Great! Something other than an AR platform rifle. Like the helmet too.
+1 Gotta love the NON-AR’s………
If everything goes sideways to the point that I need a plastic-poodle-popper (like there’s not a single round of 7.62X39 left on planet earth), I’m sure I will happen upon someone who is no longer in need of theirs.
“Time comes I need an m16, there’ll be plenty of them lying on the ground.”
Yup.
Yawn, yet another milsurp, wood stocked behemoth from a bygone era. Show us more ARs! 🙂
Hey, somebody had to write it…..
I’m a big fan of Mausers actually, and that’s a nice specimen. I once had a personal goal to build a precision rifle for under $400, sans optics, that would keep up with the fancy HR Precision and similar rifles that my buddies own. I slowly acquired parts on sale – a Czech VZ 24 surplus action. Never-assembled surplus Parker-Hale match barrel (.308 cal), trigger group, and bolt from a military training rifle contract. Inletted stock blank from Richards. I had a great deal of fun, building the tools to true up the action, bolt, etc. Barreled the action, thinned up the military trigger guard a bit, and parkerized all the metal parts. Finished the stock, and mounted a nice Burris scope. The result was a rifle that’d do 1/2 MOA at 200 yards all day long, with my custom handloads. The ol’ Mauser is no longer the first choice for a custom bolt gun, for several reasons, but they do very well.
That is not a Mauser.
The bolt appears similar to concurrent Mauser at a glance. I don’t blame anyone for getting stuff like that wrong.
It was made in Hungary under license from Mauser, during the war. It has a very different bolt and rear ring than the K98 action. The bolt had (as I recall) a detachable bolt head.
DG, What (little) I remember about this gun is the Mannlicher-Shonauer rotating-bolt (aka, not a straight-pull).
I was unaware of the Mauser licensing. Was it the appearance, or some odd function thing? I thought the M-S bolt was a standalone as far as it goes, although we all stand on the shoulders of giants and whatnot…
The VZ-24 is a great platform for an inexpensive (relative to German or Belgian) Mauser action for a custom rifle. The VZ-24’s usually didn’t see action, and you can find them (complete with bottom metal) for as little as $200 if you shop them hard.
The Mauser action isn’t as common used as the Rem 700 type action in accuracy rifles, not because the Mauser 98 action isn’t capable of laying down tight groups, but because if you come to me, asking me to build up an accuracy bolt gun and you’re paying my hourly rate, the bill is going to be lower with a Rem700 type action than a Mauser action. But for someone either willing to pay, or who has a lathe of their own, you can make a Mauser quite accurate. The one thing you’ll really need to do is replace the military trigger – the original military trigger can be made very nice, but a Timney solves the problems so much faster for those who don’t have a deft touch with stones and hones.
I agree with all you said. One accuracy issue for the Mauser is the lock time – there’s a big mass of metal in that bolt to get moving. Tubs does make a titanium firing pin though.
Nice. After a little google fu I learned something today.
oh my oh my…. 😀
I hope the A-Team special, the Ruger Mini-14 shows up here.
If I hadn’t sold my stainless Ranch Rifle with an original ‘sterile’ Ruger folding stock, I would have…
*sob*
I may as well establish bragging rights, so here goes. This was my submission to the series. The rifle is my safe queen and will never be fired. Aside from a bit of shrapnel damage, it’s in excellent shape. Gotta love them tiger stripes too. The helmet is a Hungarian M38 later refurbished by the Finns and IMA sells ’em for about $130. I can send in more photos if y’all want, but fair warning, I’m a terrible photographer.
I always liked the Mannlicher, but I’m too far down the early M-N and Mauser rabbit holes to start anything else.
Didn’t that have a rotating spool magazine, or was that something else I’m thinking of?
I’m not sure what rifle you are thinking of, but these have a five round integral box magazine. There was, however, an experimental Gewehr 98 I saw in the culture and history museum in Berlin that had a rotary magazine. The G98/40 was based off the Hungarian 35M rifle and was just K98-ized for the Germans. Changes include chambering in 8mm Mauser, installing a German bayonet lug, cutting the sling swivel into the stock, turning down the bolt handle, etc. The majority of the roughly 138,400 G98/40’s made were lost on the Eastern Front, and surviving examples have never been imported en masse for sale on the American market. If you ever find one, pay the pretty pennies and get it because they’re all vet bring backs. They were primarily issued to Luftwaffe field divisions and airbase guards to make up for the Wehrmacht’s mid-war K98k shortage. Here’s a link to Ian of Forgotten Weapons discussing the rifles’ history in more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVojDUEmfjs
As for the Imperial Mosins and old Mausers I’m rather late to the party. As soon as the 100th anniversary of the Great War came around, those $600-$800 Gewehr 98’s shot up in price and now I really have to shop around.
So the spool mag was some experimental thing that never made production. Good to know. Interestingly, I know some Ukrainians, and those guys are still digging up WWII bunkers. Check out the YT vids sometime, amazing mud preserves everything like it was in storage for 60 years. Better even.
I didn’t know the G98/40s were so rare. If I run into one I’ll be mindful to snap it up if I can, thanks. Were it easier to import that stuff, especially from Ukraine these days, I bet we could whip a profitable little venture up. Oh well.
I have a few of those Kar98a’s that they were running low on, since mine came stateside after WWI.
“I always liked the Mannlicher”
Heh, heh! You said “Man Licker.”
:channeling Beavis and Butthead:
Heh, heh.
Didn’t the American made Johnson semi auto have some kind of rotary or spool mag you loaded with standard five round stripper clips?
Yes it did. It had some other issues that made it not a volume piece (like the investment in the M1). They made 15K or so of them for a variety of depts/countries. if you see one, snatch it up, the WWII junkies desperately need it for their collection.
(Just my opinion, not investment advice and all the applicable disclaimers..)
Excellent picture with helmet and great looking gun that harkens back to our past. A+ sir! It just looks like “I’m gonna kick yer ass” style without being all black. Ah, the wood days!
Meant to say “the wood old days” haha.
Looks like an old Mauser 98 milsurp I picked up a few years ago for around $300 here in Houston. Ammo has been dirt cheap and it’s a gas on the range. I’m not going to win any long range target shooting, but I can probably hit anything inside of 100 yards with it. Between that and my Chinese SKS 7.62 x 39, I’m good to go.
Great! Something other than an AR platform rifle. Like the helmet too.
+1 Gotta love the NON-AR’s………
If everything goes sideways to the point that I need a plastic-poodle-popper (like there’s not a single round of 7.62X39 left on planet earth), I’m sure I will happen upon someone who is no longer in need of theirs.
“Time comes I need an m16, there’ll be plenty of them lying on the ground.”
Yup.
Yawn, yet another milsurp, wood stocked behemoth from a bygone era. Show us more ARs! 🙂
Hey, somebody had to write it…..
I’m a big fan of Mausers actually, and that’s a nice specimen. I once had a personal goal to build a precision rifle for under $400, sans optics, that would keep up with the fancy HR Precision and similar rifles that my buddies own. I slowly acquired parts on sale – a Czech VZ 24 surplus action. Never-assembled surplus Parker-Hale match barrel (.308 cal), trigger group, and bolt from a military training rifle contract. Inletted stock blank from Richards. I had a great deal of fun, building the tools to true up the action, bolt, etc. Barreled the action, thinned up the military trigger guard a bit, and parkerized all the metal parts. Finished the stock, and mounted a nice Burris scope. The result was a rifle that’d do 1/2 MOA at 200 yards all day long, with my custom handloads. The ol’ Mauser is no longer the first choice for a custom bolt gun, for several reasons, but they do very well.
That is not a Mauser.
The bolt appears similar to concurrent Mauser at a glance. I don’t blame anyone for getting stuff like that wrong.
It was made in Hungary under license from Mauser, during the war. It has a very different bolt and rear ring than the K98 action. The bolt had (as I recall) a detachable bolt head.
DG, What (little) I remember about this gun is the Mannlicher-Shonauer rotating-bolt (aka, not a straight-pull).
I was unaware of the Mauser licensing. Was it the appearance, or some odd function thing? I thought the M-S bolt was a standalone as far as it goes, although we all stand on the shoulders of giants and whatnot…
The VZ-24 is a great platform for an inexpensive (relative to German or Belgian) Mauser action for a custom rifle. The VZ-24’s usually didn’t see action, and you can find them (complete with bottom metal) for as little as $200 if you shop them hard.
The Mauser action isn’t as common used as the Rem 700 type action in accuracy rifles, not because the Mauser 98 action isn’t capable of laying down tight groups, but because if you come to me, asking me to build up an accuracy bolt gun and you’re paying my hourly rate, the bill is going to be lower with a Rem700 type action than a Mauser action. But for someone either willing to pay, or who has a lathe of their own, you can make a Mauser quite accurate. The one thing you’ll really need to do is replace the military trigger – the original military trigger can be made very nice, but a Timney solves the problems so much faster for those who don’t have a deft touch with stones and hones.
I agree with all you said. One accuracy issue for the Mauser is the lock time – there’s a big mass of metal in that bolt to get moving. Tubs does make a titanium firing pin though.
Nice. After a little google fu I learned something today.
oh my oh my…. 😀
I hope the A-Team special, the Ruger Mini-14 shows up here.
If I hadn’t sold my stainless Ranch Rifle with an original ‘sterile’ Ruger folding stock, I would have…
*sob*
I may as well establish bragging rights, so here goes. This was my submission to the series. The rifle is my safe queen and will never be fired. Aside from a bit of shrapnel damage, it’s in excellent shape. Gotta love them tiger stripes too. The helmet is a Hungarian M38 later refurbished by the Finns and IMA sells ’em for about $130. I can send in more photos if y’all want, but fair warning, I’m a terrible photographer.
I always liked the Mannlicher, but I’m too far down the early M-N and Mauser rabbit holes to start anything else.
Didn’t that have a rotating spool magazine, or was that something else I’m thinking of?
I’m not sure what rifle you are thinking of, but these have a five round integral box magazine. There was, however, an experimental Gewehr 98 I saw in the culture and history museum in Berlin that had a rotary magazine. The G98/40 was based off the Hungarian 35M rifle and was just K98-ized for the Germans. Changes include chambering in 8mm Mauser, installing a German bayonet lug, cutting the sling swivel into the stock, turning down the bolt handle, etc. The majority of the roughly 138,400 G98/40’s made were lost on the Eastern Front, and surviving examples have never been imported en masse for sale on the American market. If you ever find one, pay the pretty pennies and get it because they’re all vet bring backs. They were primarily issued to Luftwaffe field divisions and airbase guards to make up for the Wehrmacht’s mid-war K98k shortage. Here’s a link to Ian of Forgotten Weapons discussing the rifles’ history in more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVojDUEmfjs
As for the Imperial Mosins and old Mausers I’m rather late to the party. As soon as the 100th anniversary of the Great War came around, those $600-$800 Gewehr 98’s shot up in price and now I really have to shop around.
So the spool mag was some experimental thing that never made production. Good to know. Interestingly, I know some Ukrainians, and those guys are still digging up WWII bunkers. Check out the YT vids sometime, amazing mud preserves everything like it was in storage for 60 years. Better even.
I didn’t know the G98/40s were so rare. If I run into one I’ll be mindful to snap it up if I can, thanks. Were it easier to import that stuff, especially from Ukraine these days, I bet we could whip a profitable little venture up. Oh well.
I have a few of those Kar98a’s that they were running low on, since mine came stateside after WWI.
“I always liked the Mannlicher”
Heh, heh! You said “Man Licker.”
:channeling Beavis and Butthead:
Heh, heh.
Didn’t the American made Johnson semi auto have some kind of rotary or spool mag you loaded with standard five round stripper clips?
Yes it did. It had some other issues that made it not a volume piece (like the investment in the M1). They made 15K or so of them for a variety of depts/countries. if you see one, snatch it up, the WWII junkies desperately need it for their collection.
(Just my opinion, not investment advice and all the applicable disclaimers..)
Excellent picture with helmet and great looking gun that harkens back to our past. A+ sir! It just looks like “I’m gonna kick yer ass” style without being all black. Ah, the wood days!
Meant to say “the wood old days” haha.
Looks like an old Mauser 98 milsurp I picked up a few years ago for around $300 here in Houston. Ammo has been dirt cheap and it’s a gas on the range. I’m not going to win any long range target shooting, but I can probably hit anything inside of 100 yards with it. Between that and my Chinese SKS 7.62 x 39, I’m good to go.
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