How many of you guys have ever shot a mauser? Reading about them they look to be extremely high quality rifles, maybe the best? They're look and finish is the most beautiful rifles i've ever seen also. more for show than hunting with that price thats why i wouldn't buy one, but i think i'm in love
When I started deer hunting, my uncles all shot sporterized mausers brought back from WWII. My cousin still shoots his dad's old mauser some 50 years later.
The best quality rifles were made before and in the early years of WWII. The Germans had the time to build quality rifles. Later than that, they got built in a hurry and the quality suffered. Every single part of those pre-war rifles had a serial number. The bolts were fitted to each receiver individually.
If all the numbers of all the parts match on your mauser, you've got a custom quality rifle. If the bolt and receiver numbers match, you've got an outstanding quality rifle. If the parts don't match, you may have a good rifle or not. It was just a frabricated gun. I'm just talking about the German mausers. I have no experience with Czech or other nationality mausers.
If you want you can always pick up a swedish mauser, as they were generally of higher quality then the German ones. They also shoot 6.5x55 which is a great hunting cartridge.
The various Mauser military models are great guns, but don't kid yourself about them being the end all and be all. To begin with, the lock time is glacial compared to a modern rifle...we are talking milliseconds, of course, but still way slower than a current savage, Winchester, Remington, etc. The thumb cut on the receiver, to allow loading by stripper, allows the action to flex somewhat when fired. A small, thing, but it does affect the rigidity of the action.]
The good side: Mausers were designed long, long, ago. At that time, no one could imagine they would be obsolete as a miliatry weapon long before their useful live was finished...obsolesence was NOT designed into them. Mausers are very reliable rifles...they were designed to operate in conditions most of us don't even want to think about. The 1898 and later varients are very safe...they handle escaping gas as well or better than many more modern designs.
I believe original specs called for them to shoot at least 2 to 4 MOA from a machine rest, most will do considerably better.
I'm not slamming Mausers, I rebuild them, hunt and shoot with them, and collect/accumulate them. Just don't want them to be misrepresented.
I've owned quite a few mausers over the years, some were even customized. All i can say is, if i thought they were the best thing since sliced bread, i'd still own "at least one" right now, and i don't!
I own an old un-sporterized model 1891 Mauser chambered for the 7.65mm Argentine cartridge. I reload for it and used it last year to kill a really nice 10 point whitetail that's still at the taxidermist right now. I don't use it as much as my other rifles, though, because it's not scoped. It would require some modification to put scope mounts on it and I'd rather leave it in it's original condition.
The 1891 is certainly not the rifle the 98 is, but it's a pretty solid firearm nonetheless. The craftmanship on the one I've got is first class.
I'm talking about the new Mauser M 03's with the select turkish walnut stocks, not ww2 millitary mausers. For an address my brochure says
Mauser Jagdwaffen GmbH
Ziegelstadel I * 88316 Isny
Germany www.mauser.com
The looks the gun on the cover of this brochure just puts my in ahh, then you open it and see all the incredible ingravings you can get, deffinately would make your buddies jealous.
mauser
