Israeli Mauser K98K 7.62/.308 worries

After WWII there were large quantities of high quality German manufactured weapons and ammunition available in Europe and plenty of people willing to deal in them. The Israelis had cash and needed weapons. They were also desperate and took a very pragmatic approach, learned the hard way, to their own survival. They may also have taken some satisfaction in defending themselves using weapons made by their most industrious oppressors.
I have had three 7.62 X 51 Israeli Mausers since 1985 and have shot .308 soft point and FMJ from various reputable manufacturers and some real horror comic 7.62. The worse was Persian which grouped into 2 inches at 25 yards.
If your gunsmith says the rifle is safe I would not worry. You are unlikely to have problems if you shoot decent stuff.
 
I would have thought Israel would want nothing to do with guns that almost wiped their people off the face of the planet.
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Political correctness is the first thing that gets throw out when people are shooting at you.
 
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There is an interesting story about those Israeli Mausers and the 6-day war. Before the war began Israel had purchased FN-FAL's to replace the mixed bag of mostly 98 Mausers in their arsenals. Their troops rode into battle on the tanks, and in the process the new rifles became so full of dirt and sand that when the fighting started the FAL's fired - once. Literally in the dark of night, the new rifles were pulled back and front line troops issued 98 Mausers, which went bang and didn't seem to care about little details like sand and dirt.

Then came the spin. The FAL's were cleaned up and issued to rear-area troops; the press was told that now Israel now had so many first line automatic rifles that they could even issue them to rear area soldiers. It was years before anyone outside the Israeli and U.S. military caught on.

Jim
 
I'd also like to see a source of that.

If such a thing happened a more likely explanation was that training on maintenance was not yet to where it should be and they simply went back to what the troops were familiar with.
 
Israel started rebarrelling the Mausers in the mid-1950s, the same time they started purchasing (and then producing) the FAL rifle. It was not new in 1967, and I doubt would have been as problematic as that story suggests.
Now, if you had said 1956, there might have been a tiny bit more possible meat to the story.
 
It was not new in 1967, and I doubt would have been as problematic as that story suggests.
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Have you ever heard of "sandcuts" on the FAL rifle. They added those because they do choke up on sand. The sandcuts is that zigzag cut on the bolt carrier below.
http://www.dsarms.com/Metric-Bolt-Carrier-with-Rat-Tail---033-A/productinfo/033-A/
I have never heard of mausers replacing FALs on the front line. I don't know why they would do that when the Israeli FALs charging handle can be pressed in to engage the bolt/bolt carrier assembly to manually manipulate the bolt forwards and backwards. Unlike the standard FAL charging handle which can only move the bolt backwards.
Do jewish guns work on the sabbath?
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In times of war the sabbath does not have to be observed. That is part of jewish tradition.
Never seen anything peened. You sure the Czechs didn't peen yours before they sent it to Israel???
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I don't know who peened it.
I have two israeli mausers. One has the waffenamps completely obliterated, on has the eagle part intact and only the swastika in the circle peened.
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Supposedly unit armorers were known to peen off markings they found intolerable, some more zealously than others.
 
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