Converting Mausers to hunting rifles

[PATH]

Got a Czech VZ 24 Mauser and rebarreled it for .270. Got a synthetic stock from Midway and a few parts from Brownells. I put an inexpensive BSA beater for a scope on and now I have a passable hunting rifle.

I know I could have gone with a Savage but I still came under budget with the conversion.

Any of you folks done a Mauser conversion?

 

[ursus]

You may want to start here:http://www.gunboards.com/

 

[Tamara]

Yup.

Here's my Turkish Mauser converted to .300 Whisper with a Lilja barrel:

 

[Oldphart]

I picked up a '93 Turk several years ago and cut the barrel down to 24", mounted a scope and a recoil pad on it. The 8mm round is good enough for any game I care to hunt and surplus practice ammo is cheap and plentiful. I've got other rifles, but this is the one I usually find myself just holding. It just feels right.

 

[critter]

I have done four, all on Mauser 98's. I have a 25-06 on a 1909 Argentine, a .270 Win on a Russian capture K98 and two .35 Whelens on VZ24 actions. All the work was done by a local 'shadetree' gun smith and myself. They are not 'show pieces', but look quite respectable and are really fine hunting arms. Really fun, enjoyable and educational projects.

Most of the actions were picked up at gun shows in various stages of bubba-fication and at quite reasonable prices.

 

[Tamara]

Can't resist showing her off a little more.

 

[Brian Williams]

Tamara What Stock it that?

 

[Selfdfenz]

Ok
The first pic was very nice, the second earns a compliment, very nice rifle.

SS TG.
Nice work on that bolt. Way cool.
S-

 

[farmboy]

I have a Yugo M48 that I was going to sporterize into a scout rifle, but it was in good enough shape to refinish and mount some Mojo Phase III's on to.

She shoots great, but I still might replace that trigger.

 

[*Cag]

Converting Mausers to Hunting Rifles

Path I have three Mauser rifles that have been sporterised for hunting.

I have a Turkish 98 Mauser, with a Boyds JRS nutmeg laminate stock, 22" blued barrel, 308 win. topped with a Simmons Aetec 3.8 X 12 A/O.

A German 98 Mauser, with a beautiful walnut Santa Fe stock with checkering in the grip and forearm, and 22" blued barrel, 30-06 Springfield topped with a Leupold VariXIII, 3.5 X 10 A/O.

A German 98 Mauser with a Boyds JRS pepper laminated stock with an ER Shaw 26" stainless steel barrel, 25-06 Rem. topped with a Simmons Aetec 3.8 X 12 A/O.

All have Timney triggers, glass bedded and free floated barrels.

Here's a website to a gunsmith in South Carolina that works mostly on Mausers and offers some real good deals on sporterised Turkish Mauser rifles,as well as do work on your rifles or sporterise your rifle. This guy does excellent work and the price is right. www.gun-shop.biz Check out his website. Hes done work on two of my rifles and I was very satisfied.

 

[PATH]

Tamara that is a sweet looking rifle.

Folks I still have a another VZ24 and I think I will convert it to have a second Mauser action hunting rifle. Not sure of caliber yet!

 

[Gewehr98]

Kind of a hunting rifle...

1916 C.G. Haenel 98 Mauser action. 6.5-06 1000-yard Interdiction Rifle:

 

[dfaugh]

ULTIMATE low budget

Just to see what I could do, for absolute rock bottom cost...

1893 mauser w/ good barrel (muzzle beat up from steel cleaning rods, but bore good) and action, re-arsenalled around WWII, left it in 8mm...

Shortened and re-crowned barrel (still almost 27"), ported barrel(shoulder injury has left me somewhat recoil sensitive)...Almost NO recoil now

Found a target stock at a garage sale, asking price $8(!) I got it for 5...added recoil pad I had laying around...Painted it camo 'cause it looks "bad" and I was too lazy to refinish, it was pretty beat up

bent and rewelded bolt (hardest part), drilled and tapped for mounts....

Reworked trigger a little bit

Mounted a 6x24x variable Tasco (closeout, on sale for $60)

Did all the work myself with very basic tools

Shoots crappy with milsurp ammo, but best to date 1.2" group with handloads, just started experimenting...

Best of all--total cost, roughly $180

Already working on a VZ 24, short and light, brush type gun

P.S. Not NEARLY as pretty as yours is , Tamara.

 

[swingset]

Your grandchildren, or theirs, will surely sing your praises for taking a piece of history and turning it into, well, whatever is left in 100 years. Enjoy! Nothing does a cruffler prouder than to watch people crap on military history.

 

[Tamara]

swingset,

Let me clarify something: I collect old rifles and other militaria. At last count, I had seventeen milsurps (which total obviously does not include the Turk above) including several rarer variants and some which are the most pristine examples of their type that I've seen.

However, my gunsmith has a term for guns that sometimes get confused with valuable pieces of history: He calls them "heirlumps." I would never in a million years alter my Argentine 1891, which is one of the nicest old military rifles I've run across in all my years in this business, but a pitted old Turk that didn't headspace (which I bought a couple years ago when Century-imported Turks were stacked like cordwood on gun show tables) was nothing but a wallhanger (and not a very good one at that) until it was rescued and turned into something beautiful and usable by a talented artist. A well done, period-correct sporterized Mauser from the early postwar period (such as a Griffin and Howe), is as much of a collectable as an unaltered 98k, and actually commands higher prices than all but the rarest and most pristine unaltered 98k's, because it, too, represents a period in history.

Poorly-done hacksaw jobs bug me, too, as does seeing some rare and correct rifle being used as the basis for a sporter, but we are in a period of history in the US the likes of which hasn't been seen since the '50s and '60s: mundane Yugos and Turks are pretty thick on the ground right now and selling cheaply. If some folks want to experience the joys of building their Perfect Rifle on a fine, strong (and plentiful) Mauser action, now's the time to do it. As the supply of unaltered guns shrinks, leaving only the nicest examples around, market forces will come into play and redress the situation, as the rifles become too valuable to alter.

As it stands, I had a blast spending $600+ to turn a $40 rifle into a $400 rifle.

 

[caffer]

I have converted two 1934 Mauserwerke '98s to hunting rifles with perfect results, both in .35 Whelen, an excellent general African cartridge up to 500 kilo target weight. Sold one, used the other on a number of safaris with no problem. The rifle was designed based on about 20 years experience hunting in southern Africa. It is short (19" bbl, 12.5" pull), fast, robust, reliable, and throws decent bullet mass. (Tape you see on muzzle is to keep out darn Texas Muddabber wasps.) It is not pretty, but it is an excellent tool for its intended job.

Complete specs available if you are interested.

Caffer, who is trying to attact his first graphic in this forum without much luck so far

 

[caffer]

Got it attached.

Caffer

 

[Gewehr98]

Since Swingset was asking for it...

That 6.5-06 Interdiction Rifle pictured above came to me as a stripped receiver, nothing more. I could only wish it were an original, 100% military configured Gew98 as assembled in 1916. Other Mausers and Springfields that I had more to work with were restored back to full issue condition, and now take their prominent place in my collection. So be careful with how broad a brush you paint your fellow milsurp gun owners.

 

[Tamara]

Dang it, caffer, now you're making me want a .35 Whelen! (I know a couple folks with 'em as well and, well, I don't have a medium-bore, and...)

Hmmm... I know where there's a pretty dinged-up, non-matching-numbers CAI Brno 98/22 that could be had for cheap... (Must've been one of Century's "hand-select" guns. )

 

[camaroman]

I picked up one of the M48 Mausers a few months back. It didn't realize till after I bought it all the possibilities for the Mauser rifles. It shoots great, action is a little stiff though. I have a new respect for those who carried rifles with steel butt plates.

If there was only a lefty Mauser out there, now that would rock!
"Aint it Cool!"