Most of the bidding on guns went up to the point where the price was no longer a "deal" but all the dealers could sell it at a profit. So, the Steven's 44 1/2 in 32-40 went for $800, the Steven's Tip Up in .32 rimfire went for $320, all the .44 Cap and Ball Remington styles went for about $150. A lot of the time, the Internet proxy bidders had bids in so the people on the floor had to bid up to that lever.
When the roller came up, they announced on the floor that it was a 7mm, not a .25 and I was worried this might spark interest. However, I was only bidding against an absentee bidder. Just at $100, I decided to stop, but the absentee had only bid $100, and I got there first!!!!
I had planned to rebarrel it to shoot smokeless 45-70, as the Lemonton project I am working on will be a BP only. This 7mm was a No. 5 model 1901, so it was good for light smokeless loads under 40,000 CUP. However, after checking the prices of the forends on rollingblockparts.com, I have decided to try to restore the wood parts to a full up Mauser instead. We'll see.
Okay, here it is.....
Patent date is definitely 1902, not 1902 like some others....
Numbers matching, 3988 batch. The but plate also has a second set of numbers, 94641, I don't know what this is. I read somewhere, maybe here, that the Rollers were batch numbered 0001 through 9999 then start over.
Based on some old threads here and in other places, I wanted to compare the chamber casting to the SAAMI chamber drawings. Nearly everything matched EXCEPT the shoulder and neck which had some .010 differences. 2ndovc, if you reload for yours, read up on how to properly resize the brass. There is also a youtube cautionary tail of someone shooting 7mm in a Roller and getting shrapnel in the brain. The short version is, the shoulder size is different, so there is excessive headspace. In the event of case separation, the rolling block receiver has no way to handle the gasses, and so it could be come a grenade. Most sources recommend using 8mm brass resized with a 7mm sizer, slowly and checking headspace until the breech close and you can drop the trigger.
Mine is a rotory extractor. What wasyours, Griff? Did you do anything special for the brass?
I need look up these proof marks
Anyway, this goes in the safe, till I can afford the new wood, and I finish the Lemonton. One project at a time.....