Educational
Zone #72 - Great Firearms - The '98 Mauser
Rifle - Page 1
The
Mauser rifle company started making bolt action
rifles in the 1870s. We will not cover all
the long and detailed history of the evolution
of the 1898 Mauser, but will start our story
there.
In 1898, the German Army ordered rifles from
Mauser that improved on many older designs.
It had better metallurgy, a larger receiver
ring, and could handle the pressures of the
8 X 57 mm cartridge. It also had a new third
safety lug on the bolt body to help protect
the shooter in case of a failure.
In 1905, the round was switched to a spitzer
bullet and this improved the ballistics to
make this an excellent battle round.
This arm served the German military well in
WWI. But between the wars, a shorter version
was made and called the Karabiner 98K, or
more commonly, the KAR98k. Over 14 million
models of various configurations of the Mauser
were eventually made. It is a great firearm.
I
have always enjoyed shooting the Mauser.
I presently have only 5 examples.
Here they are.
The top rifle is a long-barreled Turkish Mauser.
The next two are Model 24/47 Mausers.
The next is a Yugo 48, and the bottom one
is a German WWII K98.
They are all great shooters.
The
ammunition for these fine old rifles used
to be dirt cheap.
It bought it at less than 10 cents per round.
Today I was firing some Yugo surplus in stripper
clips.
But nowadays, the supply is drying up and
it is getting more expensive, even for the
military surplus corrosive ammunition.
I sure wish I had "bought it cheap, and
stacked it deep".
Maybe there's a lesson to be learned there
Today
we will look at one of my 24/47 rifles.
It is a rugged battle rifle.
The
front sight is a pointed triangle-shaped sight
with a hood to protect the sight.
