Hi All,

I'm considering a Mauser carbine.

I am a fan of the Mosin-Nagant as is pretty widely known, for several reasons.  It is not a cheap rifle as some folks think, and is inexpensive only because it's being sold at scrap prices by the former Soviet Union.  If the barrel is not completely degraded, it will shoot 2.5MOA, with sub-MOA groups being the norm for properly set-up specimens with good bores.

I do have a 120 year-old Commission Rifle, M88/05, mistakenly called a Mauser 88.  It is not a Mauser but rather a rifle designed by a commission dedicated to the task.  It carries traits of both the Mauser and of the Mannlicher, the action being most similar to the latter.

I enjoy it and its precision is still at the 1.2MOA mark due to the barrel jacket and a few other things, but it's just not a strong action and I need to keep loads below 45000psi.  Not a huge deal but one to consider.  Plus, it is 120 years old!

I would not mind a Mauser.  I would like a short one with a straight bolt.  I do not know exactly what I'm looking for after that.  I'd just like a controlled-feed in the collection someplace, though I very much prefer push-feed.

The Mauser can be made to achieve almost the same precision as the Mosin-Nagant given rifles in similar condition and handloaded rounds.  I would prefer it to do 2.5MOA out of the box.  This is a good indicator that it can be improved upon.

So, 2.5MOA from the box, straight bolt handle since I'm a lefty, and a relatively short rifle, shorter than a 91/30 or M88/05 anyway, is what I'm looking for.

Price is a consideration as I will not be using this as a main rifle.  I could go out and easily find what I'm looking for around the $400 mark, but I honestly don't want to go that high.

I figure you all might know of one that is closer to what I'm looking for.  Do the Yugos have decent bores on average?  What is their stock precision and accuracy?  Do they come with bayonets?

Do you have other recommendations?

Thank you,

Josh,

The Mauser's are the finest of bolt action rifles. Never the less, I find the Nagant as a very high quality bit of work. Mausers are expensive. Nagants are very high quality and inexpensive. What is the bottom line? You choose. I choose the Nagant.

Tom

The Nagant's are the way to go these days, unless you find a cheap Spanish Mauser in 308 or 7mm.

The nagant's have a number of heavy barrel options a person can install, as well as custom barrels. which are great especially when the bore dia is correct, so you can run standard 308 bullets for reloading for optimum accuracy (rather than the standard barrels which can vary in bore dia).

Timny also makes a great trigger for the Nagant, and taking care of the rest of the trigger work is pretty easy.

I have a couple 91/30's and an M44. and next year I hope to be able to convert my spare 91/30 to a bullpup rifle.

One other Mauser to watch for, it the Mauser that I have...  The Vz.24 which is a basically a Gewehr 98 from Czechoslovakia.

My Vz24 is unissued with a great finish, and an unissued red(ish) stock. I bought mine from Aim about 5+ years ago, and it's a fine rifle.  For this rifle I plan on adding a Russian scope rail on the side, mounted directly to the receiver.  I have a Yugo M59/66 like this thats set up like a DMR, and like it so much, I thought it would be cool to be able to use an SVD Zoom Scope on the mauser.  This would make for a great sniper rifle setup, and much more accurate than my custom PSL with the SVD 1P21 Zoom Scope.

If you can get a Vz24, I think you will love it.

in the end it really comes down to cost and caliber.  would you rather shoot or reload 8mm Mauser or the more common 30 caliber 7.62x54r.

Josh,

Funny meeting you over here!

This guy.... is a fine fella, let it be known! Josh is selling some nice sights for Mosins!

I have a M48 Mauser in 8mm... never shot it, but indications are that if you like the K98K, it is a good rifle and you will like it also.

I can't give you much in recommendations on accuracy, since I don't shoot often. However, I have heard much praise regarding the Mausers in 7mm. Out of the box accuracy is great, but ammo is kinda pricey!

If you are looking for a short Mauser, I like the FR8's in .308. Cool look... good kick... and easy caliber to get.

Anywho, welcome here!

Regarding the 7mm Mauser Accuracy...

Years ago when I first started hunting, I was given a very beat up Spanish Mauser for the season in 7mm, but the bore was good, and it was still perfectly functional.

I took it to the range to check the iron sights, and it was dead in, so I was not too worried while I was sitting on a very wooded hill side.  Then, I spotted a buck about 300 yards away, and I thought, well, it's just a bit far with these iron sights, but if it gets a bit closer, I'll bag it.

Now this was the first morning, and it was a less than impressive buck, so I was not in a hurry to shoot the first thing that comes along, so i said, well, it it gets between those two trees I'll shoot (it was a 250 yard broadside shot at the perfect angle) and I was hoping the deer would take another route, but it didn't, and as I was raising my rifle up, I accidentally bumped the front sight (which is on a barrel band) and the sight went from top dead center, to pointing at a 45 degree angle, and I'm like    WTF!   so I grabbed the
the sight and noticed that the front sight was no longer silver soldiered to the barrel (may have broken loose while sight in).

So I adjusted the sight by hand, and would look down the sights to see if it was straight, and it looked as straight as I was going to get it, and I looked at the deer, and it got to another set of trees providing one more perfect shot, and I fired...  and the deer was gone...  Once again I added a few choice words knowing that if the sight was on, I would have nailed that buck at the 250 yards pretty easy. so I walked down and over to where the deer was where I shot, so I could look for blood, and I found that deer right where I shot it.  it never took a step, and didn't even twitch..  I nice long range heart shot.

now two years later I had  purchased a cheap FN49 semi-auto in 8mm.  I remembered what happened to that deer with the 7mm, and I figured the 8mm would be just as good.

so during deer season I was leaning against a tree, and a deer, walked up behind the tree and didn't see me.  now I was a bit shocked when the deer walked around to my side of the tree (this was NOT a big tree) and the deer was so close it rubbed my coat as it walked slowly by.  So I slowly took the barrel, and placed it into the chest of the deer, and pulled the trigger at the same time.

well, the next second, all I could see was grey (it was all grey deer hair)  haze with all the hair floating down. Now I fully expected to see a dead, half naked deer at my feet, because I must have blown most of it off to block the light like that, but when the hair haze cleared, there was no deer....  only hair.    Now I looked all around, and didn't find a single drop of blood within 50 feet (and i was a good blood tracker), and the next thought that came to mind was..  OMG...  I vaporized the poor thing....  lol

It was the only deer I never found, which was extremely odd considering the large amount of hair on the ground (it looked like a 5 foot dia spot where someone  dumped a fine layer a deer hair on the ground)  it was one of the strangest moments I had while hunting...  how does a 200+ lbs animal lose that much hair, and not have a drop of blood?

A few days later I had a deer run past at top speed after having been shoot at by a couple hunters a few hundred yards away, and as it was running past, I was shocked the deer didn't drop, because I fired 10 rounds into the deer.  now the deer was only 100 to 150 yards away, so I knew I had hit it once..  but the deer didn't slow down, and I was out of ammo.   the deer made it another 200 yards, when it was hit by another hunter while it was jumping a fence  (shot with a 30.30 lever action).

Now the Hunter stated the deer was his because he stopped it, and I quickly agreed (I was out of ammo and he was not), but when I got a good close up view of the deer (I had to see if I hit it) I noticed  a spot in the middle of the deer, maybe double the size of a paper plate had about 10 holes in it.  I also noticed that the shots I heard before I saw the deer, mush have been fired as the deer was running away from them, because the ass was all shot to hell.  The "proud" hunter had shot the deer high in the neck, and with as much ventalation that deer had, I don't think he got more than a few sandwiches out of it...  lol

it was this experience that got me into reloading.  I didn't know it at the time, but all the factory ammo in 8mm was down loaded pretty bad, so it was pretty under powered.

The next year I bought a Savage 110E in 30.06, and reloaded some 165 grain Gameking hollow points, and I never had a deer take a step. and it was extremely helpful during party hunting in the open. because the exit wound created a diamond shape red splatter mark  that looked like a pointer in the snow.  My best hunt I dropped 5 deer in well under 30 seconds starting at 300+ yards and running towards me with the last deer being around 50 yards away.  when ever I hunted with that rifle I always considered it self defence because they always would run at me.

I have not hunted for many years now, and that Savage 110e 30.06 was converted to a 6.5x47 lapua sniper rifle, with the conversion covered in the forum.

so..  7mm I have always had a great amount of luck with, but he 8mm would not knock them down, and potentially vaporized one lol and when I started reloading, the bullet selection in 8mm was not very impressive, so I converted from the FN49 (which I still have) to the Savage with reloads.

Just an old story (true) about me hunting with 7mm and 8mm Mauser.

I love collecting military bolt action rifles.  I don't have near as many as I would like, but it brings up two other rifles....

The Ishapore 2A1 rifle, which is basically a Lee-Enfield SMLE Mk III rifle but in 7.62x51mm and made in India.  Keep in mind the record for bolt action rapid aimed fire is with the Lee-Enfield Rifle, and is 38 rounds into a 12-inch-wide target at 300 yards in one minute, so it is very much worth considering.

And the Most Accurate rifle of WWII..  The Swiss K31 in 7.5mm with the detachable magazine and straight pull bolt action rifle.  There are videos on YouTube of this rifle getting hits on a steel gong at 1,000 yards WITH IRON SIGHTS.  (I have diopter sights on mine)

I have to admit, those sights on  http://www.smith-sights.com are some good looking sights.  if I ever end up with some spending money I may have to update my M44 as well as one of my 91/30's as part of a review video for the weaponeer channel.

I got a Yugo M24/47 about five years ago for $80 from Century, but they've subsequently vanished. aimsurplus has the vz.24 for just under $300.

The metal on my M24 is utterly pristine--zero rust, sharp rifling, clearly dipped in cosmoline after WWII and never taken out. The wood is dark and soaked in cosmoline, but serviceable. I've looked closely, and other than the Yugo crest and slightly rougher finish machining, I can't tell the difference between it and an official K98 Mauser.

The eastern bloc surplus 8mm is some serious full power ammo, but the modern noncorrosive commercial stuff is designed to not explode an 1888 rifle (tighter bore and weaker action), and hence is pretty tame.