Bought a new (to me) gun

charlie brown · 08-11-2003, 05:26 PM

I was reading another post today about Mauser actions and remembered that the local Big 5 store always has surplus military rifles for sale. I went down there and found a Czeck VZ24 8 mm Mauser. It was on the shelf for $99.99, but the manager sold it to me for the last sale price for $59.99. The barrel was dusty, but with some hoppes #9 and a wire brush and a whole bunch of patches, it came clean. The action functions smoothly, no catches or anything, and the gun is in overall pretty good condition. I don' t like the trigger that much, though. It doesn' t have a very heavy pull, but there is a lot of play before it engages the firing pin. Just thought I' d let everybody know of my new (to me) purchase. Now I can' t wait until my fistula in my arm matures so I can go shoot the darn thing.

diyj98 · 08-12-2003, 05:05 AM

The VZ 24' s are nice pieces of history. That trigger is the typical military 2 stage trigger. You could polish it up a little, but you' re stuck with the initial fist take up stage unless you replace the trigger. But don' t do that. Enjoy the rifle in it' s original military condition. Be careful, they can be addictive. I started with one old mauser and now have over 100 military rifles!

coolbrze0 · 08-12-2003, 05:43 AM

diyj98, where in VA are you? I' m up in No. va.

diyj98 · 08-12-2003, 06:46 AM

I' m in southern VA. Down below Roanoke.

charlie brown · 08-12-2003, 09:43 AM

There are several surplus rifles that go on sale at Big 5 for $50-60 every so often, there is an SKS at the guns shop for $100.

I was reading my reloading manual and it said that some surplus rifles have bolts changed out in transport. I don not doubt this so I will have a gunsmith check the headspace so that I don' t run into any problems before I start reloading. The guns are supposed to come to the store in shootable condition, so there shouldn' t be any problems.

charlie brown · 08-12-2003, 12:56 PM

Just went to the gunsmith today and they checked it out. He said everything is fine. Now I get to start reloading for it.

Vapodog · 08-12-2003, 02:06 PM

there' s a way to remove that first stage of the trigger at almost no cost.....I' ve used a empty .22 rim fire case, flattened it with a hammer and fold it once in the middle creating four layers of brass and use it as a shim on the foreward side of the trigger where the normal stop occurrs. You must remove the barreled action from the stock to do this. Try the shim...if it removes the travel you dislike, epoxy it in place. There' s no pressure on this shim and epoxy will hold it nicely.

It' s not at all difficult or expensive to replace the entire trigger with a Timney. It' s a fine replacement trigger. But there' s ways to make the original trigger work well too. It' s also possible to drill and tap a screw hole in the trigger to allow a screw adjustment where I said to shim. This takes out the pretravel and actually can be used to remove a little creep.....be careful !!