(ok I got one look at bottom) I noticed these things are really cheap. I hear that it is just luck of the draw if you order one from a mil surplus store on weather you get a good shooter or not. My question for everybody is. Does anybody know a place to order one that will sort through them and find you one with a nice bore for a little extra dough. Thanks everybody.

I recently bought two of them and they were really nice. I only bought them for the actions but the bores and the stocks were in good shape...considering what they are and how old they are.

If you buy one for a shooter I would take it to a good Mauser familiar smith and have him check it out for you before you start blasting away with it.

Where did you get your 2 rifles from

Got mine from SOG: Southern Ohio Guns, but just about all the ones you are seeing advertised were all imported by Century Arms, I believe, and they all seem to be pretty much the same price no matter what place is selling them.

I've had good luck with AIM and Allan's Armory.
Empire is excellent too, but generally deals with higher end stuff.

If you are paying $85 each, you can afford to buy two and keep the best one!

I bought a couple of them a few years ago,,got one decent one,,and one that was rough around the edges. Pulled the barrel off of one of them and put a remington .308 sporter barrel on it,it turned into a nice light and accurate truck rifle,,Clay

Ok I picked this one up at a local pawnshop today. Its my first mauser. I paid $99 dollars for it. I could have probably got one cheaper online but I got the chance to look at this one's bore. I had the guy working behind the counter run a patch through it. And then I looked at it, and it had a awesome shiney bore. Well I went ahead and bought it. Didn't want to chance the luck of the draw. After a good while of pulling the stock off and pulling the thing apart and cleaning all the nasty cosmoline off here is what we got I think its great. If anyone can tell me anything interesting about it let me know.

Here's what you do. Get some mil-surp ammo; Yugo, Turk, or Romanian. Go to the range and take a small hammer and a punch. Start shooting it at 50 yards. Use punch/hammer to get it's windage correct (remember, move the front sight opposite the direction POA needs to go). Chances are it will shoot a bit high. If it does get a higher replacement front sight blade from Brownell and get it to fit.

If it properly feeds, ejects, and shoots under 3 inches at 50 yards, or under 6" a 100 yards....be very happy!

And BTW, corrosive primer ammo is no big deal. Same day you shoot the rifle clean it (first) with a water based ammonia product like Windex. The combo of water to ammonia (4-1) disolves the corrosive salt. Then clean as normal with Hoppe's and oil.

Thanks for the info I am eager to get some rounds through it. I think I am going to order some brass and bullets from Midsouth tomorrow for it. I already got the dies from my father-in-law.

I bought one in Montana at the AXE Man in Missoula for $39.00... stock, bayonet and bore was in Great Shape... but I was told that the head space was bad....So it would make a great wall hanger....

Took it to a gunsmith to look at the head spacing issue.. and he said "what head spacing issue"? after looking it over....

Turned out to be very very accurate at the range also.....Although I have found SR 4759, IMR 4198 and ReL 7 are some very very good powders for accuracy with an 8mm Mauser....

cheers
seafire

I bought a dozen of them from Century for $25 each about 4 years ago. There is no way in hell I'd fire one without checking headspace first.

Yeah I got a friend thats going to do it.
This thing is in pretty good shape I will get back with yall on how it shoots.

Finaly got to shoot this thing this weekend I thought it did great. I put about 20 rounds through it shooting at some big rocks in a gravel pit. I thought it was a fun gun to shoot. I am looking forward to taking it out again.

I have ~50 of the 1903 Turkish Mausers and fewer 1938 Turks, VZ24s, 98/22s. 24/47s, Swedes, amd K98s.
I aslo have a ~dozen 91/30 Mosin Nagants variants.

None of these rifles have had a headpace problem.

I have ~ half dozen Enfield No. 4 mark 1 and mark II rifles.

Half of these 303s have serious headpace problems, but still meet the SAAMI requrements for headspace.


The worst heaspace I ever saw was a Sav 99 rebarrelled by a man who bills himself as "The best gunsmith in Western Washington". It was loose by .035".


What does it all mean?
Don't trust what anyone else says, figure out how to inspect a gun.

This reminds me that I have to clean my Turk 38 that I fired today. I used mid-1930's Turk 154 gr. surplus ammo and mid-1950s Yugo 198 gr. surplus.

The rifling in the old girl isn't as sharp as it probably once was (several thousand rounds before I got it) ..... but it still provides pretty fair accuracy.

It shoots the heavy Yugo ball a bit better than the 154 Turk stuff.

I just love these beat up old Turks! More fun for the money with them than anything else I can think of.

Great Guns
great fun,you can shoot one till you are sore for a couple of bucks.
I like to shoot alot,but I don't like to spend alot.

One thing I've heard and thought about. Us older guys have seen a great many great old guns sell so cheap it's stupidity that we didn't buy a truck load of them when we could.

Since these turks are still pretty darn cheap and won't be made again. I'd highly recommend IF you've got the bucks and can find them for $80 or so max. Gather up half a dozen whether you have any use for them or not. In the future they'll be selling for more and might be hard to come by like so many others are now.

Sure wish I'd bought 100 more 1917Enfield's when they were selling for $10-20, your pick of the litter. Best guns ever made IMO. Fairly hard to find now.

Twinge?: you paid too much for that one at $99. Bet that's what they asked for it, right? IF you'd told them $50-60, I'd bet they'd let you have it for that. I'll bet they didn't have $30 in it. That's what I've found dealing with hockshops. They pay as little as possible, many times $10/100. Don't even think of paying what they're asking on anything.

I got one from a local guy selling three, paid $55 for one, the others, one had a sawed off barrel, the other was rusted up all over. Ordered one in for $40, then the store jacked it up to $85 before I got it in my hands. Sure wouldn't have dealt with him if I'd known it. Haven't been back.

George

Yeah I agree 99.00 is steep. I have my C&R so I could have ordered one for 59.00. But I was looking for a cast bullet vintage bolt gun for a specific match my gun club has and I seen this one at the hock shop with an awesome barrel so I went ahead and picked it up. I didn't want to take a chance ordering one and getting a crummy one cause there are some out there. I haggled a little and all I got is no tax 99.00 out the door. Same old story "just got this one haven't had it long". Anyways I enjoy it I loaded some rounds up and have had a good time with it. Its a great shooter.

$100 is not steep for a 1903 Turk with shiney grooves at the muzzle.

If one orders 5 of them at $35 [best price over the last two years], he may get one good bore.

BIG 5 stores on the west coast were selling Turks for about $50 a few years ago. Century imports.

You "buddy up" to the guy behind the counter, and he'll go in the back room and haul out all the stock for you to cherry pick. But you need to be polite about it, and have an idea what you're looking at.

The guy behind the counter is as curious to learn about what he's selling -- generally -- as you are interested in finding a nice rifle from the "heap."

Turks go all over in condition. Counter bore, corrosion, parts "bubba'd," repaired furniture.

I found one that must have belonged to the cook. Looks like it never went outside.