And the owner of the surgically altered rifle owed me money, so I got it as partial payment.
I couldn't leave it in the hacked military stock, and the barrel had already been bobbed, so I did the next best thing, even though I'm usually loathe to sporterize nice milsurps.
I had a new bolt handle welded on, and when traveling in Europe during Desert Storm, I found a nice walnut sporter stock. The receiver was drilled and tapped, an 11-degree target crown was cut, Remington 700 iron backup sights were added, as was a Timney trigger, low-swing safety, and new Wolff striker spring. I had the barreled action parkerized, then glass-bedded it into the new stock.
It's become my favorite deer rifle in the collection. The vintage Weaver V8 variable kind of ties in the 1960s-vintage sporter appearance, yet doesn't overwhelm the rifle like some of the big objective lens scopes seen out there these days.
I handload 170-220gr rounds for the old girl, and have taken both Wyoming Elk and Wisconsin Whitetail. It ain't much in the aesthetics department, but it definitely does the job.
I've since converted that 8mm Mauser to 2-piece scope bases, and I've got a nice original Mauser double-set trigger to install later on.
It keeps an 8mm FN-49 company in one of my gun safes, and my two stepsons each have their own full-military Turkish 98 Mausers, so 8x57 is rather popular in our household.
