.270 AI mauser

[TheSilverSlayer]

Hey all, just wanted to post a picture of my semi-custom mauser in hopes of gaining a little background info on it, however, I cant figure out how to upload a pic.  The action is a 1948 FN large ring mauser.  It is chambered for .270 AI and the barrel is stamped .270 POA on one side and H.B. Anderson on the other.  Various parts of the action also have H.B. Anderson stamped on them.  I was hoping one of you all might know who this H.B. Anderson fellow was/is.  Also, is there any way to tell if this rifle or this rifle's barrel was actually worked on by Parker Otto Ackley? The stock has a semi gloss finish, made of some type of dark very wavy grained wood.

[TheSilverSlayer]

You have to disregard the other guns. Its the only bolt gun in the photo.

[Mikey]

Your FN Mauser is a commercial 98 made post war when PO Ackley was hard at work developing and selling his improved calibers.  The rifle could have easily come in 270 caliber as they also came in the 30-06, 7mm and 8mm calibers I believe. 

The barrel should be marked with the caliber - 270 Ackley Improved or 270AI.  Henderson may have been a gunsmith working for Ackley or a gunsmith who worked and rebarrelled Mauser actions - that would explain the different markings. 

I am not certain if Ackley required all actions shipped to him for rebarrel or if he also sold his rechambered or chambered barrels for work outside his shop.  You may try a internet search for PO Ackley (you should get a bunch of hits) and try Henderson as well under a gunsmith search and see whatcha come up with.  HTH.  Mikey.

[TheSilverSlayer]

The barrel is not marked .270 AI, it is simply marked .270 POA.  Is this how Ackley marked the weapons he worked on personally?

Also, I don't know where the 'henderson' came from.  The gun is marked H.B. Anderson.  So far the only think I about found close to
H.B. Anderson, was an outdoors writer named Bryden H. Anderson.  He wrote mostly about African stuff, but was around during the same time period of this gun.  The safely is not a conventional mauser safety.  It is a flush mounted two position safety.  It blocks the trigger, not the firing pin itself.  Maybe this is how commercial mausers were made, but most I have seen have a three position wing type safety.  The linkage for the safety is also marked H.B. Anderson, along with other components of the rifle.   

I kind of doubt ackley worked on this rifle, because it is of a rather spartan design.  It has no engraving on the metal or checkering on the stock.  The action is sound and it shoots well though, even with .270 win loads.