Shooting a Mauser K98k

[alvin]

Originally Posted by luger.parabellum

Alvin

Good luck I keep my fingers crossed for you.


Best.

Thanks. Payment dropped in mailbox. Now just waiting its arrival.

Did a little bit research on Persian Mauser. Julia sold one in 2010. In most cases, firearms went through Julia's hands are expensive, but this one was exceptionally low -- it only sold $690 (BP included). It's very hard to find another one selling this low. Julia's description gives a little background on the gun:

*RARE PERSIAN MODEL 98/29 MAUSER WITH MATCHING BAYONET. SN 00625C. Cal. 8mm Mauser. Spectacular long rifle with 29-1/2″ tapered rnd bbl, barleycorn front sight with protective ears and 2,000 meter tangent rear sight. Receiver ring has the Persian royal crest with SN in Arabic numbers on left side and inscription in Farsi on left side of receiver identifying this as a Model 1309 made by BRNO. The bolt, shroud, striker & buttplate are in their orig white factory finish. All visible external numbers are matching. Mounted in a matching numbered, nicely figured, varnished, 1-pc walnut stock with grasping grooves and upper handguard. It has a split front band with stacking swivel and a cleaning rod section in the tip. Cleaning rod & bayonet lug are also in the white. Middle band is screw retained with sling loop and corresponding sling loop in butt stock. Accompanied by its orig matching numbered German made bayonet with 15-3/4″ blade, wood grip panels and blued steel sheath. Blade, bbl band/hand guard, tang & pommelhilt are in the white. According to Mauser Military Rifles of the World 4th Edition, Ball, Persia (Iran) ordered 180,000 of these rifles from BRNO in Czechoslovakia who produced them from 1931-1938 but was unable to complete the order before Czechoslovakia was overrun by Germany. Few of these scarce rifles show up in the U.S. and very few are in new, unused condition. The SN on right side of the rear receiver bridge is applied in electric pencil as “C00625” when in fact the Arabic numbers are “52600C” if read from left to right as in normal Arabic writing. If read from right to left which this cataloger is unclear about, it would read “00625C”. CONDITION: Exceptionally fine, all visible numbers matching including bayonet, appears to be unfired. All blue parts have brilliant, bright, orig factory blue with all “in the white” parts having crisp clear & clean metal. Stock is sound with a series of small dings, about 5/8″ x 1/2″ on right side of butt stock, otherwise just minor handling & storage marks in varnish. Mechanics are crisp, brilliant shiny bore. Bayonet is equally new. 4-40257 JR92 (1,000-1,500)

They claimed it's very hard to a nice one. But that must be an overstatement. A few easily appeared on radar screen Relatively speaking, it's much much easier to find a nice Perisan rifle than to find a Persian pistol.

[Sergio Natali]

Congratulations on your Persian Mauser, we generally call it Mauser although they were made in Czechoslovakia.

FWIK in this Country it's fairly easy to find a Persian in good shape with an excellent bore to use at the range, whereas it's practically impossible to find a genuine K98K matching and with a good bore.


Best.

[alvin]

Yeah... it's Brno Czech, not Mauser Germany.

According to von Lossnitzer, "Inter-Allied Military Control Commission did not acknowledge Mauser as a weapon factory. One of the members of IMACC, an Italian Colonel, paved the way for Mauser to sell its rifle drawings and the complete fabrication equipment to Czech Weapons Factory, Brno, which procduced Model 1924 on that equipment".

So, this should be a high quality gun genuine enough

[alvin]

Arrived. I am looking at this... I must say "this is something!!" -- It's better than I expected.

Back a few years ago, I saw a near-new Mauser Banner Rifle (standard model) in another collector's home. That rifle had M1930 pistol like high-polished finish beautifully built. This Brno rifle has military style satin finish, not as shiny as Mauser Banner Rifle in my memory, but it's also very well done and looks great.

I searched the whole gun,,, no importer stamp. That's great. Probably a dealer sample.

[Sergio Natali]

Congratulations on your new "Persian Mauser" in fact if looks really gorgeous!
I'm happy for you also because I feel a bit "responsible" for your choice!

Enjoy and shoot safe.

[alvin]

I do have 200-300 rounds of ammo left from previous Yugo M48. But those surplus ammo were corrosive, and this rifle has mint bore. This rifle is too nice to shoot corrosive ammo ... So, most likely, I will keep this one unfired.

[Sergio Natali]

Do what you want but a Persian is not that rare after all, I would shoot it at her range, it should be pretty accurate too, can't you find non corrosive ammo? Don't you reload the 8x57JS ?

[alvin]

I think I can find non-corrosive ammo.

Thought about this again, I think I know why I hesitate to shoot this rifle -- Persian Mauser is not rare, but this is the ONLY bolt action rifle I have, and it looks so lovely, so there is a precious feeling about this rifle deep in my mind. This rifle cost me $1,100. In C&R pistol domain, normally $1,100 can only buy a shooter grade C96 nowadays. If it's a $1,100 C96, I will shoot it, "what's a big deal, it's made for shooting", that's the logic -- but same amount of $$ spent on a mint bolt action rifle, the feeling is totally different. The cost was amplified ten times, it give me a $11,000 feeling....

In Persian Mauser rifle context, $1,100 is not cheap. This one's condition is on the high-end of this type of rifle.

[Sergio Natali]

Alvin

I know the feeling, I would say "shoot the flipping crap ou of it!" then I realize that in the safe I've got a BERETTA 98 brand new, absolutely in mint conditions, I don't think that at the moment even exists a pistol less rare than that, but since I've got other pistols to shoot at the range it's lying unfired in my safe...

[kurusu]

Originally Posted by alvin

I do have 200-300 rounds of ammo left from previous Yugo M48. But those surplus ammo were corrosive, and this rifle has mint bore. This rifle is too nice to shoot corrosive ammo ... So, most likely, I will keep this one unfired.

You can shoot all the "corrosive" ammo you want. If you clean the bore after every shooting session (even if the shooting session is just one shot) the bore will remain like new.


By the way, any gun that never ever gets shot is nothing more than an expensive (in some cases very expensive) paperweight.

[alvin]

It was test fired four rounds before it left factory. How do I know? The rifle comes with a target paper with four holes on it, that's its "birth certificate" (see picture, 100 meter A4-size target paper numbered to the rifle). Persians bought these rifles, and some were sold as surplus decades later in this unfired condition... I guess they're rich on oil (?) Guns, especially expensive guns, if went to poor countries, usually all used to half death, no exception. Every drop of juice was squeezed out. But Persia seems not belonging to that category.

I do have a few guns that I have not fired yet. Two types. One was like this, looks being unfired (not counting non-C&R). Another type was hard to find ones. A few were hard to come and they came simply because I was lucky, so they are exempted from my test firing. Most were middle ones, fired before, not necessarily being very cheap, but I cannot control my curiosity so I have test fired many C&R guns.

[Olle]

Originally Posted by luger.parabellum

I had one many years ago, and it was the only ex-service bolt action rifle precise enough for some decent long range shooting.

Ever tried the Swedish M/96? I have to admit I'm partial to these, but they are extremely smooth and very accurate. I have shot 3"-4" groups at 100 yards with one of mine, probably a lot of luck involved but still not a coincidence. A better shot could probably do some serious damage with it. Got a 2" 3-shot group once, almost made me want to frame the target and hang it on the wall.

Originally Posted by John Sabato

I find it amazing that they even survived the journey as I am sure such items were highly prized as trophies...

Seems like your grandmother thought the fabric was the highly prized trophy, the rifles were just there to have something to roll it up on.

[kurusu]

Originally Posted by kurusu

You can shoot all the "corrosive" ammo you want. If you clean the bore after every shooting session (even if the shooting session is just one shot) the bore will remain like new.


By the way, any gun that never ever gets shot is nothing more than an expensive (in some cases very expensive) paperweight.

Quoting myself, that's clever.


But... in the beginnings of smokeless powders many people thought the chores of thoroughly cleaning their weapons were a thing of the past. Little they knew that the primers were also corrosive, and that just one or two shots, if the gun was left unattended, could completely ruin the bore. That's the main reason why most C96s have such lousy bores.

[RAY1946]

The 98/29 made for Persia was just about the prettiest Mauser ever made; second only to the Pre WWI contract Mausers made for the different South American countries, the 1909 Peruvian IS the most beautiful Mauser EVER made.

I bought my 98/29 at a local gun show in 93' or 94' for $275.00. Mine is all matching, perfect bore and except for a few dings, a perfect stock. I took mine to the range back then and had to fire it at 200yds., as the 100 yd. range was completely full and God knows I didn't want to wait. I had several hundred rnds. of 1950's Egyptian lying around, so used that. That ammo had a 196gr. boat-tail bullet that looked a lot like the original German ss bullet of the 30's.

I set the sight on the rifle for 200 yds and fired 3 fouling shots at the bank beside the target. I sat down and very carefully fired a 5-shot group which went about 3 1/4" center to center!.............

[Sergio Natali]

By the way, any gun that never ever gets shot is nothing more than an expensive (in some cases very expensive) paperweight.

kurusu youìre absolutely right, I must remember next time I pick up the pistol before going to the range!

[Sergio Natali]

[QUOTE=Olle;285956]Ever tried the Swedish M/96? I have to admit I'm partial to these, but they are extremely smooth and very accurate. I have shot 3"-4" groups at 100 yards with one of mine, probably a lot of luck involved but still not a coincidence. A better shot could probably do some serious damage with it. Got a 2" 3-shot group once, almost made me want to frame the target and hang it on the wall.


That's probably one of the few guns I've only tried once but never owned. Instead I had a beautiful practically brand new Swiss Schmidt Rubin K31 in 7.5X55mm extremely accurate, but it was practically impossible to find the ammo, and even reloading it was expensive, so since I'm not a rifles lover I sond it many years ago.

Have a Happy Easter.

[alvin]

On "expensive paperweight"... My current biggest concern is not on paperweight part, but on the expensive adjective. One nice C&R could easily cost thousands, even small one could cost one grand. This is a financial burden to everyday life. But I thought about that... without these paperweight, what else I want to play? If C&R could come much lower, I will be happier.

I fired two C&R recently -- 10 rounds from the bigger one, 50 rounds from the smaller one. Both performed perfectly. No damage. After cleaning, they still look great. They had been fired before, not many rounds in the past though.

[alvin]

In range pictures. 3/14.

[alvin]

Got a Mauser style carbine to play a little bit. FN made for Dutch police. I bet police did not work hard at all in Holland, so this carbine is still in near-mint shape after retirement.

Short, even shorter than regular Japanese sword. Firing full power 7.92x57mm cartridge though.

[kurusu]

Originally Posted by alvin

Got a Mauser style carbine to play a little bit. FN made for Dutch police. I bet police did not work hard at all in Holland, so this carbine is still in near-mint shape after retirement.

Short, even shorter than regular Japanese sword. Firing full power 7.92x57mm cartridge though.

Do tell me more about the sword please.

Is that a WW II worthless blade? Or did you get lucky?