Turkish 8mm Mauser for $49.99??

M

maxinquaye

New member
Hi everyone,

First venture here into the world of the long gun. I would like to get a plinker, and there is a store that has "German made type 98 Turkish Mausers" on sale for $49.99. They are 8mm. Is this round affordable? Is it a good all around round? What should I expect for 50 bucks (will the dang thing even fire, or is it strictly a wall piece)? Any and all info would help. I will go down tomorrow to check them out, so any advice on what to look for would be appreciated.
 
My father has 7 of them and they are beautiful. He hunted all over at Big 5's to find the best ones for 49.95 and then fixed them up. He didn't sportorize them or anything, just spent a day or two on each one cleaning it up. The guns are absolutely beautiful now. They are also extremely accurate and plinking at Milk jugs at 500 meters is not a problem. The ammo is pretty cheap, you can find German 1939 manufacture 8mm (mildly corrosive, just clean not too long after you shoot it, like that night or something) for around 100 dollars for a vacume sealed tin with around a 1000 rounds of 198 grain ammo. When you are looking at the Mausers, beware anyone that is marked GRW or GEW (Im not sure which one) as those are often not safe to shoot. If you want more info, check out the Turkish Mauser forum at
http://members.boardhost.com/parallax/
 
I bought one recently from AIM Surplus (ordered it through an FFL). AIM's price was $39.95. I'm happy with it. It shows wear, but is in decent shape - I'd say it has 70% of its finish, a good barrel, good wood. It seems to shoot fine. I'm thinking of ordering one or two more.

I also ordered 1,400 rounds of Turkish 8mm ammo (surplus from the 1940's - it came on stripper clips, in 70-round bandoleers, sealed in a metal can). Cost me about $84 plus shipping (which was almost more than the ammo). Still very cheap stuff. So far, no problems with it.

I would check the rifle carefully for any cracks, headspace, or other problems. I fired mine the first couple of times with full face protection, at arms lenght, with a barrier between me and the rifle. Probably unnecessary, but with a 60 year old $40 rifle, I figured better safe than sorry.

Doug
 
I bought a Turkish Mauser at one of my local area shops for a little of $100. I believe it was rebarreled as it has, stamped near the muzzle, "Remington Arms". No rust and beautiful blueing. Feeds, extracts, and shoots well. Well, it shoots well considering the sights of a mauser suck when compared to the sights of a No4Mk1 Enfield! I shoot the Sellier and Bellot 198gr stuff, and let me tell you, that stuff is hot! Pretty cheap, too. I believe I paid just under $10 a box of 20.
 
Well, I checked it out, it looked to be in pretty good condition. There was a stamp on top of the gun that had the following markings - can anyone help identify?

TC
AS FA
ANK * ARA
K. KALE
1944

Where the star is, there was a upward-pointing crescent and a small 5 pointed star.

My main concern, from reading, is headspace, bore and crown. I have read that some of the barrels have been "counter-bored", and that if the headspace is off, the it may be unsafe to shoot. The bore looked OK, but I did not get a good look, as I was in a HUGE hurry. Can anyone let me know how to check the headspace and describe counter-boreing for me so I can make sure I don't get a wall hanger?

P.S. The numbers did not match, howevern they had a shorter one there WITH matching numbers (Everything) for $200. Would that be a better deal? At that price, I start thinking "investment"....

I would like to buy tomorrow, so speedy replies appreciated :) :) :)

[This message has been edited by maxinquaye (edited September 08, 2000).]
 
K. Kale means that it is the best action and was never retrofited. K. Kale is the marking that people look for when they want one that is good to shoot and not just a wall hanger.
 
Counter boring is a cheap way fix a bore whose grooves are damaged near the end of the barrel without going to the expense of rebarreling. Cleaning rods are the chief culprit in damaging rifling near the crown and counter boring may restore the rifle's accuracy. You just drill back the rifling till you get past the bad spot. If your rifling goes all the way to the crown, your bore is not counterbored. I don't think the Truk's did much, if any, of this.
Barrel crowns themselves can be nicked or damaged. In this case, you refinish the front of the barrel. This is fairly cheap to have done ($45?) by a gunsmith and often improves accuracy.
Neither of these things affect safety.
Head space means the cartridge chamber is still within original specification. Bolts can set back (literaly be pounded back into the receiver) by excessive loads. Also, bolts on these rifles are usually mismatched (look at the serial number on the receiver and bolt and see if they are the same). Hopefully, this was done at the arsenal which rebarreled and rechecked the head space dimensions of the rifle, but who knows with confidence at this point in time.
You need 8mm head space guages to check this. You can buy your own from Brownells or Lock Stock and Barrel or you can have a gunsmith check this for you.
Its a good thing to have checked. If you go to the gunsmith, he can also give it a quick look over for anything else that might be obviously wrong and show you how to do the head spacing routine if you have never done it before.
A rifle with excessive head space is not necessarily going to blow up in you face, but it puts more stress on the cartrige case than was originally intended. This makes everything worse if other things go wrong. I demand that rifles that I actually shoot be still with in the original specified tolerance. I think that this is wise and that those who like to shoot old rifles should get in the habit of having head space checked (or buying the gauges) as part of the price for shooting old guns.
 
I got a Turkish and the CZ. Both are fine. I had to do some work on the CZ (recrown, polish and fit the non-original bolt, and clean like hell). I can't find ammo except for mail-order. I got 1400 rounds from ammoman.com. I'm getting 3-4" groups at 100 yards with the terrible sights on it, so I'm happy. Nice guns for the price. I love mausers.
 
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