Any Mauser restorations?

[Lovesbeer99]

I have a Yugo 24/47 that I am very fond of, but it's a little sloppy. The extractor claw barley holds the round, trigger needs work, maybe even a new barrel. I know the trigger and barrel can be done, but does anyone do bolt work, or action work in general on an old mauser?

While I'm at it, has anyone freefloated a barrel in the original K98, M48, etc, stock so that it still looks milsurp? I'd love this gun in a .260 remington, or 308. Nato.


Thanks in advance -

 

[JesseL]

Does the extractor still extract okay?

General action work on an old Mauser should be pretty fundamental to any gunsmith worthy of the title.

I think you'd be looking at several times the cost of the rifle to have it a .308 or .260 barrel profiled to match the original military contour, especially since I believe the Yugo Mausers also require a relief cut on the barrel face for the extractor.

 

[bartonlong]

yes you can.

New Mauser extractors are cheap and plentiful from places like Sarco and maybe even Midway-however first check to make sure it doesn't just need a good cleaning and maybe a little bending-take the extractor completely off and check that way. These guns are tough and hard to break-and if you do you can replace the parts/guns pretty easy.

To get a barrel contoured to match the military contour won't be cheap-but the total cost with an adams and bennet barrel(can buy through midway usa) will be about 250-300. Occasionally a 308 with the military contour shows up on gunbroker. The featherweight Adams and Bennet offer in 308 (f19 contour) will fit in the military wood with some sanding of the handguards and stock and is about the right length, however it does not have the sights installed and you will need that to make it look authentic. Rebarreling a mauser is fun and easy with a good book and some tools (the cost for buying the tools/book will be more than a gunsmith will charge you if you want to do just one).

As far as the yugo mauser requiring the relief cut in the breech face-it is not required for safe operation but probably a good idea if you are having a gun smith do it.

I have a two rifles in 260 and 308 built on yugo actions (old 3 for 150 junk rifles from century) with custom stocks that I am happy with and I did all the work at home with hand tools.

 

[Lovesbeer99]

bartonlong, how do they shoot? I'd like to think that If I'm going through the trouble I could keep the gun at 1moa or less with proper ammo. Also, how are the actions? I hope they are smooth and tight.

 

[bartonlong]

They shoot pretty good. I have the F34 contour on the 260 (a heavier barrel than the F19 on the 308) and it will shoot under 1" at 100 off of sandbags. The 308 is about 2" or so and I am putting an f34 contour on it. Both have boyd's stocks that were drop in and fit the actions well but I had to sand a channel for the bolt on the wrist area. The 308 got a coues deer at 200 yards this winter so it shoots good enough. I hand lapped the lugs and polished everything else to get them smooth. It really is a lot of work (not hard or difficult-just time consuming)to get a junk rifle to decent sporter status with only hand tools and little experience. My next one is a no4mk1 action (bare action from factory) in 444 marlin and a Turkish Mauser action to 8mm-06 Ackley improved. In general the actions were well made and finished just badly stored for 40 years in some warehouse in yugoslavia i think. and they both need a better refinish than cold blueing (the paste is much better than the liquid stuff but it still only a cold blue).

 

[Vaarok]

Word of warning, Yugos are intermediate length actions, not standard-length. Only FN, Yugo, and Turk 1903 bolt parts interchange.