Quote:
Originally Posted by John Sabato
A Yugoslavian M-48 Mauser in 8x57 Mauser caliber. A quality made rifle and yours looks in fine condition. Virtually a copy of the M98 Mauser used by the Germans in WW2. In short: A keeper. Whether or not you got a good deal depends on how much time you invested in creating that will... and what your billing rate normally is...
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John,
As you probably read on the forum, I completed elementary school education in former Yugoslavia. ALL children (boys and girls) were recquired to complete one week "field training" in the military garrison, at the age of 14 (eight grade spring break). This was the rifle we were trained on. Field stripping, cleaning, loading, and LIVE fire at the 1X1meter paper target at 100 meters.
Among other things we were trained in using gas masks, field wound triage, digging "foxholes", using compass....stuff like that. We slept in military barracks (bunk beds and all), ate in the mess hall with regular troops, and enjoyed the hell out of it. In the evening we were sitting by the bonfires and told stories, but some "more grown up" among us, were making out with girls in the bushes. We all had a GREAT time, and this one week changed my whole life (I decided right then and there, that I will be "career military" for life, among other "changes"
).
So this rifle IS the first firearm I've ever fired (Parabellum P08 was the first one I ever "fondled"), and as such, it has a special place in my collection. Mine was NOS (at the time of acquisition), three digit serial, and dead on! I shoot it on my ranch out to 6-7 hundred yards, and it has about 1000 rounds through it by now.
Sorry if I annoyed anyone with "my full life story" as one poster commented.