Persian Mauser

H

HighDesert

New member
Hi all. New to the forum and my first post.
I just picked up a Persian Mauser 98/29 from a dealer in pretty nice shape. The ser #s match, the barrel is clean, as is the bolt, etc. Blueing looks real good with minor marks and with the exception of a few dings in the stock, it too looks good. I'll try and post some pics in a bit.

I was drawn to it, mainly because of the logo, which seemed to bounce off the rifle and remind me of my childhood back in the Middle East. I actually had no idea these were available in the US, or how many, but I remember the Kurds carrying them and tons of them suddenly appearing during the revolution in the late 70s. I just had to have a piece of my history and couldn't walk away:cool:

Not sure if I got a good deal or not! With some negotiations, I got it for $600 OTD. Not being a classic gun guru, I'd say the condition is good to real good. I don't have the bayonet or certification paper I've seen some posts speak of, but it does look nice otherwise.

I have a couple of questions:
1. is it worth getting the Bayonet, even though the ser # will obviously not match?
2. It looks as though a few rounds have been through it, but definitely not many. Is it okay to shoot these, without having to worry about tanking their values?
3. I see videos on diss-assembly, but haven't seen anything on oiling or things to watch for, do's/dont's, etc. Any help is appreciated.:)
 
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Sold Persian Mausers have recently been exceeding the $1000.00 mark recently on Gunbroker.

For $600.00, I would say you got a screamin' deal.

Persians are extremely high quality Czech-made Mausers and are some of the best ever made. Shooting it will not hurt the value to any significant degree as long as you use quality ammo, and clean throoughly afterwards.

As far as cleaing and oiling, the usual common sense "rules" apply. Keep bare metal coated with a high quality oil, and put a few drops of oil on moving parts.

Disassembly should be undertaken only with proper tools as these guns were built to extremly tight tolerances. Removal of the action from the stock will require some extra caution as barrel bands usually tend to be very tightly fitted to the stock, and can be difficult to remove without doing some minor damage to the wood if done improperly.

Probably the best rule is: "If you're not sure of what you are doing, DON'T."
 
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Any gun oil is fine. Grease for the internal bolt workings, firing pin and spring. Lightly oil the barrel and exterior, and the bolt. Clean the barrel before firing, if you do.

You can get a nearly new bayonet, they will certainly smarten up the appearance of the rifle.

Sounds like you got a good deal. I've not seen a nice Persian Mauser for under $1200 in two years.

I would not use any surplus ammo in a nice Persian, get some new brass and find a friend who reloads.
 
Persian Mauser in excellent shape were available from samco for well under $1000 not long ago. I got mine from there. They are now sold out.

Very good rifle, mine can easily shoot better than 2 moa group with iron sight. They are military rifles, not Rolex watches. You should certainly take good care of them, but no need to baby them.

No problem shooting them, but I wouldn't use corrosive ammunition. I found mine has very slight negative headspace and short leade, which are good problems really.

They bayonet is interesting to have, but it is not doing anything.

-TL
 
Here are a few pics. Sorry they are not better, but a camera phone is all I have at the moment.
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Persians are sweet rifles to be sure. Having a bayonet, even non- matching is a nice touch (that's my current setup). Frankly, while not correct, just about any "98" bayonet will mount ... so don't let somebody "soak" you.

My experience is that most of them were well cared for after no longer being adequate for military use and I agree that you got a great rifle for a great price. Good for you!
 
Yours is in much better shape than the one I saw at Cabela's for....well, for forever- they were asking almost $600 for it and it was badly beat up, with a fuzzy brown bore and turned down bolt handle .... It sat on their used rack for over a year .....
 
You have a nice rifle

I picked one up today at a gun show today for $500. Numbers match and the bore looks like it has never had a bullet pass thru. Ran a patch with #9 thru it to see if I could get find any "green" to no avail. Removed wood, disassembled, and removed cosmoline. All metal parts are mint or near mint. Stock had its share of dings, but a very nice rifle. Previous owner never shot the rifle. I plan to shoot mine this week.
 
Maybe 3 years ago, bought a Persian long rifle barreled action from a gent who'd purchased two of them from SAMCO for what I recall was $179 each. SAMCO screwed up and had used a chemical cleaning process to remove the grease/cosmoline . It had removed much of the bluing on the barrel metal and just a little of the blue on the receiver and trigger guard....LOL, sad but true. Except for the loss of the blue, the barreled action was in very good condition. The bore was excellent. I paid him what the barreled action had cost him and its shipping fee.

I couldn't find the correct Persian stock and hardware for it back then. So, ended up putting the Persian in a 1909 Argentine long rifle mauser stock and using its hardware too. Except for the 1909 Argentine handguard, it was a good fit. Persian barrel has a larger diameter than a Argentine barrel at chamber end, where metal clip in handguard slips over it. So, I just removed the Argentine handguard spring steel clip in it to use the handguard. I used Brownell's Oxpho Blue to cold blue the missing blue, which while not perfect, did a good job.

I own a fair number of surplus military rifles, such as 1903 Springfields, various German mausers, M38 Swedes. All are in good condition and shoot well when it comes to accuracy. However, my Persian is one of my more accurate rifles and I use it to shoot in our ranges monthly held military surplus rifle competition. Being old and wear trifocals, have a problem sighting down the long barrel of my Persian, yet I've managed to finish well in the competition. Nothing complicated about it, we just shoot 10 rounds from benchrest at a 12" bullseye at 100yds. I reload for maybe 8 different cartridges, but never got around to reloading the 8mm mauser ammo. So, most of the 8mm ammo I shoot is the older Romanian surplus I bought when I began shooting the rifle. Have a little of the better Yugo 8mm ammo that I shoot in the competition. The Romanian ammo is quite dirty and of course corrosive too. My barrel is given a good cleaning after firing any of it, or the Yugo ammo too, for that matter.

What can I add, other than the Czech made Persian long rifle is one of the better mauser rifles made.
 
The Persian was, at least originally, made for Iran in Czechoslovakia by Brno. It is actually called the Brno in Iran. We see in news clips every now and then that a Shiites priest delivering a sermon while holding a long rifle as a staff. That's the Brno.

-TL
 
I've given it a good cleaning, since I picked it up and plan to take it out this weekend. Buying this thing has really given me the itch! I keep looking at adds wanting to buy others. Something just seems so cool about the feel and the action of this rifle. :) I may look for one I can play with without concern. Will likely just shoot the Persian as is. Hopefully it's as accurate as some of the others I've been reading about.
 
Nice, nice, nice. :) The rifle shoots amazing. Too bad it was a super windy day, or I may have gotten a tad closer to bullseye at 100 yards. As it was, I was within 4 to 6 inches of center to either side, so I'll call that good enough with high winds and iron sights.

Not nearly as laud as I've been reading though! No lauder than an AR or my buddies 308. Little deeper. Very pleased with my Persian Mauser overall. :)
 
If more of us had learned months ago that "Persians" were manufactured by the Czechs, they would have sold out even faster.

A recent issue of "Surplus Rifle" (sold by Barnes & Noble Books) had a nice article on these, along with several other regular milsurps.
 
If you like shooting Mausers, there are some very reasonable Turkish Mausers available on the market.
 
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