My first Mauser (Yugo M48)

[Bart Noir]

So I still have this 50-round MG belt of 8mm cartridges (Made in Egypt, go figure.) for my brother’s rifle, which he sold about the time I got the ammo. And there was this Yugo M48 in the pawn shop, in very nice shape.

So I bought it. And have a question.

The butt-plate is smooth polished metal. No finish at all, not even a trace. No knurling, waffle-tread, no kind of traction surface whatsoever. Is this the normal butt-plate? I assume it is just normal steel and not stainless, so what would you suggest as an added-by-Bart finish? (I seem to think I have a can of black Rust-Oleom paint somewhere…..)

Bart Noir
Who wonders if a 1903A3 was really his "first Mauser".

 

[vector248]

That sounds very normal to me for the butt plate to have no finish. Mine is the same way, and i left it that way to retain the originality. Might be worth looking into that ammo more in depth, sometimes MG ammo is hotter than regular rifle ammo....someone here is bound to know.

 

[Acheron]

I don't know about the Egyptian stuff, but war-time German MG ammo was always loaded hotter than rifle rounds to give the gunners extra range.

Don't worry about the buttplate. All the Yugo Mausers I've seen have had smooth (unfinished) buttplates. Including my M24/47 .

 

[Vaarok]

WW1 war-time ammo was loaded hotter. For Maxims. Nothing since.

1960s vintage Egyptian is corrosive, decent, unremarkable 8mm ammo. Unless you've got painted-tip bullets that're tracers or something neat.

 

[TheGunGuru]

I have the same gun, butt plate is fine. be aware that the WWII German ammo can hurt your gun. It is very hot and the brass tends to get stuck in the barrel so when you go to cycle the round, you break the extractor right off the bolt. I thought it was a fluke when it happened to me, you know, its a 45 year old or more rifle, god knows how well it has been treated... somethings bound to break? I got it fixed and went to the range with some Turkish ammo..shot just fine for over 150 rds. I ran out of the last of my Turkish stuff and went to the German ammo again and with in 3-4 shots the extractor broke off again.

I decided not to shoot the rest of my German ammo and sold it off. Later, I hear from a friend of mine that he has a similar problem, the extractor has broken off the bolt of his Yugo M 48. And sure enough its a bunch of German ammo...and of a different lot # than mine.

 

[Bart Noir]

Lots of help here, so thanks.

I do have some of that Nazi German ammo, just 20 rounds I think. Won't be shooting it.

I planned all along to clean as if the Eqyptian rounds were corrosive. When in doubt, call it corrosive, at least that is my policy.

Shiny, reflective, easy-to-see big butt-plates on military rifles? That just doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Maybe it looks nice with the camo uniforms

Bart Noir

 

[RevolvingCylinder]

I've never broken an extractor on a Mauser and I've been shooting them since I was a kid including the M48 but I mostly used handloads as I've found the lack of consistency in surplus ammo to be frustrating. The problem with any surplus ammo(I've found this to be true with 5.56) is that you never know what you're gonna get and quality lacks. The buttplate is normal. The worst part about them is that they're slick and don't like to stay put on your shoulder.

 

[rust collector]

A little skateboard tape or slip-on pad could rectify the slick buttplate problem on a nonpermanent basis.

I've got a few hundred rounds of Egyptian 8mm on mg 34 belts in the basement, but got it mostly for decoration. Probably not worth the risk to use it in my mausers.

 

[Bart Noir]

Yeah, a MG belt certainly is an item of decoration. I lean toward preserving it just for that reason.

I guess the butt-plate could be finished with one of those spray and bake finishes. A project for nice weather, when the windows can be wide open, I would think.

Bart Noir

 

[pbhome71]

The shiny butt plate is normal.

I heard report that the bolt is not as stout as other Mauser, and if you shoot it a lot with hot load, it can be bad for the rifle.

Let's me see if I can find a link to that bolt problem.

Here's my Yugo.

-Pat

 

[dstorm1911]

Buttplates have been in the white since before the Spanish American war, the WWI and WWII rifles in the muddy trenches of Europe and constant rain came out just fine..... now if ya frequently keep the butt sitting on wet carpet ya might have a problem..... otherwise its just as it was meant to be just like with the bolts being left in the white..... no they aren't chrome or stainless just steel left in the white

If ya can't keep the butt from slipping then your not mounting the stock to your shoulder correctly, again all ya gotta do is look back through history, somehow all them soldiers and Snipers managed to mount em without any slipage issues and most were covered with sweat, mud and blood etc.... if there had been a problem they probably woulda made some changes way before 1948 yet ALL your WWI and WWII rifles had smooth steel or brass or alluminum butt plates....

MG ammo? Not any hotter as mentioned since the Maxim in WWI (it wasn't for range it was to get the gun to cycle reliably, we have 2 originals at the Shop NFA registered in 1986) they won't feed standard load spec ammo, the problem with SOME of the German 8 mm that might break extractors is case head diameter it tends to pre-load the extractor however this is not the case with all German marked ammo, ya gotta remember the germans were forcing several occupied countries to not only produce weapons but ammo and components as well.

 

[woad_yurt]

Personally, I like the smooth buttplate on my K98. It seems to kind let the rifle move a little after I pull the trigger, which makes it less punishing to my shoulder. I think they left them smooth as a production cost and maintenance saver. Mud and stuff is easily wiped off. But, if you like a grippy butt, put some stairway tread sandpaper on it. It's kind of the same stuff they use around swimming pools. Trim it perfectly and place it carefully, though. It's a pain to get off. You may want to warm it up a bit to bend it easily, too.