Now that's a rifle

SeaCat

Hey, my Halo is smoking
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Sep 23, 2003
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On a whim I stopped in at the local Gander Mountain Store and checked out the rifle they have been advertising. I had been right in my interpratation of the advertisement. It was a Mosin Nagant.

When I looked it over I was dismayed. What a piece of shit this was. I have never seen a bolt action rifle where you could actually wiggle the bolt when it was closed and locked. It was ugly and it weighed a ton. I put it back in the rack.

In the rack next to it was another rifle. It was another older model but it hadsome nice lines. It just looked nice for a rifle. Curious I picked it up and it felt right. It had a nice balance. (Slightly stock heavy.) When I worked the bolt it was crisp and tight. What a pleasant move that was even though I got splattered with Cosmoline. I started to look it over as a salesman came over to check on things.

It was a Mauser. (The tag read Mauser 98 7.9mm) Now this was a nice older rifle even though the stock was in rough shape. When I looked down the barrel the lands were clean and sharp.

My mind went flipping through the info I had and I came up with what this was. It was either the Gewehr 98 or one of it's derivitaves. All nice rifles. I remembered my father telling me how he had one when he lived in Alaska and hunted everything from Deer t Bear with it.

The salesman asked me what I thought about it and I told him that while I liked it I didn't need a big bore just now, and if I did I wouldn't buy this one as it's sights were damaged. He informed me he had several more in the back room and if I chose to buy one I could pick and chose which one I wanted.

At $160.00 it's not a bad deal. I'm now thinking about it. I have been invited to do some Deer Hunting up north and this would work just right for that.

Oh and I can fix up stocks so they look nice.

And no it doesn't classify as an Assault Weapon as does the M1 Garand.

I'm thinking about this one.

Cat
 
Under whose laws is the Garand an Assault Rifle? Not by the Feds and not even in California.

Anyway, $160 for a M-98 in really good shape is a steal! I got hold of an Ermenthaler, put a Argentine floorplate, a Walther Luther barrel, a left side safety and a good composite stock in her. With a Leupold 5 x 7 she shoots into a thumbnail or smaller. Yeah, what a rifle! Good deal Sea Cat. ;)
 
A 98 Mauser, cool.

It might be an eastern European like a CZ They had different model Numbers but some of them are put together well well.

7.92 is a good heavy caliber. Ammo is cheap but I'd get a rubber pad on it soon.:)
 
Mauser vs. Mosin

Mauser's are excellent rifles. I definitely recommend you get one. As for the Mosin Nagant, I used to own one, and I didn't have any kind of issues with the bolt wobbling or rattling around. When locked in, it was good and tight, and while ugly and heavy, it was a really straight shooting rifle.
Sounds like the one they were trying to sell you was damaged.
Regardless, the Mauser is a superior rifle to the Mosin Nagant.
Happy hunting.
 
Mauser's are excellent rifles. I definitely recommend you get one. As for the Mosin Nagant, I used to own one, and I didn't have any kind of issues with the bolt wobbling or rattling around. When locked in, it was good and tight, and while ugly and heavy, it was a really straight shooting rifle.
Sounds like the one they were trying to sell you was damaged.
Regardless, the Mauser is a superior rifle to the Mosin Nagant.
Happy hunting.

Absolutely. The Mauser is a superior rifle to almost anything, period.
 
That was the standard Wehrmacht infantry rifle in both World Wars. The best in the world until the M-1 came along. And the only advantage the M-1 had is that it was semi-auto.
 
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