With my Yugo 24/47 8mm Mauser. I have shot some other handloads, that were for my Czech and could not even get that thing to hit the broad side a barn!! So, I purchased this as-issued Yugo, and plan to see what I can do. Right now I have some 175 grain Sierra Pro-Hunters loaded on top of 50 Grains of IMR 4350 inside Remington Cases with CCI 200 Primers. What kind of accuracy at 100 yards should I strive for with these rifles and the un-modified sights and trigger? I am thinking 2" at 100 yds should not be completely out of reach, maybe a little bigger? I may even buy a Timney Sportsman trigger and put on, just to make the trigger pull a little more pleasant, but I want to keep this rifle in as original condition as possible! Thanks guys!!

Doesn't have to be less than 1", though that would be nice, but, should be less than 2".

I could be wrong, of course, but it seems to me that even a 2" group at 100 yards is ambitious given the coarse sights, unless you're under 40 years old and are a much better than average shot. Most Mauser rifles in decent shape are reasonably accurate, but the old inverted vee shaped front sight and vee-notch rear sight don't allow for the most precise shooting.

I bought an unissued M48 Yugo that shoots only fair. I can keep 'em all in the black at 100 yards, but not much better than that. The accuracy seems to be improving after a few hundred rounds, which I find rather odd; if a barrel needs to "wear in" it would seem as though it should do so more quickly. The fit and finish of this particular rifle are not as good as other Mauser rifles out there, in my opinion.

I also have an Oberndorf K98 Mauser made in 1941. This German weapon has a much smoother action that the Yugo, and groups much better in spite of being somewhat battered and war-weary. The pre-and early-war German Mausers that I have looked at seem extremely well made; the late war models are often really junky, especially the ones with stamped parts.

Good luck - - sounds like you're in for some fun!

to wear in a barrel it usually takes atleast 100 rounds to get where you want it. but to speed up the process you can use that JB bore paste atleast thats what i hear.

Yes, I guess I do have some work ahead of me

Try IMR 4064, as close to the max load as possible,use a standard large rifle primer, the bullet size is about right, I have had good luck with a 170 gr RN bullet maybe because it has more bearing surface than a spitzer. I haven't had an 8mm yet that I haven't been able to get 2" or less for 5 shot groups, and some of them have really poor bores.

Also check the bedding of the rifle. The barrel shouldn't touch the stock except for the first inch or two infront of the recoil lug and the last inch or so at the end of the stock. The barrel should not contact the handguard at all. If the barrel touches anywhere else, take a piece of sandpaper and wrap it around a dowel to remove a bit of wood.

The front barrel band should not touch the barrel at all- there should be a slight gap between it and the barrel on the top half of the barrel.

When you put the barreled action in the stock, tighten both action screws to snug it down lightly, then tighten the front screw tight followed by the rear screw just beyond snug. If the screws have a small lock screw next to them, just tighten the big screws as far as possible that will still allow the lock screw to fit in the grooves of the bigger screws.


Triggers- a good gunsmith can work over a mauser trigger to be very sweet for less than the cost of a timney- and you won't have to modify a thing. I would keep it a two stage with a heaveier 1st stage take up and a very light 2nd stage- you get the best of both worlds with a 2 stage trigger- a heavier safe trigger combined with a light crisp release, if its done right.

The barrel wear in problem does have alot of merit to it. Some of my rifles that have very new bores don't shoot as good as rifles that have very dark and worn bores, but they will improve over time- part of hte equation might be shooting 100 rounds or so through the rifle just to get the feel for the rifle as well.

Thanks guys!!

Briman- I also still have the information from the last questions I asked regarding my Czech Mauser. I also looked on the internet at different bullet choices and I have found several that I may try. 1 is a 170 gr Hornady RN, then a 185 gr Remington Core Lokt, and another being a 195 gr Hornady Spire Point. I figure that if I can get either of these to shoot well, then I should have a quite potent deer cartridge out to the 150 yard mark or so. I will also look into IMR 4064 and I was also thinking of trying 4831, or 4895. I think the first thing I will do though is grab some 4064 and a couple more bullet choices and see what I can do. Again thanks for the help!!

I've used the hornady 170 gr Round nose alot, because of a load that works for me, the only problem with Round nosed bullets in mauser actions, is that some mauser actions don't like to feed round nosed bullets. I have a Czech 98/22 and a persian 98/29 both are the the same as a vz-24 except for the barrel length and one feeds the bullets nicely and the other I had to do a little honing and stoning of the feedramp and receiver rails to get it to feed rn bullets consistantly.