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I was in a gun shop when a guy comes in with a Sears rifle in 30-06. He wanted $150 for it. I looked at it quickly and sure enough, it was an FN Mauser with the JC Higgins name.

I knew the owner of the shop and when he didn’t show any interest, I asked him if I could buy it. He told me to go ahead and I did. The action was beautiful but the stock was plain. It was walnut tho.

It had the typical smooth function and was fairly accurate too. I wish I still had it.

My dad purchased this Mauser when he was an officer in the Army, stationed in Germany back in the early '50s. From what I recall, he took it to an engraver in Austria who did the engraving and installed the claw mount scope receiver......(I suspect that the engraving was done by a famed German named Dad was discharged before the customization was completed and the Austrian gunsmith had to send the rifle to my dad here in Detroit.

There was a similar rifle with not the intricate ingraving as this one that sold on Cabela's auction site for $2,800.........I took mine to a local gun dealer and he said it was worth about $1,500 but that I would probably get less if sold.

I then posted it on a gun site, where I was able to copy these photos, and some knucklehead professing to be an "expert" said it was only worth about $700 because the customization took away from the actual original firearm.......LOL!