I Am Considering A Mauser

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Joshua M. Smith

Joshua M. Smith

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Hi All,

I'm considering a Mauser carbine.

I am a fan of the Mosin-Nagant as is pretty widely known, for several reasons. It is not a cheap rifle as some folks think, and is inexpensive only because it's being sold at scrap prices by the former Soviet Union. If the barrel is not completely degraded, it will shoot 2.5MOA, with sub-MOA groups being the norm for properly set-up specimens with good bores.

I do have a 120 year-old Commission Rifle, M88/05, mistakenly called a Mauser 88. It is not a Mauser but rather a rifle designed by a commission dedicated to the task. It carries traits of both the Mauser and of the Mannlicher, the action being most similar to the latter.

I enjoy it and its precision is still at the 1.2MOA mark due to the barrel jacket and a few other things, but it's just not a strong action and I need to keep loads below 45000psi. Not a huge deal but one to consider. Plus, it is 120 years old!

I would not mind a Mauser. I would like a short one with a straight bolt. I do not know exactly what I'm looking for after that. I'd just like a controlled-feed in the collection someplace, though I very much prefer push-feed.

The Mauser can be made to achieve almost the same precision as the Mosin-Nagant given rifles in similar condition and handloaded rounds. I would prefer it to do 2.5MOA out of the box. This is a good indicator that it can be improved upon.

So, 2.5MOA from the box, straight bolt handle since I'm a lefty, and a relatively short rifle, shorter than a 91/30 or M88/05 anyway, is what I'm looking for.

Price is a consideration as I will not be using this as a main rifle. I could go out and easily find what I'm looking for around the $400 mark, but I honestly don't want to go that high.

I figure you all might know of one that is closer to what I'm looking for. Do the Yugos have decent bores on average? What is their stock precision and accuracy? Do they come with bayonets?

Do you have other recommendations?

Thank you,

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I haven't looked to see what Mausers are bringing lately but they are great rifles and a few years ago they were selling cheap too ... but then the supply dried up. SOG had a dealer price for Turkish Mausers for $35 if you bought 5 or more ... the stocks were beat up, barrels were ok and the actions were great and the ammo was $69/K. Pristine K98's and Yugo M48's were in the $100 range.

Needless to say I bought into it ... the ammo turned out to be 8mm machinegun ammo and was not very consistant, about 6MOA. I dis-assembled it and ran it through my Dillon 550B and can easily get about 1.5 MOA
 
I don't have too much personal experience with the Yugo's, but most of the 24/47's are supposed to have like-new bores and shoot very well. There are still places on line that have them in the $200 range. Someone over at surplusrifleforum.com had an issue with one having a bent barrel from classicarms with ensuing customer-service failure, so I don't think I'd go that direction. I don't know if they come with bayonets, but there are lots of places to get them.

AIM surplus has VZ-24s for $270-ish complete with bayonets. I have one VZ-24 and it's a very good shooter, but the sights leave something to be desired. I may be switching that one to Mojo sights later this year.

Russian Capture K98k's can be had for less than $400, but they're getting harder to come by. If you can find a Yugo captured one, they're generally in better shape.

Matt
 
morcey tell me more about the mojo sights... I just got a VZ24 from aim and the sights are nigh unuseable. Bayonet looked new, though. :D

BTW on the VZ the medallion thing in the stock has the weird two-dimpled screw in it... I assume you remove that with some factory tool (same as the rear band) and that allows you to strip the bolt? Or does it have some other purpose.

Thanks

/hijack
 
1KPerDay said:
morcey tell me more about the mojo sights... I just got a VZ24 from aim and the sights are nigh unuseable. Bayonet looked new, though. :D

BTW on the VZ the medallion thing in the stock has the weird two-dimpled screw in it... I assume you remove that with some factory tool (same as the rear band) and that allows you to strip the bolt? Or does it have some other purpose.

Thanks

/hijack
Click to expand...

Mojo sights: http://www.mojosights.com/

They're a peep-sight the replaces the rear sight leaf on lots of milsurp rifles and the front sight on some of them. I've never used them, but I've talked to lots of people who love them, especially on mausers that tend to have less-than-optimal sights on the already.

The stock disc isn't used to take down the bolt. I'm not exactly sure what they're for. I think they were used for operational unit marking, but I'm not sure. :confused: The bolt takedown spot on the VZ-24 is the right side of the recoil bolt. It's right below the front ring of the receiver and has a significant indentation in it. But real men use their forearm to remove the firing pin. (ok, not really, unless you're wanting a lovely puncture wound.)

Matt
 
Thank you. It seems to me that the front pyramid sight would be more in need of a replacement than the rear blade. I may try deepening the notch a tad.
 
Swedish M38. Excellent shooters, mild recoil. After that I'd go for a South American 7mm. Neat crests. The Swedes and German made Mausers are real works of art.
 
Are you after a short rifle or carbine? The real short barreled Mausers are usually collector's items. I've had a few over the years. The Iranian carbine was a real shoulder slammer.
 
If you want a short carbine, some of the Spanish Mausers are pretty short... especially the FR-7s and FR-8s, which had a 17.75" barrel and are chambered in 7.62x51. There are also .308 barreled Spanish Mausers with 21" barrels or so, in addition to the ones in 7x57.
 
And what a great day it was! I got it home and spent a good amount of time getting all that wonderful cosmoline cleaned up. By the time I was done with that no time to shoot :( . Hoping to find some time to put a few rounds through it. The Rifling looks nice and sharp. Not too stoked about the sights but we will see if I can use them well enough.
 
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