Hello everyone.  I've inherited a Model 1898 and before you look at the pictures, it's bad.  Really bad.  This thing will never shoot again without enough repair work to destroy its history.  It is now a family heirloom, not a functioning firearm.

It belonged to my wife's great great grandfather, or so the story goes.  It is believed to have been issued to him in the Army and then he purchased it, or something like that.  History gets more than a little foggy at this point.  I believe that it was a rifle, that was later cut down, and modified for use as a deer rifle.  Unfortunately the gun has not been treated well over the years.  I'm afraid the barrel doesn't have pock marks, it has potholes.

The original stock has been modified, although I don't think it was replaced.  The original sights have been removed and replaced with a Marble 46R front sight (a rifle model, not the 46C for carbines) and a Pacific rear peep sight.  You'll notice the lovely hardware store screw in the rear sight which I assume was added by my wife's grandfather (you had to know him to understand).  The receiver was obviously tapped for a scope mount at some point.  The cartouche on the side of the stock is gone, other than that I can make out that the last number is a 9, so I assume it once said 1899.

What I'm curious about is the serial number.  4167 is very clearly visible.  Now, there is a screw hole in the receiver right in front of the serial number, so a number could have been driven out by the drill bit.  But it really doesn't look like it.  It looks like 4167 might be all it has.  Then again the serial number does not match the font for the rest of the markings.  What do you think?  Was this added afterwards?  Is 4167 really the serial number for this gun?  Perhaps the gunsmith damaged the markings while installing the scope and decided to redo the number?  I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.

---