Antique (pre-1899) rifles, what are the useful ones?

How do you “verify” its Antique vs not antique for Federal purposes?

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I’m in Louisiana and it annoys me that my rifle isn’t considered primitive, but a 2024 .35 whelen with a massive scope is.

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That's got me peeved, too. I can't use my 30-30 with a peep sight but I'm OK to use my .444 with a 4x12x40 Leupold on it.

1896 mausers are excellent rifles even by modern standards but I don't know how common pre-1899 builds are. 1894's are supposedly really nice as well, but I've never seen one.

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How do you “verify” its Antique vs not antique for Federal purposes?

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There's several methods, all based on companies doing good record keeping.

Obviously the serial number is the official means. You look up a serial number, someone somewhere has a site (even for closed companies) listing what range is what. F

For the Argentine Mauser- it was made for, not by Argentina. It was made in Germany, so there's record keeping galore.
Also for the Argentines- company of manufacture. Ludwig Loewe stopped making it prior to 1899, that changed over to DWM. So if you find a Loewe stamped receiver, it's a definite. The DWM is a maybe, depending on serial.

For the Carcano, they stamp the receiver with a serial number (left side), manufacturer (top), and put the date on the right side. The one I picked up is dated 1895.

Some guns are considered "junk" historically, such as the Carcano. That might be a bad rap; it's got some things working against it.
1) it's the gun that shot Kennedy. Bad.
2) it uses a clip that drops free after the last round is chambered; not the best thing for a hunter.
3) caliber- 6.5x52. For one thing, there were people who disliked anything smaller than 30 cal, so they dismissed this. Interestingly, we're seeing a resurgence in 6.5 cal guns now. Also, the bullet diameter- this rd should be .268. Common 6.5 bullets used in the US were 2.64, so you wont get full thread engagement as intended.
4) sight method- looking into it, the Italians used a different picture. You "bury" the front post into the V notch, instead of both at the same elevation.
So if you don't know to sight it correctly, you're going to shoot way high. And if you don't have .268 bullets, it may drift a lot more than you'd like.

I'm real curious about the 1888/90 Mannicher I picked up. It clearly is an antique, it was set up originally for semi-smokeless (compressed black powder), was converted to smokeless. Some say the action isn't as strong, but there are others who say it's very strong and wellmade, and it's been rechambered to shoot plenty of other rounds. 8x50R is basically unobtanium, but people reload with other brass, including using 7.62x54R Russian. I've seen videos of people shooting that- it chambers, it's not accurate since the bullet doesn't fully engage the rifling, but there's also zero risk of gas pressure buildup for that same reason. You fireform the case by doing so, then trim the case back.