Just picked up a wall hanger 8 mm Turkish Mauser.
The barrel has a head space problem but the action is fine otherwise.

The wood was in great shape and will get cannabalized for a German Mauser with bad wood.

I lucked out but the trigger on this rifle is real good for a non military rifle. The action is also as smooth as silk. ( probably got a lot of use, but is real tight).

The year stamped on the receiver is 1942. Plan to turn this into a 6 mm Remington with a 28 inch bull barrel. have a Boyd's Gray Laminate stock on order for the rifle.

Turkish Mausers are real cheap and usually pretty junky looking around here, but this one was a real nice rifle. Because it needed to be re head spaced I picked it up for $39.00. Shop just wanted to get rid of the last 6 or so they had that got mixed up in an order they did for about a 100 of them. the rest were all shooters.

Any info any of you gentlemen can give would be appreciated.

Seafire here you have The Page on Turkish Mausers :
http://www.gswagner.com/

Saludos

Daniel

Thanks Daniel!!

Have a great day in sunny Spain!

Seafire,
A gunsmith I have known for many years told me that he has seen Turkish Mauser actions that you could drive a nail through and others that you could hardly drill. I'd have it Rockwell tested if i were you.
Stepchild

You have a 1938 Turkish Mauser.
I have a few of them. They are not hard to drill and tap.

I did a trigger job:
1) I ground some off the rear hump of the top of the trigger to get rid of the 2 stage aspect.
2) I milled out and Silver soldered in a piece of steel to the trigger and then drilled and tapped it to put in a set screw to control take up.
3) I drilled and tapped the trigger spring shroud to put in a set screw to control the over travel.
4) I removed the trigger spring and put in one from a ball point pen that had a much smaller wire diameter for a lower force.


I made a 243 with a '38 Turk and used necked down 308 brass without reaming the donut with a 60 kpsi load: 100 gr, 40 gr IMR4895.
The '38 Turk held up well to the overload:

Clark,
My post was not meant to imply that Turk Mausers are weak or junk, it was to suggest that the heat treat varied considerably, at least thats what i've been told, by a pretty good source.
Stepchild

I bought a Big-5 $50 special and sporterized it all my self. I have about $125 into it includeing the scope and it will shoot .8" groups with Speer 170's.
I believe that most of the Turks have large ring dimensions but small ring threads. so a surplus 6.5x55 bbl could be screwed on for cheap. the also have different bottom metal, so look at that on the stock your looking to get.

Here in Washington State, there is ~8% sales tax, and the sale priced Turk Mausers at BIG5 cost $54 to get out the door.

At first I was loading up on 1903 Turks [$54], then 1938 Turks [$54], and finally VZ24s {$76].

The first 1903 Turkish Mauser was my first '98 Mauser design rifle, and I stayed up all night taking it appart and looking at the parts. It is the first class design with destailed machining for a very low price.