magazine, buttplate, etc - all missing in the photos). Once I get the fired brass, I'll work up some loads and try her out.
I would normally attempt to restore a bubba-ed rifle like this, but I'm going to sentimentally leave it in its current configuration.
Thanks for the interest.
Oh, and MP1886 - this is not the same gun you encountered. This one lived in Eastern PA, then NJ & Seattle, and finally in Portland, OR.