Tell me the BAD things about a Turk 98 mauser in a 8 mm.

Im looking for a Cheap rifle to shoot reloads (mostly cast bullets) in at the range.

Thanks

I bought a representitive sample for $69 a few years back.Actually grouped pretty well for me for open sights,so I bought a lyman globe front sight and a williams aperture sight for the rear,had a smith install them.I have been able to group surplus turkish ammo into about 4" at 100yds consistantly.

I too picked one up several years ago when they were cheap- $49.00. I sporterized mine shortened the bbl to 25" drilled&tapped for scope mounts,and turned the bolt handle to allow the bolt to clear the scope. I sold the bayonet,some of the bands that hold the handguard in place,and "re-did" the stock to suit me. I just this past weekend harvested my first elk,a fine cow here in Idaho with an appx. 400yd shot to the lungs.I'm using the remington 185 grain corelokt bullet over a stout charge of h4350 powder. I get appx. 1.5moa It is the only animal I've taken with this rifle, not counting an occasional ground squirrel(sage rats)

The Bad Things? Most of them have been well used and arsenal re-worked resulting in a mix of parts. There is virtually no collector value to them.

But they are a great dollar value and will indeed be a good choice for a low cost cast bullet shooter for you. Pick over a few until you find one with a good bore, clean it up, and you will probably have to replace the firing pin spring as several I've dealt with were weak.

I like the 1903 Turkish Mausers.
They were made from 1903 to 1905 by Paul Mauser at Oberndorf. They were rebarreled from 7.65x53mm to 8x57mm in 1938. The mag well was extended, the feed ramp shortened, and the large ring notched for longer ammo. They were mostly re stocked at that time.
There is not much hope of making a 3.34" cartridge repeater of them [30-06 or 300 Win Mag].
I use them for the shorter cartridges, .243 and 257 Roberts.



For the 300 Win mag, I use a commercial Mauser action or a VZ24.

The 1938 k.kale Turk Mausers are in between the two above, with longer actions, but still small threads.