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the German Mauser 8MM

2K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  dario541 
#1 ·
I have been giving a lot of thought to making my 1898 Mauser my main go-to gun. The 98 Mauser has the ultimate bolt action. There has never been a better one and probably never will. All current bolt actions are based on the Mauser, A number of well known military rifles are based on the Mauser such as America’s 1903 Springfield and 1917 Enfield, Britain’s 1914 Enfield and Japan’s 1899 Arisaka. All of these are tried and proven designs. There is no way you could go wrong with one of these.
My Mauser is in the original 8MMX57 caliber. This was Germany’s caliber for two World Wars. Because of the poor workmanship of Mauser copies made in numerous countries such as China, Iran, Spain and others, American companies down load this caliber to 30-30 specs, a real weeny compared to European loadings! With European loadings this caliber approaches the 30-06! It is quite powerful!
The main problem is finding ammo. I found a lot of low cost surplus ammo on the J&Gsales.com web site and purchased a large amount. You cannot use it for hunting but it will suffice for defense work. After all, it was made for military use. It is corrosive which demands that you clean your gun as quickly as possible after you shoot it. Windex is good to clean your bore after using corrosive primer ammo. I also-as soon as I can-pour boiling water down the bore to clean some of the corrosive salts. So far, this has worked very well.
Another thing I like: there are very few parts in this rifle. All of the parts are available at this time ([url=http://www.sarcoinc.com.) I plan to buy a few spare parts such as a firing pin, ejector, and all of the various springs used in this rifle. These are the parts that generally fail, if any. This should keep it going as long as I live.
No, it’s not a semi-auto, but I believe that I could give a good account of myself with this rifle. It can easily (with European ammo) reach out to 500 yards. That’s quite a stretch for the 7,62X39 (AK, SKS, etc) and the 5.56-.223 (AR, Mini-14, etc.)
The more I study this rifle, the better it looks to me. The modifications that a previous owner did are those that I would have done. He had the follower milled so that you can close the bolt on an empty chamber. He installed a receiver (peep) sight on it. He cut down some of the excess wood. I like the simplicity of it. The bolt has very few parts. And, at this time there are ample replacement parts available. I wish I had another one (one is none and two is one-I know, you've all heard it!!). I wish it was in .308 instead of 8MM. The caliber is OK but ammo is hard to find. I think I have enough surplus ammo to do me, but, I would like to have more.

I think that-if you can afford it-you should all consider adding a Mauser to your collection.
 
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#2 ·
YOU CAN MAKE THAT A 308 OR 30-06 FOR ABOUT $100 BY SWAPING OUT THE BARREL. I HAVE SEEN BARRELS ON EBAY AN GUNBROKER EVEN CHEAPER. ITS ALREADY MODIFED SO YOU CANT HURT THE VALUE. THERE IS NO REAL CHEAP AMMO FOR ANYTING ANY MORE. IF YOU RELOAD YOU CAN PULL BULLETS ON SURPLUS AMMO AN SWAO THEN OUT FOR HUNTING BULLETS. I KNOW A GUY WHO HAS HUNTED WITH A 8MM FOR OVER 50 YEARS. IT WILL DO ANYTING A 30-06 WILL DO IF LOADED TO THE HIGHER PRESSURES.

MY UNDER STANDING OF THE LOWER AMERICAN AMMO IS THE 8MM HAD TWO BORE SIZES . ANY LARGE RING REGARDELS OF COUNTRY WILL HANDEL THE HOT STUFF ID THINK .

THERE ARE DEALS ON BUBAFIED MAUSERS YOU JUST GOT TO LOOK.
 
#3 ·
Thank you. I appreciate your advice. I have a quantity of 8MM European surplus ammo. So, I think I will leave it as it is for now. It has a great bore. I have to clean it after every firing because the ammo I have is corrosive. No problem! Hot water and Windex-so far, so good!
 
#5 ·
yea if you got ammo why change . id recommend reloading some good commercial . neck size only fired from your gun brass an it will fit your chamber perfecty an shoot even better.

then you can also load plinker loads with cast bullets . look up " THE LOAD " on the internt were you use a few grains of red dot to make low power plinkers that are really accurate at even 50 yards. I started my kid off on those in 30-06 in my Peruvian short rifle mauser has the recoil of a 22 mag an hell of a wallop on raccoons or possum's really really fun to shoot. don't have to use lead just cheaper.

im going to do soe for my mosins at some point for the kids to shoot cheap. I got three m44 ,s so all the kids can shoot sort of a mini militia . lol
 
#7 ·
Needless to say , I think that the Mauser s are kings of the hill. I am not sure how many i have , but my 6.5 swede and my Fal 30/06 are really my faves ; including over my k98ks captures with some marks still intact . I will admit that i freaked out when I saw a guy wanting to sell me a M48A for 350 dollars ; I had paid less than a hundred . I would still like an Israeli in 7.62x51 NATO , but I missed out on those actions ( I thought that they were to freaking high) .
 
#8 ·
I really like them ole mausers too. I picked up quite a few in my travels. These are the ones I can remember without opening the safes.

A Nazi marked factory 27, 3 - Czech model 98's (2 with scrubbed receivers one with a DOU marking), a K.Kale turk, 2 - 24/47's, 2 -M48's, a Persian contract Brno in the white, 2- VZ -24's (one P marked Chinese contract), and a Han Yang (very old rifle, a Chinese version of the GEW 88).

Out of all of them, the most accurate shooters are :

1.) da Persian (1.5 MOA)
2.) and the 24/47's which were the cheapest. The Bores look brand new. Go figure! :)
 
#10 ·
My Mauser was a WW2 bring back. There is no paper trace to me. As far as Big Brother knows, this rifle never entered America. The ex-GI who brought it back had some modifications done. It's not stock, but I like the changes. He cut away some of the wood, milled the follower so that you can close the bolt on an empty magazine and added a peep sight; things that I might have done. I would like to modify the extractor so that I could just drop a shell in the chamber and shove it in. DOes anybody here have any information on how to do this?
When he passed away, his daughter sold it to a man I knew when I lived in Portland. He then offered it to me in a deal that I could not resist. It still has Nazi proof marks. It has a strong bore. I clean it with boiling water and Windex after every shooting. I love this rifle!
 
#11 ·
I just found out that a man I know has a Model 98 Mauser that lacks the bolt. I'm going to see if I can get it for a reasonable price. Sarco has complete bolts for $95. I know that there might be a head space problem, but, if I could get the gun for the right price I would like to have it as a backup to my current Mauser. I'll let you know.

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