Since 43 Spanish isn't a cartridge you can run down to the gun shop and buy (even when gun shops had ammo) one wonders what the previous owner was thinking when he/she/it put that scope on. Curiouser and curiouser.
Dave
Re the scope...
Bad Eyes? If it was already cutdown, as a deer carbine, the owner most likely saw no harm.
I myself am running into that issue... Anything I want to shoot past 75 yards is getting a scope put on it, but in a manner that is not irredeemable. Ascetics and originality be damned, if I can't put the roundinto a teacup with my eyes at 175 yards it becomes a museum piece.
I see a progression in these old rifles.
Milsurp "fill in the blank" gets offered via Bannerman, hardware store or mail-order at $1.59 a pop.
Makes a great first deer rifle for the kid! Ah, but it is too long and too heavy, so we cut down the stock
And the barrel... Makes a satisfactory cheap deer carbine.
That crappy looking but good enough carbine gets passed around the family, may end up as a wagon gun or loaner, pretty soon gets shoved in the closet, if not tossed out. After all more modern stuff , betterer stuff is available by now, ( 1920? 1930? 1950? )
Eventually it comes out of the closet or attic. A more mature sort with the funds available might try to rebarrell, restock, or restore it... A more frugal fellow with less disposable cash just wants to make
G-grandpa's "deer gun" shoot again and take another deer! Or, turn it into the cheap first rifle for the latest sprout.... Again ... But with a scope for easy sighting....
Not everybody has $200 to drop on juniors first deer rifle, especially if he/she might not carry on the hunting tradition for whatever reason... Have you seen the price of a new water heater lately? I shudder...
Better to have it shooting than to turn into a wall decoration.
Yhs
Prof marvbles