Introducing The Mauser M18 — “The People’s Rifle”

1. The safety isn’t on the bolt shroud, and it appears to be push feed.

   What’s to differentiate this from several other rifles in the same price class?

   • It’s available in 8mm Mauser.

     Oh wait …..

     • That does seem weird….

2. In the game.

3. My first center fire rifle was a Yugo Mauser in 8mm. Because I didn’t know any better back in the day I mounted the action in a plastic stock (it might have been a Ram-Line), and drilled the receiver for a cheap Bushnell scope. I had maybe $250 in the gun. It shot straight and I was able to put venison on the table with those heavy 8mm bullets. I sold the rifle many years back to a co worker and he still hunts with it. The M18 is just another generic bolt action look alike. Nothing to see here. If I wanted another Mauser I’d try to find a nice 6.5 Swede – I’d probably pay more than $700 at today’s prices but I’d have real wood and good Swedish steel and nothing made of plastic.

   • The 6.5’s made in Sweden and Norway are among some of the very best Mausers out there. The Swedish steel was excellent, the workmanship is excellent, and the 6.5×55 can launch high-BC pills.

     • Norway never made Mausers. We made Norwegian pattern Krag-Jørgensens in 6,5×55 KJ. We did later rebuild surrendered Gew. 98s, K98a, K98b, and K98ks after WW2 at Kongsberg and Dokka. The M/59 and M/67 were rifles initially built as sniper rifles with diopter sights for the military, later adopted by the Norwegian rifle shooting association, and the NM149 and NM149F1 were K98ks rebuild as scoped (S&B 6×42) DMR for the Army and Police (as the VS85/VS94).

       • Have to correct myself – the NM149, NM149F1, VS85, VS94P and VS94PL can be found built on Gew. 98, K98a, K98b, K98k, and even other license-made large ring 98 actions.

       • Thanks for that reminder. I’ve seen recent production rifles from Norway that looked, to me, as a modern Mauser 98-ish action. The quality of the rifle was very high, The quality of the Nazi surrender rifles (the M/59, et al) you wrote of – that too, is very high quality work IMO. The Norwegians apparently selected the “pick of the litter” of the rifles the Germans left behind, and this is why (years ago) they were good actions to sporterize. These are infrequently seen in the US surplus market, and probably carry too high a price to sporterize now.

         My impression of the Norwegian sporting arms market is that you enjoy some very, very high quality products – but you don’t export much to the US. This saddens me, because I would much rather talk with and do business with Norwegians who support & enjoy civilian sport shooting, rather than the statist hucksters from Germany who run H&K (H&K company motto: “Because you suck, and we hate you”).

4. Real Mausers aren’t made out of plastic.

   • Yea, there is that too.

   • And they used to cost $50.

     Therefore I don’t believe the dream of owning one is more accessible than ever.

5. I can’t tell if it’s a Ruger American Rifle in drag or a T/C Venture or a…..oh, never mind.

6. Notice that huge crf claw extractor? Yeah me neither. The only thing Mauser on this rifle is the fucking stamp. Short of building off a milsurp action, the only affordable options for a real crf Mauser are Zastava of Serbia, or ordering one of those Domoulin Herstel actions from Sarco. Even Cz started stepping away from their Mauser derivative in favor of a generic push feed. Funny thing is that the price has still stayed near what the crf Cz550 was.

   • If you want a modern Mauser, buy a Ruger. All the classic features at an affordable price.

7. no controlled feed? no clip guide? no thank you.

8. I like my Savage axis 11 for half the price. Bull barrel on it and a decent scope for 400.

9. No wood
   No 8mm Mauser chambering
   Pushfeed bolt
   No claw extractor
   No Mauser that’s just another bolt gun.

10. They can keep their rifle & scope if I have to JOIN the S***Hols Facebook/Instagram/Twitter!!!!

11. I don’t care what name is on the stock. If its a push feed action and no Mauser extractor,
    IT AIN’T NO MAUSER!!!!! That’s a cheap ass me too bolt gun with the Mauser name on it. They should be ashamed to put the Mauser name on that sows ear of a rifle.

    • I was going to say something to that effect, but didn’t. Now that you have, let’s talk about your comment, which is a very, very good point:

      Mauser has spent the last century building a reputation for high quality rifles. The Mauser 98 action is well understood by we gunsmiths to be the definitive bolt rifle action extant; there is no other bolt action that incorporates as many safety features as the Mauser 98. As a result, a) the Mauser action is very expensive so make, because it requires many setups in machining the receiver and the bolt, and b) most all bolt actions made by other companies since the Mauser 98 delete some of the safety features to reduce the cost of production.

      The net:net result was that the true Mauser 98-style action (and the civilian variants, eg, the actions that had square bridges, or magnum bolt faces, etc) was seen as the nes plus ultra of bolt actions, and modern production prices for the 98-style action started at $2500 for just the action, and went up from there.

      Along comes Mauser, the company, and they want to get into the sub-$1K rifle space. This is brand dilution writ most large – this is roughly the equivalent of a car company like, oh, Rolls Royce shipping a car to compete with the Corolla. If I want to drive a Rolls, I don’t want to drive a Corolla with a Rolls marque on it.

      Same deal here. People who want a Mauser hunting rifle don’t want a push-feed, plastic-stocked rifle.

      The above rifle, regardless of its own technical merits, is a horrible brand dilution.

      • I want a push feed, plastic-stocked budget rifle made by Mauser. :^)

        It will go along nicely as a good back up rifle to my custom mauser 98 action rifle. Outside of Tikka, there really isn’t anymore refined “tupperware” rifles. Remington remains in the price bracket but has taken a nose dive in quality. There are a ton of really cheap and utilitarian rifles, but not very many good options anymore in that mid range price bracket since Remington dominated in it for so long until “Freedom Group” happened.

        This actually fills a niche like it or not. Mauser is owned by Sig. Sig recognizes that the Tikka T3 owned by Beretta does not have any real competition at the moment. $699 new, probably street price around $550, that is a pretty good deal for a push feed plastic rifle that is machined well, with sub MOA guarantee.

        Sorry you are too much of a snob to past the Mauser 98 action. Mauser has a rich history with a number of different actions, most of them push feed, especially post ww2.

        You’ve commented like 3-4 times in this thread to knock the product. Makes me question what your motivation is. Heaven forbid they try and innovate and increase their revenue.

        • My motivation is that of a gunsmith. Every bolt action design since the Mauser 98 action has reduced or removed safety features – safety features that come in really handy if you have a primer blow out or a case head failure.

          I have no financial interest one way or the other in the issue.

          As for ‘innovation’ – they’re not innovating. Most everything they’re providing here was already done on the Winchester post-68 Model 70 – in 1968.

      • Today all that remained from Mauser, is a brand name. They sold their rifle and pistol business in 2004 to the same holding that also owns Blaser, SIG and so on. The production of civilian Mauser 98 actions or rifles stopped before 1945. The reason why the Mauser action required so many fixtures and production steps is, that this rifle was designed when CNC manufacturing was not nearly in existence then. It was easier to do a lot of simple single steps with simple machines. Manual labor was cheap then.

        • https://www.mauser.com/en/m98.html

          Still being made by Mauser. But you are right about being owned by Sig and all of that.

          HK owns most of the old Mauser Oberndorf facilities and is in many ways the spiritual successor to the Mauser legacy.

12. Unlike you Mauser 98 fans that love controlled round feeding let me tell you that they can fail. I have owned and seen Springfield 03s (controlled round feeding) and 98s double feed and jam. Like most bolt actions the bolt must be operated briskly to ensure reliable feeding. Don’t sneer at the Ruger American Rifle. I have seen three that will shoot one minute of angle. I think if you have or will have one you must find the “right” ammunition.

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