Okay Guys,

I need some help in identifying and approximate worth of a 22 auto rifle that was stolen from my mother-in-law’s house.

I think my father-in-law got this gun in France when he was serving there as a US Air Force Fighter pilot.

It had a full stock and I think it was tube fed but could have been a clip. The barrel was at least 20 inches but could have been longer.

The most unique thing about this gun was the firing pin. It was circular instead of a pin like most guns. I thought this was pretty neat because instead of making one dent in the rimfire case, it dented the whole rim, all the way around. In fact I think that this is such a good idea, it may not have been French.

Anyway, it was stolen from her house, by her oldest son, along with about 5 other really neat guns. I have identified all of them and priced them. My mother-in-law is on her last legs and the executor of the will wants a ballpark figure, (high) to deduct the cost of the guns from the oldest son’s inheritance. No he is not willing to let anyone appraise these guns, in fact he is down right nasty about this subject so I am not looking to him for any help.

Thanks, Sixgun

Sounds a bit like a Gevarm (or some spelling close to that) but i remember them as having a ridge across the bolt face, so they kind of creased the whole rim right across it. Was French made and resoanbly popular from the late 1950's into the 1980's. Fired from an open bolt...pulling the trigger let the bolt slap forward, picking up a round from the detachable box mag, chambering it, and firing it...would then blow the bolt back to it's locked-open starting posision.

It's the open bolt thing that killed it in the US...ALL oepn bolt guns got banned (becasue it's just too easy to make them go full auto).

Probably not going to be a barn burner for price, Most obsolete guns like that get prices ranging from 75 to 125 bucks for insurance purposes when I ran them thru my shop. for a 22 it would have to be a Win 52 or european target gun to get much higher than that.

Here is a gun identification site. If you have the name of the gun it might be here.

www.securityarms.com/20010315/all.htm