so how is every one liking the guns they bought from zastava? hows the action feel and the stock?

AS a donor or kit rifle it's not bad. I got a 9.3x62. I have bedded, polished the inside of the action, reinforced the forearm, filled the gaps in the forearm,cut the LOP and replaced the recoil pad. In the future the plan is to add a Banded sling swivel,banded front sight,(Am making them myself)slim the stock add a forearm cap with Cherry bur. then refinish. As far as how it shoots I have shot nothing but cast boolits and most will group in 2"at a 100 but have one load that will hold 2 1/2" at 200 YDS Clint

Mixed feelings.

Got a Model 70 in 7X57. So far I’ve only free floated the barrel and adjusted the trigger but it is a real shooter, especially for such a light contour barrel. Not “1/2 inch all day” baloney, but it will keep five in a row under MOA, nice round groups with no evidence of stringing.

I polished the hell out of the action, had to start with a file because the feed rails were so rough. Then spent a couple of hours slathering it with lapping compound. It is much smoother now. It would occasionally not pick up the third round down so in my clumsy attempt to adjust spring tension I broke the magazine spring. A replacement from Brownells usually feeds all 5 in a row, but now it has a very nasty habit of not ejecting the case when the next round is coming up from the right. The empty case gets wedged between the top feed rail and the upcoming round. If I remember to pull back the bolt really hard and fast it will dribble the empty case out but even that is not 100%. The other rounds are flung 3-4 feet to the left front.

My gunsmith tells me this cannot be fixed since the extractorr does not hold the case firmly back against the bolt face, plus the ejector barely clears the face. I asked about lengthening the ejector by TIG welding and he declined on that. Maybe someone out there who is a real Mauser expert could suggest a cure.

This bugs me. The roughness I can overlook, I fixed that. The stock finish I can overlook, that’s being fixed. But the whole raison d’etre of owning a Mauser is 110% reliability. Occasional failures to feed and a regularly occurring failure to eject are not overlookable offenses.

The wood is gorgeous. I’m having someone who knows what he’s doing (not me) blend in the rollover, thin the forend, erase the amateurish checkering on forend and pistol grip and refinish it. Then it will be checkered properly.

I still like it. The wood and the accuracy are its saving graces. If it wasn’t for that ejectile dysfunction I’d give this a 95% approval rating. That could be my fault with that replacement spring so I'll still give it an overall "Very Good".

jim,
i'm no mauser expert but i was converting them to 45 acp using a 1911 adapter kit from rhineland arms. the kit came with an ejector that really didn't work that well or look good. i had a friend make me several ejectors that were longer than the stock 98 mauser and i then fit them as needed. i'll check and let you know if i got any left as it's extra length might be all you need to kick out the cases.
max

Thanks, that's what I was thinking as well. Ruger and Winchester ejectors stick out another 16th of an inch or so than this one and they've never had any trouble kicking cases out.

I'm very happy that I had the opportunity to be a part of the group buy and I'm grateful that I have my rifle. I might possibly buy another one with a magnum boltface to convert to 257 Weatherby.

Having said that, I will also say that I paid $600 for a $400 gun. The stock on mine is quite plain and covered with what could only charitably called a finish. The feel of the action isn't particularly smooth. On the bright side the exterior metal finish is well done and accuracy seems good based on my first shooting attempt.

I epoxy bedded the action and am adding some oil finish to the stock now, so I guess calling it a 'kit gun' is somewhat accurate. Do I regret buying it? No, I do not. I would feel better about the cost if it had been fitted with a bolt mounted safety from the factory, but you hardly ever get everything you want.

With the hunting seasons up here running August through September I haven't had a chance to get to the range with mine yet. I did find a nice older Redfield 6x to put on it and loaded several test loads tor try.

I would have to say they are project guns. There is little to no finish on the wood and they feel kind of clubby. The action is pretty rough feeling. A few hours lapping should fix that and there is plenty of wood for some judicious reshaping.

If mine shoots reasonably well I would say it will be a keeper but I will have to spend some time on it.

Mart

These rifles are "interesting". Bought four and only played with two so far but have the same impressions for both.
Stocks are a piece of shit, period. To big, don't like the roll over cheek piece, and checkering was done by someone hitting the vodka jug to hard.

Metal work looks very good but I really hate the importer had his name stamped on the action. I have no complaints about how smooth the bolts are. Much nicer than any out of the box Rugers I have owned. Never have ran any dummy rounds through any of them so can not comment on how they feed or eject.

They are capable of being used right out of the box (after removing the grease) but tinkering is always part of the game. In the process of reshaping the stock on the 7x57 then it will be glassed, shortened and a new pad added, finished and sent off for checkering.

If you just want a CRF rifle ready to go find a nice Ruger. Otherwise they seem like a fun project that you can customize to fit your own style. IMO they are worth the price but not much more. Have no regrets about buying them at this point.

cant comment for now but i waiting for 2 LH Zastava.

one in 9,3x62 the other in 270 we ll see how they are. i ve chosen the less colored wood. we ll see to for the action stamped or not for the canadian market.

thanks again to make this project possible even for the canucks.

all the best.

Waiting for my stocks to come back had them recontoured to a classic style.

Took actions and tried several LH stocks ,I had used modeling clay. The Rem 700 LA LH is not close at all, but the Ruger 77 LH MK 2 is very close, and would be worth trying would need some minor fill and unsure on action depth, my stock is too nice to modify. If anyone tries to fit one to a LH Ruger stock let me know how it works out please.

I've been hoping to hear from Chris for a couple of weeks as he is finishing up my Winchester stock. I'd like to see how he is doing with your stocks.

He said he might be ready for me to come over this weekend but I'll wait to get an email from him.

Before I invested anymore time with my 7x57 stock decided to see how the rifle functioned.
Loaded up five dummy rounds with Hornady 154 spire points and the rifle fed and ejected everyone without any issues. Fast or slow, didnt matter. Even with the bullets seated to the max COL there is still about a 1/4 inch remaining in the magazine box. Could come in handy if I decide to have it rechambered to 280 Imp.

Twist rate is 1 - 8.66 inches so it should make a good choice for shooting 160 grain bullets.

Try it with empty cases. Not necessarily for feeding, but eject empty cases with 4, 3, 2, and 1 dummy round in the magazine.

Mine will eject a magazineful of dummy rounds cleanly since the weight of the bullet still in the case provides enough inertia to be tossed clear, but it grabs and will not eject empty cases when the next round coming up is on the right. The empty case gets pinched between the upcoming case and the top of the right action rail.

Now it could be because I replaced my magazine spring so I'm curious how others are faring.

Jim,
Thought you were going to make me take back my words on the great feeding
Gave it a go with 1, 2, 3, and 4 dummies down with an empty case on top. Ejected the empties without issue. Would even feed the empties from the magazine without issue almost every time.
Guess on my 7x57 they gave me a rifle the feeds great because the stock really sucks! Big black glob of stain about 3 inches wide next to the recoil pad and I tried everything to lighten it. Finally got about 50% of it out and gave up. I can live with it if she is a shooter.

I had been in on the group buy plan but was out of the country when it came together, so I missed out. I ended up buying one in .270 from Tadeex in Montreal. After degreaseing and cleaning it up I have these observations.
The wood is not to bad it has some figure and it is not to blonde. The wood to metal fit and bedding is not terrible, but the finish is horrible and the dimensions are over size. The checkering is flat topped ugly. The length of pull is 14 1/4". The metal finish and bluing are prity good. Feeding and ejection of dummy rounds is excellent. The action is a little sticky. Mounted a scope on Leupold rings and bases but needed three shims on the front ring to keep within the scope adjustments.
Its prity much what I expected, the only reason you would spend that much money on one of these things is for the left hand mauser action which with some help will be the start of a prity nice custom rifle. For now I plan to take it to the range and if it shoots maybe even do some deer hunting with it.