Mauser 24/47 Shooting Demonstration

I picked up one of these from Samco a few years ago. It was covered in cosmoline. Once I cleaned all the cosmo off, I found the gun was practically new. The stock was even in excellent condition. Using the original Yugo surplus ammo, I got 3" groups. These rifles are still selling for around $250 give of take a few. They are bargains.
 
Amsdorf.

I bought one of these from Samco Global, and it was like brand new when I got it. Mine has the bent down bolt handle like the M48 and is very accurate with my handloads.
I can hit a Milk jug at 200 yards with it, a young man with good eye sight could probably take it out farther than that.
Good Rifles, and another good video.

I form my cases from used 30 06 brass and load fairly light, mild recoil, less muzzle blast, long case life, and very good accuracy.:D
 
I have an M48, which I bought from a friend of a friend for $90, about 8- 10 years ago. It has become my only rifle, as I love it so much. I shot it in the standard configuration for years, all the while experimenting with such things as improved iron sights and glass-bedding the action in the stock, as well as hand loading for it. The barrel was somewhat pitted when I got it, but it shot well with my hand loads (but was finicky).

A few years ago I re-barreled the rifle myself, using only hand tools, a large bench vise and homemade action wrench.....and a pristine Yugo "takeoff" barrel I got from Numrich for $34. The re-barrel wasn't really that difficult. I have since cut and crowned the barrel at 17.5".....and bedded the action into a cut down ("sportered") 24/47 walnut stock, from the 1930's. I reconfigured the stock to look like a pre-war Mauser sporter, complete with schnabel fore end.

The finished carbine shoots 1.5" 100 yard groups, with cast paper-patched bullets (a hobby all to itself I took up to get a cast load which had enough oompf for hunting deer). With 175 grain Sierra soft-points and 39.5 grains of Hodgdon Benchmark, it will produce cloverleaf groups at 100 yards, with iron sights. ( I switched back from a scope to irons recently, after getting a proper eyeglass prescription which allowed this.)

I also load on the light side, approximately equivalent to 30/30 specs. This amounts to around 2100 fps with my cast PP loads and the Sierras. This has proved to be plenty for whitetails....and gives me stellar brass life (sometimes more than 20 firings). I also make most of my brass from 30/06 or 270 Win., due to the cost and availability of 8 x 57 brass.

I got rid of all of my other rifles years ago, in favor of the M48. It has everything I ever wanted: accuracy, extreme reliability, interesting history, etc. I get quizzical expressions and enthusiastic questions, almost every time I take it to the range (I guess that's MY 15 minutes of fame). With it, I've also become the local "paper-patching guru" (more questions), which is fun.
 
Last edited:
Bought my son one from SOG for Xmas...

Stretched it's legs for the first time yesterday at long-range. First 565 yards, and then at 1,000 yards. Standard milsurp ammo.

Amazingly enough (to us), the factory irons are graduated dead-on. On the 600 yard setting, he nailed the center of a truck tire at 565 yards, first shot.

At 1000, we couldn't actually see the target (a 10" gong), but could barely make out the posts on either side where it was suspended. Every shot hit within five or six feet of the target. Pretty damn impressive, for the volley-fire that it was intended to do at that range. Kicks like a mule, but fun to shoot, and damned accurate. Thinking about picking up another, and scoping (an maybe a re-barrel) for a project.
 
Wow, that is amazing. And kudos, Dad, for spending this kind of quality time with your son. You have no idea what kind of investment you are making in your son's future and memories.

God bless you, sir.
 
The Yugo rifles, M48 and 24/47 have always been rather looked down upon by the "authentic German K98k" crowd. But, the fact is, the Yugo rifles often are just as good, where it counts. As regards fit and finish, they may have a point (at least, in comparison to early WW2 and pre-WW2 K98k's - but not really to the late-war rifles). There are some early production Yugo rifles that exhibit odd characteristics, such as "stiff-bolt syndrome"....with hot loads. The majority, however, are good solid battle rifles, that do the job just as well as any other variant of the Mauser 98.

With prices of the "authentic" Mausers climbing all the time....and the scarcity of good examples that haven't been used up....the Yugo rifles are very attractive indeed. That's what got me into them.
 
The only complaint I have about the Yugo Mauser Patern Rifles is that there is no source available for a replacement Firing Pin. I have tried to locate one so I would have a spare and have not found one yet. I have heard that you can modify a Mauser 98 Firing Pin and make one that will work but to do this would require a Lathe. Other than that they are really great Rifles.
 
A 1903 Turkish Mauser pin will work. I have one in my M48 right now. A couple of the dimensions are 1 or 2 thousandths off (I can't remember which), but no matter....it'll work just fine anyway.

Numrich has them in stock. Part #1064040, if I remember correctly. About $35 (boy, the price has gone UP since I last bought one !)
 
Amsdorf;

Thanks. The time flies...

It's one of those things that I pray can remain a "timeless" tradition, as I'm sure many Dads here do. Quality time, and the memories, are treasures for sure, as you eloquently stated.

As the older one is now off to college, it's the way of enticing him home for the weekend once a month to spend time with "Dear Old Dad"...:)
 
WPSDLRG

Well I recieved the 1903 Turk pin yesterday. I will have to do some mimor fitting on the back of the Pin where it goes through the Cocking Piece but it looks like it will work. The diameter of the rear pin will almost go but is a little too thick. Im going to turn it down with a Cordless Drill and 400 grit sandpaper. Thanks for the advice
 
tobnpr said:
Thinking about picking up another, and scoping (an maybe a re-barrel) for a project.
Click to expand...
I have an M24/47 that I turned into a sort of scout rifle. I used one of those scope rail adapters that replace the original ladder sight (which allows restoring the rifle to original configuration with no scope base holes drilled anywhere) and mounted up an inexpensive handgun scope I picked up from either CDNN or Natchez Shooters Supply. Took it out to a friend's shooting club that has a 200-yard range and once we got the scope dialed in it was easily holding 4" groups using Ecuadorian mil-surp ammo.

I guess I won't win any high power competitions with it, but 4 inches at 200 yards is plenty good enough to make me happy.
 
AQUILA

That is good shooting. For Practicle Field Use you pretty much own everything within 200 yards with that Rifle.
 
Saturday morning I was shooting with some friends. They were using a bench rest and scope to hit a plastic 16 ounce Diet DR Pepper bottle at 107 yards. It shocked them when I showed them that I could hit it without the bench rest with my old Yugo Relic. It felt good. .LOL
 
Indeed, how sweet it is. We should never let anyone believe, for a moment, the fine rifles of WWII were anything other that very, very accurate, deadly accurate both in the sense of defeating the enemy and deadly accurate for the loss of our own boys.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top