M94/14 Swedish Mauser Carbine Restoration Project

Having long been an admirer of the Swedish M-94 carbine, I gladly picked up a 1918 Gustav at a local gun shop that I found leaning in a dark far corner for $100. Now before we get all excited here, let me tell you that some drunken Barbarian had gotten ahold of it and "sporterized" it to the point of tragic desecration.

He dovetailed the top of the barrel, but at least he didn't drill and tap it for scope or receiver sight like a lot of them did. An original rear sight assembly was obtained at a gun show a year or so ago.

I wasn't sure if I could ever restore it, but for the price I figured that I could always get my money back out of it by parting it out if I needed to.

Just for the heck of it, I went shopping for stocks on e-bay and eventually found a 94 stock... and it went for over $500!

I guess that so many of them got hacked up right after they were imported back in the '60s, i think it was, that very few original military stocks have survived.

Well, I sort of gave up on that idea, but hoped to be able to find a more affordable 1893 or 95 Spanish small ring carbine stock that I could rigajig it into just to shoot and play around with.
It seems that there aren't a whole lot of them left in their unadulterated form either.

Just yesterday a fellow member of a gun collector's forum that i lurk on a lot offered to sell me an original 94 stock in "pretty good" condition with all of it's original hardware (which is getting hard to find, too)for a little under $300.





Some minor damage to right side; says it's a scratch * not a split:


I'm tempted to buy it and create a mis matched but intact 94/14 carbine.
It'll be all original, but it will be a mixmaster in what would conservatively call "Good" condition.

Whether I can get it to shoot worth a dang, nobody knows.

What I need from you guys is a ballpark idea as to whether, assuming that the collectible market remains reasonably stable, I or my survivors can at least break even on my project cost of about $400 when the time comes to settle my estate, or I decide to sell it later on down the road.

Being retired on a fixed and very limited income, I have to justify such an "investment" to some extent at least.

hello,,i think we came outa the same mould ,,the 94 carbine is pretty collectable ,,and would be a good investment at 400 complete ,,but as you said it will be a mixmaster at best,,originals with amtching numbers books for 900 excellent -200 poor,,a non matching rifle might bring 400 if your only talking about a stock thats not amtching ,,with this project the only thing that will be matching would be the barreled receiver ,,thats not all that bad but..with a dovetail cut into it thats gonna drop the value to a milsurp collector bigtime ..it looks like a project that you might not recoup your cash on ,,personally ,,i'd shop around at the auction sites like gunbroker.com ..auction arms .com and even gunsamerica.com and see if ya can't find a complete example for around what youd have in parts for your,,,try springfield sporters in pennrun pa they just might have a stock you could tinker with alot cheaper and not worry about investing the time and money on something thats not gonna at least bring the money spent on parts ,,
i just picked up a old ross rifle today at a gunshow for 25 bucks and it's rough ,,but for 25 bucks i can play a little ,,and i know i could get more for the bolt and mag than than 25 bucks so i know all about project guns and have redone a few in my days but something like a 300 dollar stock on a rifle that isn't all original anyways seems a bit much to take the chance of breaking even,,but thats just my opinion
bigcurt

I've got a stock exactly like that, better condition (at least in my opinion), sitting in my lap, lol.
I can't decide whether I want to try and sell it or if I want to do that same thing and try and find another "beat up" one at a gun show and swap the parts over.

-Seth