First shots
Back in godonlyknowswhen, Zastava started making Mausers. They made them for the military, but their commercial production was pretty good too. A powerful lot of these were sold by George Herter- he put barreled actions together and even sold whole guns, sold this rifle as a J9.
Somewhere in there even Brownells got into the action, selling receivers and whole guns, at a pretty good price.
Harry McGowen put his hands on some and barreled them in 30-06, and I have one of those. The stock was nasty but I fixed that, and the scope mounts were horrid but I got new ones from Talley (Best rings I ever bought or used) and the trigger was abominable so I got a Timney, and the scope I had was sort of awful so I bought a Nikon Monarch 3.
This is the completed rifle on firing day, awaiting only it’s Made in America Harris Bipod.
(Click to embiggenate)
Anyway, I had gotten it close using a laser boresighter, and at the range I put a big shit-n-c target downrange, sighted the barrel on the huge dot provided by the target, and adjusted the scope to match it.
The first short was high and away. I held the rifle in position and moved the crosshairs to the hole, and took the second shot. it only took two clicks to get it in from there, and I filled the magazine and shot five times. Here’s the target.
This is at about a hundred yards with the scope set to 2.5 power. yes, there are five holes in that group, and you could pretty easily cover them with a silver dollar. I am most pleased.
Now I need to get trigger time, and that means a bunch of snap caps so I can teach myself never to flinch, and a lot of ammo so I can make sure it goes downrange. This is the first time all the pieces have come together for this rifle- trigger, scope, mounts, stock. I will have to get used to the nice as the suck I had before was so permeating. If this all goes well I will rebarrel this rifle, still in 30-06, but with a crowbar, a barrel heavy enough to impose it’s will on the round. And then I will start shooting at things which are far away.
16 comments Og | Uncategorized
Very impressive!
So if this was made over a period of years (decades?) between the original Mauser action, re-chambering in .30-06 and all, how old do you say it is?
(Johnny Cash’s “One Piece at a Time” comes to mind. “It’s a 1953, ’54, ’55’, ’56, …”)
Actually, the barreled action was put into a very cheap Boyds stock by Harry McGowen years back. It was the first piece of wood I ever checkered. Which is one of the many reasons that stock is now in the burnpile.
The actual Remaking of the Mauser has only taken since January; I saw it as a project I could a: Afford, now that I had a few dollars set aside, and b: Perform, now that I have some time set aside. It has just all come together. Part of the impetus f0or this was me speaking with the very nice ladies at Timney, the knowledgeable folks at Talley, and the lovely girls from Harris. Finding a scope that I absolutely loved was the final piece of the puzzle- and it all came together in the- I think- very fine shooting iron you see before you.
Very nice group! And congrats on FINALLY getting it where you want it!
Nice shooting, bodes well for future shooting.
My typical 5 shot group is similar, 3 shots grouped nicely together, almost touching, with a couple about 1moa away close to each other. Nice shooting, 30-06 usually rattles my cage to where I can’t shoot straight, especially in a bold gun. My Garand is nicer to my nerves.
The 06 has some recoil, i just need to shoot it more to become accustomed to it.
That sure is pretty, too.
Ok, have to ask: if it shoots like that, why another barrel?
Because I want it to shoot like that at things very very far away.
Beautiful piece, Og. Congrats!
I’m a cruffler, & a couple of weeks ago took possession of a Yugo M48, in the original 8mm (okay, purists, 7.92×57). I have to finish cleaning the Cosmoline off it, & take a file/stone to the safety; seems to have a burr on it somewhere. I’m not a stickler for safeties, believing the most important one is in the operator’s head, but I’m the son of mechanic who was a bit of a perfectionist. If it’s there, it ought to work. Can’t wait to try the machine out; I’ve heard good things about the M48.
Nice. Can we take that and mine and go squirrel hunting with it this year. :-)
Hey TB!!
I have a couple of those as well. Is it a milled trigger guard M48? The stamped M48A is good too. I have a M48BO that was scrubbed of everything but it’s serial to go to Egypt, but never made it there. I think they prepped them to be used against Israel in the Six Day War.
They are stout shooters. The 8mm is a good round, too. Just be careful you don’t get it mixed into any 06. It’ll fit in the chamber, but the 7.92 doesn’t like to neck down to 7.62 in a hurry.
Congrats!!
Squirrel hunting with a 30-06 seems to be a little over the top. Never mind the fourth rule.
Brigid may be talking about different kinds of squirrels.
STxRynn, it’s the original M48 w/milled parts.
The best thing about M48s, as I understand it, is that the Yugoslav gov’t had an outstanding maintenance program. Every 5 years, each rifle was cleaned, inspected, & repacked.
Mine’s been tapped for a scope mount, 2 holes forward & 2 rear. I’ve never heard of that. Could it be I’ve lucked onto one of the rare M48 sniper-mod rifles?
Budd: Is the bolt handle turned down?
Yes, it’s a bent bolt handle. Shaft clears the body of the rifle about .5″ with bolt closed.
I’ve looked into it, & am pretty sure this isn’t a sniper model. It’d occurred to me that a sniper model would probably have the bolt turned out more. That & other things make me think it isn’t an M48/52. Maybe it was issued, modified by a local command, & returned to armory? I dunno.