Sorry to pee on your campfire.

I just have reservations about taking these nice ol' Mausers and cutting them up for parts.

There are three in my collection, 98/22, Turk M-38, and a Yugo M-48. Actually the Turk is on a 99 yr lease to my buddy.

We shoot them stock with Turk or Ecuadoran mil surp ammo. Ten cents a round. 155 gr. and it shoots about 2965 fps from the long bbl guns.

We shoot orange crate size stumps at 700 meters off a sand bag. Iron sights. Stock guns.

The Turk ran $50 at Big 5, the 98/22 was $80, and the M-48 about $130 with a heap of pouches, bayonets, oil cans, cleaning kits, sling.

Cheap shooting, and great guns. I hate to see them used up for parts.

SamCo.com and Century sell "barreled actions" or the "cracked stock" stuff for cheap. But the intact, good condition guns need to be left stock and appreciated for what they are.

Fine ol' war horses.

Well, I would not cut up a 98 Mauser that was all matching, but these are few and far between. The Yugo 48 does not fill a special place in history. There are tons of them out there and they just simply do not have collectors value and maybe never will. Now if you have a 98 with Nazi markings and all matching numbers, don't mess with it! But if it is already a mismatched parts gun, I say do whatever you like.

How about you shut the fuck up and watch everyone else do as they please with their property?

I love shooting the old Mausers too.
We shoot them all the time with the old ammo also.
If you are going to rebuild or rebarrel,I think you should go with the Czech
Good luck and good shooting
SS

While many do shoot the old military rifles, most of them are destined to remain in the back of the gun cabinet, until they are destroyed when the gun-haters get their way. As popular as they are in the sunday ad, I can't tell you when I last saw one at the rifle range.
Take one of these same rifles and have someone put a little time in customizing them, and you'll have a rifle that will be cherished and used, and possibly passed down to the next generation. To me, that's not a bad option,

Genghis,

While I agree that it is a shame to see so many of what may have been the best designed rifles ever being torn down and canabalized, at the same time some of them are just not that great anymore. Id like to see the ones that are bordering on junk being recirculated for parts or reworked but let the real nice ones be.. But in todays shooting world where anything less than 3000 fs muzzle velocity is considered sub-par there is not much appreciation for some of the more classic chamberings.

I found a real good M48A Yugo and the only thing I have done is reworked the stock and added a recoil pad, call me bubba if you want but that gun looks good and life is too short to shoot an ugly rifle! I especially like the 98% original bluing.. The adjustable iorn sights are one of my favorite things about it too. Everything but what Ive already done will remain original and its going to be used for hunting as well. Shes a keeper!

I own 50 bolt action military rifles from about 17 countries If the barrel looks safe enough to shoot I will test it at 50 yards to see how it shoots. I have torn up a few for custom guns and rebarreled a few with new military surplus barrels using military stocks. One I made has a Turk action a South American 7x57 barrel and a VZ-24 stock. The sights are Firesights made for an octagon barrel muzzle loader. It shoots as good as my Swede. This keeps me home at night. At my gun club this is common to make mods like this. The small ring Turk is a favorite With a Swede barrel.
Good luck

I go both ways on this one.... I have a few that will remain "as issued", as they are in VG to unissued condition...OTOH, there's some real trashed guns out there, which were made by the millions, therefore having not great value..On these I feel free to hack away, at will.
Certainly wouldn't criticize anyone for doing as he chooses with his own property.

I have 3 vz24's. One will remain origonal configuration. The other 3 will be rebuilt into a varity of custom rifles. I see surplus rifles every time I go shooting. I always have atleast one with me. SMLE's, MN's, Swede's, Turk's, and VZ's.

I would not butcher a really clean example of a military mauser. However most are beat, and getting shaped, polished, barreled, finished and stocked is not the worst thing that can happen to an old rifle.

Kristofer

Kristofer - You are exactly right. Rebuilding some of these poor, kicked around old military rifles into something new and nice is like resurrecting the dead.

Sure it's different with a fine specimine...but there aren't many "fine specimines" left around.

Bring um back to life, I say!

[ 02-06-2003, 06:32: Message edited by: Pecos45 ]

I'm with KB,and Pecos,,,saved one or two,changed 4 or 5.If you're a savy shopper,and somewhat handy,you can get a lt.wght.sporter with a new barrel for $250.00.

I have several old Mausers in stock config. They shoot MOA at 100 yds and probably the same out to 700 or 1000 meters -- where my eye sight starts to fail.

Cheap to shoot, cheap to own. Well designed, and damned fine guns. I like them as much as my Rem. 700 PSS scoped, sniper, custom, Ackley Improved.