Re-barreling a Mauser

[Gingerbreadman]

Yesterday I bought a very beat-up Turkish Mauser 98. I would like to change out the barrel. I am not sure if it is a large ring or small ring Mauser, nor do I know how to tell, or even exactly what that means, but I have seen barrels for sale labeled large ring and small ring. I would like to keep it in 8mm.

Will Mauser 98 barrels from other countries fit my Turkish Mauser?

 

[highorder]

Instead of offering a tiny slice of advice, I suggest you poke around this place for a bit. The wealth of info there is breathtaking.

http://mausercentral.com/forum/index.php

 

[Gingerbreadman]

Awesome, thanks.

 

[bennypapa]

Depends on which Turk mauser it is.

Look at this page for a description of the various models
http://www.turkmauser.com/models.aspx
and this for a discussion of ring sizes and shank sizes
http://www.turkmauser.com/largeRingSmallRing.aspx

If it a large ring small shank rifle, usually called M38, then only a small shank barrel will fit. Other large ring mausers have a large shank barrel. One easy way to tell is if it has the words "K Kale" on the top of the receiver. Those are usually large ring, small shank rifles.

If you want to keep it in original military condition it would be best to find a barrel that someone has taken off in order to sporterise their rifle.

 

[bennypapa]

I just looked up the thread dimensions for large vs small ring.
Both are 12 threads per inch so if you find a good large ring barrel and a good machinist it can be cut down to small shank threads. Depends on what you find and if you want to keep the rifle stock. They do use a LOOOONG barrel, those Turks

 

[Gingerbreadman]

As far as I can tell, it is a 1903 model.