Have any of you ever had a 98 Mauser malfunction?

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bernie

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A friend of mine just bought a Yugo Mauser (nice rifle) and it made me wonder. I read a lot of military history and have never really read about a malfunction or breakage of a 98 mauser barring damage by ordnance. Have any of you ever had a Mauser malfunction or had a parts breakage on one? They seem to be built pretty sturdy.
 
The only malfunctions I know of involve mix n' match Mausers that have sticky bolts. Often this is a sign of slowly degenerating headspace. But for intact Mausers in good condition they virtually never jam in my experience.

As far as part breakage, there's almost nothing to break. There's one big spring and the bolt breaks down into a handful of very durable parts.
 
Yes- the biggest is FTF. Some mausers are very particular about the shape of the bullet you feed them. I have several 8mm's that will feed everything flawlessly, while others will not feed round nosed bullets, even though the receiver was from the same manufacturer and seemed identical in every way. On mauser 98's the dimensions of the receiver rails are very critical when it comes to feeding. Having a full magazine where the first round will not strip correctly makes for a very nasty jam up.
Another cause of FTF is having a burr on the inside of the extractor claw, which can jam it up.
Yugoslavian mausers- these are the only rifles I've had failures or mechanical problems due to workmanship, The quality of these rifles seems to run from decent to really poor. I have had 2 poor examples- on one, one of hte bolt shroud/safety/cocking piece/sear diensions were wrong and the safety would not work on it, on another, the bolt would be very difficult to open after firing- it was a relatively unused M48A with good headspace- I think poor machining on the bolt lugs or locking areas on the receiver were the culprit.
 
I've never had a malfunction with my VZ24, save for the time I chambered an empty piece of brass and couldn't extract it by closing the bolt on it. :banghead:

I was able to finally slam the bolt home, but that's not too good for the extractor. I didn't have my cleaning rod handy at the time. :rolleyes:
 
If a round gets in front of the extractor while you are chambering the extractor will push the round firmly into the chamber but will not jump over the cartridge rim. You then have a live round in the chamber with no way to extract or fire it. It might come out with a firm buttstroke on the ground, but last time this happened to me at the range with no cleaning rod I had to go unscrew my car's antenna and use it to push the cartridge out from the muzzle.

I have seen someone with an M48 that could not eject empty casings. I couldn't tell what was wrong with his rifle since the ejector seemed just like mine.
 
I've actually had two malfunctions with my M-48 Yugo Mauser. One was a string of failures-to-fire; switching ammo solved that one. (Caveat Emptor, re: cheap-@$$ 8mm ammo :rolleyes: ) The other was a broken extractor. On inspectign the broken part, it looked like it had been broken for quite a while.
 
If a round gets in front of the extractor while you are chambering the extractor will push the round firmly into the chamber but will not jump over the cartridge rim. You then have a live round in the chamber with no way to extract or fire it.
Click to expand...

There was a blurb in the rifleman about this awhile back. You just need to squeeze the extractor body while pushing forward on the bolt- it works, but you need a very strong grip.
 
I have a Turk that occasionally grabs a round out of the magazine and has the round hang up in the magazine rails.

I've never experienced any such problems with my Yugo.
 
Hi, folks,

quote:
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If a round gets in front of the extractor while you are chambering the extractor will push the round firmly into the chamber but will not jump over the cartridge rim. You then have a live round in the chamber with no way to extract or fire it.
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Well, no. True, the 98 Mauser was designed for feeding from the magazine, but it is no problem to chamber a single round. There is resistance, but just striking the bolt handle down will snap the extractor around the case rim. I suppose there can be variations between manufacturers, but I just tried it with a Model 98 rifle, a K98k, two VZ-24's and an M48A. No problem with any, and the K98k and M48A were the easiest because of the turned down bolt handle.

Jim
 
The only time I've seen the problem with getting the extractor around the rim is with early '98's where the extractor is of a different design than WWII era '98's.
 
"Well, no. True, the 98 Mauser was designed for feeding from the magazine, but it is no problem to chamber a single round. There is resistance, but just striking the bolt handle down will snap the extractor around the case rim. I suppose there can be variations between manufacturers, but I just tried it with a Model 98 rifle, a K98k, two VZ-24's and an M48A. No problem with any, and the K98k and M48A were the easiest because of the turned down bolt handle."

I don't have a 98 anymore, but I thought the extractor had a square face instead of a beveled face that allowed it cam over the rim of a round already in the chamber?
 
I thought the way the extractor snapped over the rim of the cartridge depended somehow on how the extractor is attached to the bolt body. On on 03 springfield or Winchester model 70 you can put a round in the chamber and easily snap the extractor over the rim with little or no effort- they are designed for this. For Mausers- I've tried it on 96's and a few dozen 98's and have never been able to chamber a single round just by forcing the bolt forward. Maybe I'm not forcing the bolt hard enough or maybe I'm afraid of brbeaking the extractor, but at any rate, I haven't been able to see that happen with a mauser.
 
Cracked,

I think it's primarily based on the SHAPE of the face of the extractor. If it's blunt and square across the front, there's no way for it to cam over the rim.

The Springfield has an angled face on the extractor. This allows it to cam over the rim.
 
Later model and sporterized Mausers will almost all have a beveled edge on the extractor. I've seen earlier Mausers where the square face has been beveled with a file to make it feed better.
 
One failure out of about a dozen Mausers in my care...

And it was a broken striker spring, probably the original from 1917. Just not enough "oomph" to hit the primer reliably. Easy fix, thanks to Wolff Gunsprings! ;)
 
I don't own a Mauser anymore, so at any time anyone who does more than less has the right to tell me I don't know my posterior from a hole in the ground.
But one would think that if the rifle jammed during battle, it would be good to be able to pop the mag open and smack the bolt home to clear the stuck casing.
Anyone ?
 
But one would think that if the rifle jammed during battle, it would be good to be able to pop the mag open and smack the bolt home to clear the stuck casing.
Click to expand...

My jams were completely of my doing- using handloads with bullet shapes that the particular rifles were not designed for. I've never had a problem with surplus ammo jamming as the bullet shape and seating depth is fairly consistant and is made for the rifle.

Clearing a jam isn't all that difficult- insert bullet tip in floorplate, push in, pull back, and the floorplate drops out. Clearing a jam with a rifle that has a stamped triggerguard/floorplate is a different story though.

A mauser is verydifficult to load without the floorplate/follower/spring in place though.
 
Hi, guys,

After I posted that it is perfectly possible to close the bolt on a chambered round in the Mauser, some folks replied that it is true of "late" Mausers, but not "early" ones.

So I just tried it in an 1891 Argentine, 1893 Spanish, an 1894 Swedish carbine, and an 1896 Swedish rifle. No problem at all. The extractor will not easily snap over the case rim when pushing forward on the bolt, but in all Mausers, the closing cam range is within the dimensions necessary to engage the extractor on the case, so moving the bolt handle down to the locked position will (and does) result in the extractor gripping the case.

I can't say that there are not some Mausers in which this will not work, but they would appear to be out of spec in some way. I believe there is ample evidence that the rifle was designed to allow (if not encourage) single loading.

Jim
 
...I just tried it with a Model 98 rifle, a K98k, two VZ-24's and an M48A...an 1891 Argentine, 1893 Spanish, an 1894 Swedish carbine, and an 1896 Swedish rifle.
Click to expand...

Jim Keenan, I hate you. ;)
 
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