FN M24/30 venezuealen Mauser short rifle

Hi Ottsix,
I agree with Chasdev. You have purchased a very high quality military FN rifle. These were imported in the 1965-67 time frame as I recall, so they have been in the North America for almost half a century. Even now, this rifle is among the very most commonly available of military Mausers in NRA excellent or better condition. The mark you interpreted as a hammer is called the "Peron". It is actually the image of a public monument, a large obilesk, which still stands to this day in Liege. Since the 19th century, this image is one of 4-6 marks used by the Liege Proof House to document the successful passing of various stages of the proof testing undergone by each Belgiam-made firearm.

These rifles were made at the cusp of the postwar era when bolt rifles were being phased out of general military use. Venezulea made the mistake of paying for large order of FN M.1930's just at the moment when the FN-49 and M1 semi-automatic rifles were going into general use in Latin America. As a result, many were sold off as virtually unused surplus within 10-15 years of their original manufacture.
Regards,
John

ottsixx said:

I just picked up a M24/30 venezuealen mauser short rifle which is a newbie to me and I was wondering if these were a good quality rifle as the metal work in this thing just looks amazing and I am curious if these rifles shoot as good as they look like they should,on the proofs on the left side of the action there is one that looks like a hammer an I was curious if that stood for hammer forging of the barrel,Ive seen a few of these auctin off in the past couple months and some of these short rifles look like new as does the one I just aquired and Im curious how a rifle that is so old can look so new,any education on the topic would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.......

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