GunPorn-1

Mitchell's Mausers ^ | 1-12-06 | Chode

[Chode]

I just brought home a Premium Mitchell's Mauser with all the attachments for $400.00... anybody out there own a Mauser???

[Dashing Dasher]

That makes two of us.

[epow]

Fine looking piece of ordnance you have there. Military Mausers are great rifles, especially the model 98 series.

I have owned several Mauser models since my 1st, which I ordered from a surplus gun dealer in 1960 for $15.95 delivered to my door by the U.S. Mail. Yeah, those really WERE the good old days when you could order any gun you wanted, including handguns, through the mail and have the post office deliver it no questions asked.

That 1st Mauser was a M95 Chilean 7x57 made by DWM before WWI. The most perfect fit and overall workmanship I have ever seen on any firearm at any price, but some Chilean recruit had neglected to clean the bore after firing corrosive ammo and the bore was black as Billy's hat. Wouldn't keep 5 shots on the paper at 25 paces. Swapped it for a beat up old SMLE .303 that looked awful but shot well enough to kill 1-gallon motor oil cans every time on the far side of grandpa's cow pasture.

Right now I have a mod 95 Swede 6.5x55 in near mint condition which I bought wholesale for $70 when I had an FFL in the pre-Clinton years. It was made at the Karl Gustave Arsenal in 1901 and it is absolutely beautiful inside and out. Shoots like a champ too, I have shot 2" groups at 100 long paces with it before my eyes got so old that I can't see both sights at the same time. I would have to say that I have had more fun in my time shooting surplus military iron than I ever had shooting shiny new hunting or varmint rifles.

[epow]

Try taking some Cold-eze lozenges they have Zinc Gluconate in them and have worked very well for me.

I'll 2nd that motion. Those things really do work, the 1st thing I have ever found that shortens the time you have a cold and keeps it from getting real bad at the same time. The only catch is that you have to start taking them as soon as you notice you're getting a cold. The package says to take one every 4 hours, but I take em as often as I think of it and they haven't killed me yet.

BTW, Walmart has a generic version of the brand name lozenges that works just as well and they cost about 2/3 the price.

[Dashing Dasher]

Thanks!

All I need now is someone to run to the store for me.

Walmart doesn't deliver.

[epow]

Walmart doesn't deliver.

No they don't. And they won't special order a rifle for me either. I would rather trade with a real gun store anyway than with a place where the sales clerk is a girl who doesn't know .22 cartridges from shotgun shells.

[Dashing Dasher]

If you find a gun store that will deliver drugs to a sick woman - let me know.

;-)

[river rat]

I tried to post a target of OBL at our county range...
The county employees went nuts!
You'd have thought I was attempting to kill our stupid and corrupt Mayor....

PC has gone FAR to far....

Semper Fi

[P8riot]

me too!

[epow]

If you find a gun store that will deliver drugs to a sick woman - let me know.

I know how you feel, I hate colds too, I guess everybody does. All I can offer you is sympathy, and you know how much you can get for a carload of that at any pawnshop.

[HairOfTheDog]

Our police range, which is open to the public, doesn't allow any silhouette targets of any kind...

[Chode]

yeah baby... !!!

[eastforker]

Doing great, our son took us out to dinner this evening for our birthdays at the Monument Inn. Raw oysters and fried soft shell crab,grilled salmon, what a feast.

[Chode]

thank you... this is my first bolt gun, all i've ever owned are autoloaders so this looks like fun.

i guess i'm most impressed with Mauser's elegantly simple design, perfection. i can now see why it's considered a timeless classic. 8^)

[epow]

all i've ever owned are autoloaders so this looks like fun.

If everything is in good shape it will be fun. I like semiautos and I own a few myself. But the old military bolt guns remind me of the days when wars were fought in trenches by guys wearing spiked helmets and bloused trousers.

I know it was pure hell for those guys, but something about that era has always seemed romantic to me for some weird reason. Maybe it was the old stereoptic viewer than my great uncle brought back from France after the 1st World War. Those B&W 3-D photos of circa 1914 Paris made it look like a magic place to this little boy on a farm in the deep south.

My Uncle Willie caught a German 8mm machine gun slug in his groin (ouch) and was crippled for life. His stories about lying wounded in a muddy shell hole in no-man's land for a day and a night with poison gas clouds drifting over the hole gave us some idea of what that awful war must have been like.

[Chode]

Amen to that...!!!

[hiredhand]

You first bolt gun? No kidding?! You'll love it! I've always had a soft spot for bolt guns. Although that photo of the Mauser that I posted was the last bolt gun I bought. All the others are M-700 Remingtons (mostly). :-)

I've read that the Remington M-700, the Ruger M-77, and the Winchester M-70 are all based on the Mauser M98 large ring action.

If you pull the bolt out of that rifle of yours, notice that there are THREE locking lugs! Two on the front and one toward the rear that locks inside the receiver!

[Chode]

yup... i am stuned my the robust yet simple design concept with a minimum of moving parts, most of which are part of the bolt.

being made in a plant never visited by the 8th AirForce plus post war production with quality steel on German tooling by semi-free men, plus it's BRANDY NEW makes it a great value in my book.

but it's RAINING so i can't even go out and shoot it... 8^(

[hiredhand]

Yes! The solidness of the M98 is STUNNING! It's NOT a "dainty" rifle! I like rifles like it because you could beat somebody to death with it if you had to! That's not a pleasant thought, but this IS a weapon we're talking about here. We've got a couple of AR-15s too, and I think you'd probably break them if you tried to whack somebody with them. At least you'd have to be careful about how you did it.

We bought a couple of unissued Yugo M59/66 SKSs a couple of years ago and a lot of people asked me right away if I was going to remove the folding bayonets and put sporter stocks on them. I was a little miffed at this. I asked them WHY I would want to do this? I said, "The primary function of these rifles is that they are WEAPONS! The pointy thing on the end is a bonus as far as I'm concerned! Besides, when is the last time you reckoned with a man wielding a long sharp stick?!"

Some of them (not many) thought I was crazy. I don't care much anymore what most people think, especially people who have PC ideas about weaponry. :-)

That's TOO bad it's raining! We used to just shoot in the rain a lot but it takes too long to clean gear afterwards. We'd have gear spread out over the house (there's FOUR shooters in this house) and my wife would be giving us funny looks. :-) She was good about it though, and as soon as everything was dried out and oiled, we put it all up. The house would smell like Hoppes #9 and WD-40 for a WEEK afterwards though! :-)

If you remember, let us know how that rifle performs at the range. I suspect that it will NOT disappoint you! It will do better if you reload for it though (all DO!). I'm not sure if you're familiar with the trigger on that rifle, but it's a VERY simple trigger. With some polishing sticks (from Brownells), you can "slick" the first stage, which essentially makes it feel like there is NO first stage on the trigger. It will help with accuracy a LOT. I wouldn't alter the disconnect distance between the sear and bolt because (if memory serves) you have to actually take a file to the sear. Well...you could if you wanted. I've done a couple like this, and so long as you do it correctly things are good. But if you screw it up, you'll be hating life. :-) But slicking the first stage certainly will help. I did that to a No.4 Mk II Enfield that we have here and it helped a LOT (it's a DIFFERENT trigger though!).

You mentioned "minimum of moving parts"... the trigger/sear is exactly THAT! It's only TWO parts, held onto the receiver by a pin! BTW - you probably know this, but there are no end of custom precision triggers you can buy for that rifle! I've got an adjustable Timney on that rifle in the pic that I posted. IMHO, you could replace the trigger a LOT easier than you could modify the existing trigger! I "think" I paid under $100.00 for the trigger on mine. I can't remember. But a trigger replacement wouldn't change the original appearance of the rifle.

ONE last thing.... and I do this to ALL new centerfire rifles that we acquire... POLISH THE BORE! I'm not sure if you know this little trick, but it's something done by most 1000 yard shooters. All you need is a bore brush, some patches, some JB Bore Paste, and some ammo. The purpose in polishing the bore is to knock off all the rough edges in the lands/grooves. I've got the procedure laying around here somewhere, and it only takes about an afternoon. Let me know and I'll dig it up for you and send it.

That's a nice rifle!

Happy shooting. :-)

[Chode]

i live in west NY and it's just about 38degrees out and still raining.

i don't mind so much in summer but this being a shakedown shoot i really want it to be as dry as possible.(and not catch cold in the process...)

i don't plan on changing anything on the rifle at all... i want it just like it would of been on the EasternFront sans crappy late war production 8^)

yeah let me know the your schedule for bore break in... last time i did it i'd shoot five/clean the bore. i'd do that three times, then the same procedure at ten shots then at twenty for 105 rounds but never used paste. i'll have to look at Wally's for it.

[hiredhand]

38F?! AG! NO kidding! I'd stay inside too if I had a choice!....especially with rain at that temp!

Sure... I'll find the break in procedure. I'm pretty sure it's actually in the Armalite manuals for our ARs. I'll do that in the next little while and post it back.