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Zastava Mini-Mauser .223
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Otherwise known as their Model 85. Not going to repeat my impressions, overall this rifle is like the Model 70 I talked about under the "Model 70 first impressions" thread. Big stock with great ergonomics and enough wood for two trim stocks, all milled steel metalwork with very nice exterior finish that needs some polish in the action, etc.

The barreled action is very trim, the whole rifle with that big stock only weighs 6 1/4 pounds and I'm betting 2 1/4 pounds of that is the wood. The barrel is 20" and slender, tapering to .55" at the muzzle. But enough words when pictures are worth a thousand of them.

Zastava LK M85




The wood doesn't have the figure and dark color of the 7X57 but it's a nice straight grained piece.



Right side.


Action, left and right. You can see there is certainly enough wood there.




Sized just right for a .223.


The inletting on this one is better than the 7X57, that's a fully free floated barrel.



This dummy round is 2.255" OAL. (geez, I didn't realize it was dusty in my house :blush: )


Another pic to show the size.


The mini-Mauser is not a CRF, I am told it is a clone of a Sako action but I don't know which one off the top of my head.


Another view, the extractor is definitely positive.


One more pic to show the scale of the bolt. Also the machine work around the lug. Not all of the action is like this, btw, but some have called these "diamonds in the rough" and I won't argue with that. Wink



Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery!
Hit the target, all else is twaddle.
 
Posts: 1027 | Registered: 24 November 2000Reply With Quote
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Jim, that's prety wood. I'll bet you could shave a pound off of it pretty easily and wind up with a trim little gun.


Frank



"I don't know what there is about buffalo that frightens me so.....He looks like he hates you personally. He looks like you owe him money."
- Robert Ruark, Horn of the Hunter, 1953

NRA Life, SAF Life, CRPA Life, DRSS lite

 
Posts: 12818 | Location: Kentucky, USA | Registered: 30 December 2002Reply With Quote
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Jim the wood on the .223 is similar to my .22-250.
The action on mine is the same size as the .30-06 with a short follower, the Mauser version. Yours is some what similar to the Sako AV action the side plate that is short on being the long extractor is just a bolt guide which should provide some smooth feeding when cleaned up.
 
Posts: 1025 | Location: Brooksville, FL. | Registered: 01 August 2007Reply With Quote
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I`ve owned a right handed version of this little rifle for 8 years now, they really are a decent thing indeed.

I polished ( and polished and polished lol ) the bolt and smoothed the rough bits internally of the action and its plenty good enough. As good as a right handed rifle with a fiddly lil bolt being held by a cack handed shooter will ever be.

I bought it with a synthetic stock which is as soft as a cheap mouth guard and later found a brand new unused wood stock and bought that as well. I floated the barrel and with the right hand loads it was quite an accurate thing to shoot. However I found that due to the very soft nature of the fore end if I rested it on anything and fired the accuracy went to crap.

I decided to put a business card under the barrel up near the fore end screw and it shoots fine now. I`ll get it bedded one day.

I swear I will.

At the time of purchase it was the cheapest rifle on the market, but after some tweaks and the right handloads, it would put 3 into one hole at 100. Its utterly reliable and has never let me down. Nor would it I feel. Around the reciever its gone a nice sort of plum colour, I could never sell it, it`s my youngest sons rifle when he is old enough.

Enjoy.
 
Posts: 131 | Location: South east Queensland Australia | Registered: 28 August 2005Reply With Quote
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