Mausers

bigbulls · 08-07-2003, 10:34 PM

I am going to be building a rifle for my son and wife in school early next year and was thinking about using a mauser action to base it on. I am limited in knowledge about the old military rifles nd actions so I need your help.

1) What country of origin I should be looking for? So far looking around I have seen Czech, Turkish, Yugo. German and Belegium (sp) will probably cost too much as I am on some what of a budget with this rifle.

2) Is there any major differances in the small ring and large rig.

Basicaly I need a run down on what to be looking for all together.

Thanks for any help.

James B · 08-07-2003, 11:42 PM

I think the 98 Mauser is the most common mauser used to build rifles. A friend of mine and I used some German ones to build a few rifles on. I am not an expert on this however.

diyj98 · 08-08-2003, 05:40 AM

bigbulls, are you actually doing the work or paying someone to build the rifle. If you' re on that low of a budget you' re going to find a decent job from anybody other than a gunsmith wannabe is going to be fairly expensive. I' m assuming since you are unfamiliar with large ring vs. small ring, you won' t be doing the work yourself.

The Turks can be picked up anywhere from $40 to $75.00 depending upon condition, so if this is too expensive I think you' re in over your head already. I don' t mean this to be insulting, I' m just not sure you realize the expense. If you' re just talking about buying a cheap military rifle and cutting the barrel off shorter and calling it " sporterized" then you might be o.k.

oldelkhunter · 08-08-2003, 06:26 AM

I have a custom 7x57 on a 98 Argentine action and the gunsmith that built it told me it was one of the more desireable ones.... I bought the gun complete from it and if you itemized the items he put on it and changed I bought it for less than 1/2 cost because it' s a lot of labor. Briman would be an excellent source for info on this subject.......

frizzellr · 08-08-2003, 06:56 AM

From what I have read the VZ-24 action is one of the best to build on.

8mm/06 · 08-08-2003, 07:26 AM

CZ-24, VZ-24, Argentine 1909, Persians made at BRNO in the Czeck Republic in the 30' s are all good bets, but most Mausers (not all) will stand up to all but the biggest bruising magnums. If you are building something monstrous I' d talk to several experts. If you are building from .300 Win mag on down it probably won' t make a big difference unless you plan on putting an amazing # of rounds thru it.

Briman · 08-08-2003, 08:56 AM

The cheapest ones you will find that are worth using, and very good actions at that are Czech Vz-24' s and 98/22' s- same action that could be had for well under $100. You can also get a Yugo K98 refurb for around $100 which might be a bit easier to find scope mounts for- the rear ring on a k98 is a bit flatter than a Czech 98. I can' t rememebr the name of the company off hant that sells them though. Stay away from the yugo m48' s- they require an extractor cut to be made in the narrel- like in a win model 70- but the action is 1/4" shorter than a standard 98 action, making it difficult to find a decent stock to fit the receiver.

I would stay away from the turk actions, as they are not up to the quality of the stuff made by the Czechs, and are threaded for a small ring barrel. There is one neat thing you can do with them however- you can buy a new surplus 6.5x55 swedish barrel from Samcoglobal for around $50 and it will thread into the turk action- but if you want to go this route, its probably better to spend a few extra $$ and buy a 96 swede to sporterize.

bigbulls · 08-08-2003, 11:43 AM

Thanks for the info guys.

diyj98, Yeah I am going to be building it myself. I am two months into gunsmithing school right now so I won' t be buiding it until about April next year so by the time I get there this question wouldn' t have needed to be asked but I want to start looking now. This will be made 100% from scratch. As far as budget goes 100 bucks is just fine I just didn' t want to have to spend $300 or more for some of the original German K-98' s I' ve seen around.

Briman, I have heard that the Yugo' s were good strong actions to build on. The stock is going to be synthetic and shaped from just a skeleton mold so cutting around the extractor and fitting the stock is not a problem. Thanks for the help, I' ll keep my eyes opend for the Czechs' . It' s looking like I' m going to heve to buy an entire rifle. Not seeing any complete actions only out there.

oldelkhunter · 08-08-2003, 11:52 AM

Briman, I have a question for you i have a 1909 Argentine that was customized by a gunsmith ...do you have any experience with installing a 3 position wing safety ala David Gentry or know of anyone that did one. Were they satisfied with the results?

Briman · 08-08-2003, 08:18 PM

Oldelkhunter- Don' t know much about that[>:]

Bigbulls- check out CDNN investments- do a web search for their site.
You can getg mismatched M48' s and k98' s from them for as low as $69.

I would say stay away from the m48' s- I' ve owned two of them and am not impressed with the workmanship put into them. They were made under a communist occupation and probably are inconsistant in quality at best. On one of the rifles, the safet will not engage , on the other, the rear of the receiver was peened by the what might have been the bolt beeing slammed into it really hard- the receiver should be hard enough for thhis not to happen. The rifle I still have also has the shoulder of the firing pin peened back from dry firing it a couple of times- I know this was my doing as the damage to the metal is fresh- this shouldn' t happen either on a mauser 98 action. I think that possibly the metal is of very poor quality and probably too soft.

You can also get a K98 from this company. It' s simply a wwII kar98 that was left in Yugoslavia after the war. Before the yugoslavians started making their own rifles, they used or rebuilt these kar98' s- they also have a yugo crest stamped on the receiver and often leads to confusion that m48' s and kar 98' s ar the same rifle. The Kar 98 will be a much higher quality piece to work on than the M48, even though most of the M48' s are practically new. You can easily differentiate an M48 from a Kar 98 sitting side by side in that the Kar 98 will have a hanguard that starts in front of the rear sight and ends before the front band, while an M48 has a handguard that starts at the receiver ring and ends under the front band.

The reason why I like Czech made mausers such as Vz-24' s, Vz-22' s, and 98/29' s is that during the period between the end of WWI and the occupation of the Sudentenland by Germany in 1939- Czechoslovakia was the worlds largest supplyer of small arms. They copied and refined the wwI vintage gewehr 98' s and during the ' 30' s when there was a worldwide recession, made made rifles of extremely high quality in order to keep the contracts coming in from abroad.
You can usually find vz-24' s and VZ-22' s for around $80 to $100 form a Dunham' s store, can order them from century international arms http://www.centuryarms.com/store/ They even have cracked stock specials which will probably be pretty cheap.
The 98/29' s have beautiful receivers and are practically brand new, but will run $250+