Hello Briman. Please allow me to disagree. The Red Banner Works is the oldest continuous military foundry on earth. They used some of the best machinery in the world when they built the M48. The M48 being lacking is a myth. The only discriminator is that for some reason, the Serbs shortened the M98 action about1/4 of an inch. This makes it difficult torebarrel the action to '06 length cases. If you do some research on the Zavodi Crevna Zastava factory, I think you'll agree. They also built some high end sporters in the late 50's early 60's for theHerzegovinaforest barons that essentially copied many of the Steyr characteristics including sensational double set triggers. Some of these fine rifles found their way to the US, however, Kennedy halted these imports after the Cuba fiasco. They built the InterarmsX10, Charles Daily actionsand currently are building the new Remington 798/898 sporters.

One of my favorites is a Mod98 capture rifle that went thru the Preduzece plant during the war. The Serbs hated the Nazis and scrubbed all the waffenamps off the rifle and reissued it with the Preduzece 44 stamp and Serbian crest. The slickest action I have ever felt bar none. I take umbrage with the phoney (I think) Mitchell Arms copies.....but that's another thread. Regards, Rick.

DM?? Where are you on this one????

The 8x57 in a quality rifle is basically to the 325 WSM aswhat the 30-06 is to the 300wsm.....darn close....

I have a GermanK98 that never saw any use and was sporterized and accurized by a gunsmith in the 50's or 60's...it loves 150 grain hornadies at 2750 fps and shoots MOA (as long as I am up to it) with its current hunting fodder of a 200 grain Nosler part loaded to 2700 fps....

The winchester powerpoint would be my choice for factory deer ammo, shoots great for me in a pinch and is out to "normal" deer ranges...

I have 2:

A Czech VZ24 that I bought for about $60 about 4 years ago. Bore is crappy, and the gun won't shoot, but I have the action sitting there for a future custom project for farts and giggles. Thinking a .257 Roberts would fit nicely between my .30-06 and .223.

A Yugo 24/47. This one I bought 3 years ago for about $150 if I remember right. As new condition, matching numbers, came with a bayonet, pouch, etc. Pretty nice gun, and with the current load and sights I can get about 1" at 50 yards, and about 2 1/2" at 100. Still trying to get used to the sights, as they are very high at 100 yds. I may try some 185, 190, or 200+ grain bullets to see if I can slow it down enough for it to shoot lower than the 150's. Very fun gun, and not bad for the money. Still also debating to sporterize or leave it alone. Probably will leave it alone and mess with the other one.

Later,

Marcial

From the few dozen Mauser 94,95,96, and 98 rifles I own, the Yugo M48s are the most poorly put together of the bunch. I've owned 2 of them, one that had had rough bolt lugs that where it was difficult to extract a fired round. The other one which I still own has a safety that doesn't work- some part of the bolt or other is out of spec and won't allow the safety to go into the 'safe' position. The stocks are/were covered with chatter marks from the stock making machines, and thefrontbarrel band on the one I currently own looks like it was fitted using a sledge hammer. It almost seems that the Yugoslavians either didn't care about what they were doing or weren't very good at what they were doing.Having the best machineryfrom belgium is one thing, but having highly skilled machine operators to take advantage of the machines is entirely another. The 24/47s and captured K98s on the other hand are a differetn story- they were at least made right to begin with.