Interesting Mauser 48

Just picked up an M48 BO from auction. My intention was to purchase a shooter K98 "style " Mauser with a clean bore and matching bolt for a reasonable price, and this rifle listed as Yugoslavia M48 was a strong candidate. I hadn't really dug into any collectability or rarity aspects, just service condition. Turns out I got something much more interesting than a boilerplate M48. Based on the blued bolt, sight leaf and butt plate, and the cutout for a stock disk, this is an Egyptian contract M48!

 

Neat!
A little surprised the sight markings arent in Arabic though?

 

As far as I can tell, these were somewhat of a stop-gap order to supplement or replace their FN49s, and that level of service was likely not provided. Yugoslavia as well as other Soviet satellites were good at exporting shady rifles to friends of the Reds in that time frame. The world of BO M48s is so murky, as far as features, origins and final destinations, it's almost like the confusion was intentional. Today before I made the OP, I put some 20 rounds of sketchy surplus through it, and am quite happy with the performance regardless of the murky provenance. Don't tell SF I was shooting ammo from 1944 Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia and Yugo '55 ball with the hard primers against all expert advice! As an added bonus, this thing has a good strong firing pin spring! I can actually utilize the '55 ball with only an occasional click. Good for the flinch mitigation.

 

I can't see your Crest, but the Yugo's made M48 for their friends in Syria.

 

Nice rifle! There is no crest, it's a BO unmarked rifle. It has the blued bolt, butt plate and sight ramp, and the cutout for a stock disk which generally identify a rifle as Egyptian contract. Interestingly, this one has a milled trigger guard and floor plate.

 

Do you know when these were purchased by Syria? Between 1958 and 1961 there was the short-lived union of Egypt and Syria called the United Arab Republic -- maybe they did a 'fraternal' group buy?

 

Umm, that is Arabic. We use Arabic numbers all the time. Very few guns do not use Arabic numerals, actually.

 

Fine, Eastern Arabic, as you bloody well knew what I meant.
Ive seen Mausers so marked many times, though I couldnt say for certain the contract origins- as noted above they get murky in those regions.
Saw a K98 with German, Arabic, and Hebrew all over it once, complete with a giant Star of David stamped on the oft-scrubbed receiver ring.
Then, of course, there were the few million M91 Mosin Nagants with the sights marked in arshins.....

 

Don't you just hate it when you get what you think is one thing and it turns out to be another?
Or are you thankful for the serendipity?

 

Regardless of the markings, they all seem to be the same basic Yugo rifle.

Quality wise, how are the Yugos regarded in comparison to other countries Mauser style manufacture?

 

In my experience, fit and finish tend to be more crude. Function, reliability and accuracy tend to be better. Perhaps due to lesser age and lack of severe service conditions. When you could take your pick from a crate for under $150 they weren't very well thought of. Now they are garnering more respect.

Quite happy in this case. The rifle is what I thought it was functionality wise, and I paid shooter price for it. Turns out the interesting provenance is a nice bonus.

 

Very nice find. I was lucky to grab several 48,s back when they were under 100 buck unisued in cosmo.. My BO has no crest as usual but mine doesn't have a stock disk or cut out. Got a 48 and 48A. Gave my son the other 48 I had. Real nice Mausers.

 

Wish I had gotten a few back then. I did get the ammo. I was just more interested in Mosin Nagants at the time, as they had a lot more crazy variations to look for. The m48s and 24/47s all seemed the same. Once I had one I got bored witht the breed. The one I had was traded to a fellow milsurp addict even-steven for a functionally perfect but very ugly-stocked K-31. I got the better end, it's won a lot of matches!

 

Amen -- rifle sight graduations vary considerably according to when the rifle was made, who it was for, who was manufacturing and how much the contract was worth.

Here's a couple of fairly well-known Middle Eastern rifle sights -- see if you can guess the rifle and the user of each of these two:



Check out these Siamese rear sight graduations:



Here's one from a Nepalese Snider:



Not only can the numbering system vary, there were multiple measurement systems floating around along with meters and yards. Two of the better known were the Russian arshin (71 cm) and Austrian schritt (73 cm), both of which were supposed to equal a standardized pace.

Rifles with lengthy service histories were sometimes re-graduated to a more common measurement system at a later date. Here's an interesting article about the Turkish G88 story:

https://silahreport.com/2019/09/24/safety-in-numbers-atatürks-linguistic-reforms-in-gew-88-05s-rear-sight-ladders/

 

I have a dumb question for M48 mauser owners. Can't remember from my old one. Are your sight leafs marked on the back side as well, so the sight can be viewed from the flipped up position and the elevator moved to a correct yardage marker as well?

ETA. This is not an extreme range "volley" setup on the back side as found on my Swedish M96 and others. It is graduations on the back side that presumeably would be used from sandbags or some barricade position to keep the shooter from having to raise the muzzle and his head to adjust the yardage increment on the elevator. Can't recall seeing this on other rifles, wondering if it is unique?

 

I do not know this. My information came from Mauser Rifles by Ludwig Olson and he did not go into the procurement.

 

We had a couple of globes at my elementary school that had Syria and Egypt labeled as 'UAR', something that has stuck in my memory.

 

Picked up a 24, a 24/47, a 48 and a 48a.
None appear to be Syrian or Egyptian.
Guess that I'm gonna have to keep looking.
Gotta catch 'em all... .

 

I had a Syrian 7.92 Mauser made in Yugoslavia, I don’t remember what model.
The receiver had developed front locking lug setback, making the bolt very hard to lift after firing.
The stock had developed a longitudinal twist, my guess due to drying out.

I sold it to a buddy (with full disclosure) who wanted the action to build a sporter, I have no idea how he planned to fix the setback.

 

Just an FYI, there are no “Eastern Arabic” numerals. We use Arabic numerals as do a number of majority Arabic speaking countries. In the Gulf and other places, they use Hindu numerals although they have also been called “Indo-Arabic”.

 

I only wish a few containers of good brass cased ball ammo would flood the market.

 

If it makes you feel better, (it won't) this was a dumb lucky buy. I thought I was getting a shooter grade M48 with some replaced ancillary parts.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Arabic_numerals

 

That’s the problem with using Wikipedia. It’s wrong.

 

Such a warhorse of a rifle. I would like to come acrossed one some day....