Milsurp After Hours

Was shooting last weekend at a friend's of my son, has several acres in woods.
He brought out a Mauser, sort of. It was given to him by his Grandpa and he knows nothing
about what it is, I didn't either, except that it had been sported. Scope rails drilled and tapped,
no front sight, and stock changed. This is my question...........what is it.
Top of barrel stamped 7X57 and no idea what the writing says, guessing first word is Czechoslovakia.

That last photo is what we were plinking with....
The guys really liked my M38.

It's a Brno rifle which is owned by CZ http://www.czub.cz/en/Default.aspx by the looks of it but that calibre stamp looks a bit primitive .

"The company Zbrojovka Brno builds on the famous tradition of the armament production in Brno as a subsidiary of Česká zbrojovka a.s. Uherský Brod.

The high-quality products of Zbrojovka Brno s.r.o. in the product range BRNO RIFLES are offered through the distribution network of Česká zbrojovka a.s. Uherský Brod, including spare parts."

Looks like it's got a winter use trigger guard like some old WWII military Mausers. BRNO made a lot WWII Mausers, but what you are showing looks like a made for civilian hunting rifle. And.... a Google search shows that BRUNO made some bolt actions with a large trigger guard also for a set trigger....although the one you are showing doesn't have a set trigger. The stock looks pretty bottom of the line...although nice enough for it's purpose. It looks to be large ring and the safety is the standard left right lever and not one BRNO used with a forward back design on some rifles judging from photos.

I don't know what the model is but from a search of BRNO rifles made for the civilian market online, even the old plain ones are being offered for fancy prices in the low thousands.

From the pic's it looks like a VZ24 or 24/47 receiver that was re-barreled for 7mm mauser. 7mm used to be a popular hunting round because of all the surplus 7mm from Central and South America where 7mm Mausers ruled the day.

Took some better photos, but very few stamps on this thing, even took off the stock and.......nothing.
The stamps in the photos is all there is on this rifle. There seems to be a jumbled serial number or model
number, this thing is a mystery to me.........
The two short scope rails don't seem to be original as the one has been filed down to clear the bolt handle,
but there are no other sights.

What is "large ring" and is 7x57 considered the same as 7mm?

The owner doesn't know much about guns, not even a cleaning rod, so he dropped it at my house and I
cleaned it up for him. Shiny bore and seems to function well now it's cleaned (years of closet dust) and oiled.
If I can find some ammo for it I may throw a scope on it and go to the range.

Any other info you come up with still appreciated.......

Large ring and small ring. The one on the left is a small ring Spanish Mauser, originally 7mm converted to .308. The one on the right is an 8mm VZ24 , like your example, made by BRNO.

Checked in with a couple of online Mauser forums and they all agreed it was originally a VZ98n 8mm
before it was sported. Built around 1946 or 1947 by Zbrojovka BRNO as a Czech military rifle based on
the German K98k. Then imported into US and sported with a new 7mm barrel, a new Fajen stock,
modified bolt handle, and new safety that doesn't flip all the way over, to clear bottom of scope.
Probably imported in the 1950s or 1960s, all the modifications were done here with all US made parts.
Got it all cleaned up and put one of my old scopes on it and bought some ammo for it, next week it's
off to the deep forest to try it out. I have finally found out where the shooting area is in the woods
around here. Went up there Friday with a guy that was in the 4/47 Riverines at the same time I was
in the 6/31st. A decent place, bring your own table, chairs, and targets, and according to Google Earth,
its 220 yards from end to end. Took the first photo and then turned around and took other photo.
There is shooting area at both ends, and those are his guns.

Well, shot the rifle today. I don't go to deep woods alone, went to range instead, only 50 yards
but that's ok. Bought a shooting holder/stand/thingie that holds a rifle really steady, and with a
couple of small tweaks it now works really well. (Photo below)
The rifle has a pretty good kick to it, cycles well and seems quite accurate, using a holder. The
guy that owns the rifle isn't a hunter, just a plinker like me, so probably not much need to sight
it for 200 yards.......
Shot 10 rounds to sight it in and then put 10 into the 8" target, put all 10 in there, even though
it doesn't look like it. Would probably make a good hunting rifle.
20 rounds was plenty for me, even in a "Primos Group Therapy Bench Anchor Adjustable Shooting Rest"....thingie.

That is a yellow Shoot-N-C target, but my scanner/printer makes it white

Good shooting, even with the help of that shooting thing you had it wedged into.

I was fairly impressed with the rifle, that's a 1.25"x1.25" group, wish I could
do that without the bench rest......................