I picked up an Interarms Mauser. It's a .243 on a Mark X action, marked "Manchester England" on the receiver. The barrel is about 23" long and the gun is in mint condition. There is a date stamped on it-1990. The action has a CZ logo on it, but when I took it out of the stock, it said "Made in Yugoslavia" towards the bottom. It has an adjustable trigger and a two position, fore-and-aft safety. It's in a CHEAP Ramline stock.

I was thinking about rebarreling it to .308, but think I'll play around with it in .243 for coyotes. I'm thinking about the following modifications:

- new stock (synthetic - haven't decided on the brand, yet) Not opposed to nice wood, just don't want to put a fortune in an Interarms Mark X.

- adjust trigger

- 3-position safety

- scope

- maybe later, have it rebarreled

Anyone have any suggestions on this? Any ideas? Is this a good commercial Mauser?

Thanks,

You have the makings of a fine action for a custom rifle.........have a ball with it.....may I suggest a 358.....

Is the action on this gun a short action, or would it accept a .30-06 length caliber?

How can I look at it and tell?

Thanks,
Dave

You have a standard mauser 98 action, and it will be fine for any hunting rifle in any modern caliber. These were imported by Interarms of Alexandria Va. Although they are marked with the "made in England", they actually were made in the factory that is now making the CZ actions in Slovakia, and assembled in England. They made a nice mini mauser in 7.62x39 and I think .223, but did not make an intermediate length for the .243. I think you will find a block in the magazine taking up the space to make that shorter round feed correctly. They also made a "Whitworth" model that was nothing more than the standard length with I think a longer magazine box.

The metal is excellent, and of course the action design is one of the best.

Although most 'smiths replace the trigger, I think you will find the factory trigger works fine for a hunting rifle. The contoured bolt shroud will need to be replaced if you elect to put a wing type safty on the it.

The ones I have seen have been excessively polished, and it takes quite a bit of grinding or stone work to get them to look good, but this is less than many of the pitted military 98's that have been done.

I also don't like the side button floorplate release, I prefer the stnadard bow release, but this one works fine.

Overall, I think of this action as an excellent one for the common hunting rifle, but it needs too much work for a truly fine custom gun. You are better off with one of the stnadard FN actions for that.

Roger

Roger,

Thanks for the reply. What do you mean it needs too much work for a fine custom gun? I'm not actually interested in putting too much mone in it, but what work are you referring to?

Thanks again,
Dave

i'll take the stock and barrel, if you are selling for ~100...

you have a great action to start with... and I'll also submit that it should be a 358 winchester

jeffe

N4652E is probably refering to the fact that being as highly polished as they are it is often difficult to get the receiver surfaces "straight" again. Sometimes it is impossble. Even in the ones that can be "straightened" it requires a lot of stoning as he said. This means lots of labor. You see, the polishing leaves the surfaces unven and rounds corners that should be straight. These are undesirable characteristics for a "fine" custom.

Look around this site for a link to Jack Belk's polishing file replete with pictures. He does a fine job of explaining the concept and shoes why an FN action almost wasn't suitable for a basis to build off of.

Provided the receiver can be straightned, I don't see why it wouldn't make just as fine a custom as any other mauser action.

Then again, the term "custom" means many things to many people. It means one thing to a master metalsmith and entirely another to the average Joe. Your requirements may not be the same as his.

That is not a CZ (Ceska Zbrojovka) action from Slovakia or the Czech Republic.

This action is from Yugoslavia. The "CZ" logo on it refers to Crvena Zastava (Red Flag). These are the actions that Interarms has been importing for years. Some are OK, some are junk.

I know it is confusing to us on this side of the puddle, but there is a big difference between the two companies and their respective countries.

Dave_T - I have owned and used a Mark X rifle for more than 30 years. I would recommend the following (strictly my opinions/experiences):
1. Replace the trigger with a Timney or other aftermarket unit (w/o side safety). The original is junk.
2. Install a 2-position shroud safety. IMO the 3-position safeties will cost more than the gun is worth. Jim Kobe has some 2-position units advertised in the Classified forum. (Note: 1. and 2. must be done together).

I had to use a 1-pc. scope mount because one of the rear holes was drilled off-center. The factory barrel will likely shoot well, though you may find the bore somewhat rough and hard to clean.

Good luck!

I have a Mark X .243 it is very accurate with most loads going less than a .5" for 3 shot's.

Dave T

Curt is of course correct about my geography mistake.

Zach nicely explained the need to take an overly polished and often dished out receiver and grind it so all surfaces are "true" and the edges sharp, crisp and corners square, not rounded. Once the metal has been removed by overzelous polishing and the edges rounded, you must remove quite a lot to get it really "squared up" again. It could be put on a surface grinder or worked by hand with stones, but a truly fine custom gun has a receiver that has trued surfaces

For a high dollar custom gun, you would end up replacing the bottom metal, the shroud, the trigger (and with it maybe the cocking piece), the bolt handle, and the barrel. You are left with the receiver which requires more work than most military or FN types, and the bolt needing a new handle, extractor and ejector. It makes more sense to build a nice working rifle with the Mark X as is. If you want a high end custom, the military or FN versions of the 98 are less expensive, less work and have more metal to work with because they have generally not yet been attacked by someone at the polishing wheel. And you should be able to get 3 or 4 of those for the price of the Mark X.

Now having said that, I think the Mark X is generally a fine action, and makes a great basis for a working or hunting rifle, especially if you get it at a good price. I just finished a 30-06 on an Interarms Mark X this fall. I reworked the bolt handle to remove the terrible curving sweep and reshaped the knob. I left the rceiver intact and stocked it with a very old plain french inletted that I had from Herters in the 60's. Shoots fine and it killed two bucks this fall..I still have one "Whitworth" NIB and one Mini in 7.62x39 that just doesn't shoot at all (even with .312 bullets). I am thinking I will need to shorten and rechamber that barrel, the throat is long.

Roger

roger..
the 7.62x39 screams to be rebarreled to a PPC....

jeffe

Thanks for the replies. I may not have been clear, initially. I'm not wanting to make this into a high-grade custom gun. I just wanted to improve it into a good working gun. Just thinking about using it to shoot coyotes with (don't know of anything else you could shoot with it...)

I do want it to be better than it is, now. HAVE to replace the wretched stock! After the input here, I probably won't go to the expense of replacing the barrel. Maybe just replace the stock, adjust the trigger and put a scope on it.

Thanks again,
Dave