Yugo M48 Mauser

[majormadmax]

In a fit of weakness, I went and bought a Yugo M48 Mauser this morning. It's a bit beat up, but I like that as it makes it look authentic. It has a leather sling and is all matching.

To be honest, my initial impression was that it is very similar to my Finnish Mosin M39. I got it because I am a bit of a Yugoslav firearms nut, plus I spent some time in the Balkans. I've always wanted to grab one of these, and the opportunity just popped up.

But honestly I don't know jack about Mausers, especially M48s. I've downloaded a few documents, to include an "owner's manual" from Mitchell's Mausers; but if anyone has any advice/information they'd like to share, I'm all ears.

One of my first questions is where to pick up 8mm ammo for this beast!

Cheers! M2

 

[dobarker]

Any of the surplus arms dealers online has it. AIMsurplus, J&G sales. Ammunition to go has some yugo surplus fmj for 4.59 a box of 15, it's about the best deal out there.
As with any surplus ammo, clean the hell out of it after shooting.

Enjoy shooting it. There's a lot of people that don't like shooting surplus rifles due to their imaginary recoil. With all the heft of wood and metal, those things kick like baby chickens.

There a blast.

 

[WB5MHA]

You have a "near" German K98k Mauser rifle 8mm. Some German Mauser parts fit, others do not. 8mm Yugo ammo is cheap and available. As dobarker says clean after shooting because you can assume that any surplus ammo is corrosive.

 

[majormadmax]

Thanks, I might just pick up a box or two locally as I most likely won't be shooting it all that much, but I will most definitely shoot it!

I have a collection of Mosins so I know about corrosive ammo, I suspect the same tactics for cleaning apply although I will need to school myself on disassembling the Mauser as I have never taken one apart before.

As for the recoil, that's no bother because as I said, I own a bunch of Mosins. I love old milsurps and the vast majority of my rifle collection is made up of them.

My only fear is that I catch the similar disease to Mosinitis, and end up parting with numerous sums of money to complete a collection of Mausers. But truthfully, I don't see that happening as other than the original German version, the only one that's ever really appealed to me has been the Ugo M48 which is why I bought this one yesterday.

Thanks again for the info, I am looking forward to getting it to the range!

Cheers! M2

 

[308nato]

www.classicarms.us has milsurp 8mm in stock right now also.

 

[dobarker]

disassembly is a cinch. When you do manage to get it stripped down it's extremely straight forward as to what goes where and how it fits.
I've completely stripped a few mausers down to nothing and if I recall right there were maybe 25-30 parts laying around, all of which are big and blunt.

The simplest disassembly is bolt removal, just open the bolt and while holding open the catch on the rear left of the receiver, remove the bolt.
To disassemble the bolt, hold up the firing pin and unscrew the bolt head.

 

[WB5MHA]

I had two Yugo milsurps I bought for 150 dollars. The hours of cleaning with mineral oil; replacing broken parts once I got through the cosmoline finding more missing or broken parts. While shooting I stockpiled front barrel band retaining springs because they snapped on a regular basis for no obvious reason. All firing pin springs needed replacement from Wolff

These were well used rifles and poorly maintained over a lifetime. The parts that broke were of poor quality.

The ammo may be cheap but shooting your rifle like it's a 22 will probably make things break. If not you have a real keeper