Czech Mauser questions.

NOTPARS

I just bought my first Mauser (through Classic Arms). It is a Czech 98K with the winter trigger guard. A symbol has been lightly ground off the large ring. How do you get the bolt out of this rifle? What numbers, markings, symbols should I look for that would tell me anything about this rifle? I assume the magazine is loaded from the top down. Do I need a charger clip? How many rounds does it hold. Finally, the ballistic tables, at 200 yards, in a gun magazine indicate that this round, 8x57 moves a bit slower than the 30-06 or the Russian 7.62.54R. Does this sound right? Thanks for the help folks.

richbug

What are the markings on the left side of the receiver?

US made 8x57 ammo is much weaker than foreign ammo. Norma, PP, or S+B are right there with us made 30-06.

spec.4

Bolt. there is an block(Call the bolt stop) on the rear left of the receiver, looking down at the rifle, front of the bolt stop push outward to the left. Then pull the bolt out. You may want the safety to be on at 12 O'clock for taking it apart.

The last three number, should be on the parts as well.

Yes it load from the top down. and you can get charger clip. Hold five on the clip and in the magazine well.

As for the ballistic tables, every ammo from different country is different.

spec.4

roysclockgun

The Third Reich took over the Brno arms works after invading Czechslovia in 1939. The Czech main battle rifle was the VZ24 which with a few differences is very similar to the German K98k. The Third Reich had Brno change over to produce the K98k with coded factory letters on the receiver bridge "DOU" and a couple other codes as well. The numerals after the factory code signified year of manufacture. Therefore "DOU44" meant made at Brno in 1944. I have not seen any other K98k Mausers with "winter trigger guards", save those made by Brno. The clip channel can be seen, cut into the receiver, just at the rear of where you would feed cartridges, but you are able to fill or top of the magazine one cartridge at a time. Many WWII Mausers have been counterbored to restore accuracy. If you look into the muzzle and do see rifling for the first inch or two, your rifle has been counterbored. 8x57mmMauser ammo can be loaded to duplicate, or nearly duplicate what 30-06 will do. The problem is that if you do not hand load your cartridges, the spectrum of what is available in 8mmMauser is limited. Because there are still some old 8x57J chambered rifles around that are not built to withstand high chamber pressures, the US ammo makers produce factory ammo with whimpy MV. Your Model K98k was designed for 8x57S ammo and should be able to handle hot foreign cartridges. The Brno Mausers are noted as some of the strongest Mausers. As "richbug" wrote, you may find that foreign produced 8mmMauser ammo is hotter and may perform better in your rifle, but nothing will come up to what you can hand load. This past deer season, I gave my nephew a Serbian (Yugoslavian) Mauser in 8mmMauser. I hand loaded 170gr bullets to right at 2800MV. He is printing groups inside 3" at 200 yards with that rifle. Not world class performance but more then he needs to collect venison. He killed his deer on the second day of the season and is pleased with his 8mmMauser. I hope that you have fun with yours.

NOTPARS

For Spec 4: Thank you sir for the valuable information. Is there anyway to figure out what year this was made? Another forum told me if it has the large winter trigger guard, its not German but postwar. But, the large ring has the symbol ground (or polished) off and Classic Arms said it had a Nazi symbol that was polished off after the war. I am confused. I'll let you know how the bolt deal goes. Again, I really appreciate the help.

NOTPARS

For Rich Bug, I apologize for posting this question when I am at work instead of noting all the marks first. I hope I didn't waste your time. I will check tonight, write them down, and get back to this forum tomorrow with the information. This is really a lot of fun for me. Again, thanks for the help.