Sounds like Mitchell's Mausers to me. Always have been over-priced, in this case by about $130 or more. About a year or two ago these were going for somewhere between $139-169 depending on the dealer.

I'd take a pass at that price. Not valuable as a collector piece and not a common choice for customizing: too many other options out there for either purpose. OK for banging around with, but not at Mitchell's price.

I have one and it is as represented. Unfired, matching, etc. I am pleased with it. It is certainly not something you would fish out of a barrel at 2 for $300.00 and say "aha, I have the same thing as you do". As I intended to leave mine "as issued", what it can be converted to or done with wasn't of interest to me. I think the M48 is about maxed out at 8x57 or 7x57 unless you start grinding hunks out of the reciever, the thought of which scares me. Thus, the .308 family is about the best sized cartridges you can convert to. I would think one of the new short mags might work up nicely.
If you are planning to convert the M48 into something and only wanted the action, perhaps one of those barrel guns would work well enough.

I my opinion it is way too much to pay for an M48 Mauser.

Two friends of mine have the Yugo M48s from Mitchell. They are very nice. They don't have the "Collector's" grade, but rather one grade below that. I forget what they call them. In any case, they were in excellent condition and shot well. Both shot sub 2" groups at about 80yds with the stock military sights using both factory and a few thrown together handloads. I was watching them shoot and I didn't notice them having any trouble with bolt lift on theirs but there was one time that the bolt didn't want to slide to the rear without some fiddling.



Their only gripe was the 2 stage military trigger. One of them stoned the trigger just a hair to clean up the mating surfaces and the other one bought an adjustable trigger for around $50.



A gunshop locally had examples of both the collector's grade and what my friends had on the shelf for comparison and the difference (in my opinion) is not worth the price. The actions are identical in quality but the stock looks to have been refinished on the collector's grade. I could only find 2 minor dings on my friend's stock.



If you go to their web page, they also sell barreled actions of the same quality for considerably less if you want to add your own aftermarket stock.



I had the itch to get one pretty bad when they were out at my place shooting but I'm about over it. I need a bigger safe before I get any more guns.



good luck,

Ian



Edit: Oops... what my friends have is the Collector's grade. What I was comparing in the Gun Shop was the Collector vs the Premium grade.

Hi Leo, those ads are car salesman hype. They are not K98's. What they are are unissued Yugoslavian M48's with all the goodies. The yugo's were made starting in 1948 (thus the M48 title) on original german tooling. They are 98 mausers however they are not as smooth as a nice k98, argentine, or cz, or fn mauser. Also, the actions are about 1/4 inch shorter than a standard 98 mauser. Most yugo's shoot very accurate but some have difficult bolt lift after shooting. All sorts of opinions as to what causes that - my personal opinion is because they're yugoslavian technology instead of german, I don't think the quality control is quite up to snuff. I have seen very nice yugo's sell for around $125-$140 at gunshows (without the goodies). Gunshop prices are about $250...Gary D.

An ad in the september Rifle magazine shows these for sale in mint condition. Built with German technology, on German tooling in Serbia and dated 1943. Priced at $295.00 for unused collector's grade, all accessories included, ie, bayonet etc. Is this K98-M48 a good quality mauser compared to others? Thanks

I bought an unissued all matching M48A with all the goodies for $150 off of GunsAmerica 2 months ago. The rifle is a good shooter. The only problem I had was with all the cosmoline oozing out of the stock. It took several cleanings with citrus degreaser then being left on the dash of my truck during the day to help melt the cosmo out. Once the stock was refinished it looked great. Its probably my favorite milsurp next to my K31.