Zastava M98 mauser rifle questions

[iceman]

A dealer near me has some Zastava model 98 comercial Mauser rifles available in left hand. (new in box) I have been thinking about a left hand side lever for awhile now and these ones have lit the fire again. I have read a few reviews, most say good value for the money but a little rough. That doesn't bother me as if just means a little polishing here and there and something to play with. Anyone here have any experience with these rifles? The caliber selection is 6.5x55, 270win, 30-06, 300win mag and 9.3x62.

m98lh.jpg

[86er]

I had a 375 HH that was great. It needed the bolt rails polished for smooth function and a trigger job as it came gritty and a big heavy. The stock had too much drop for me with that caliber but would have been fine in a lighter caliber. The price was $750 at the time - very inexpensive for a M98 action and 375HH caliber. If you don't mind tweaking it I think you'd be happy with it.

[Pisgah]

A friend has two of those, one in .270 and the other .30-06. "Good value for the money, but a little rough" sums them up nicely. Really, one of his smoothed up nicely after 100 rounds or so, both action and trigger ( a bit heavy at around 4.5 pounds, but it went from creepy to crisp); the other, he did put a Timney trigger on. With his handloads they are both good for sub-1", three-shot, 100-yard groups.

[olyinaz]

6.5x55! I suspect you'll love it.

Oly

[iceman]

Thanks for the replies. I was trying to make up my mind on caliber and find myself leaning towards the 6.5x55. From what I have read so far it is sort of the 30-30 of bolt rifles. Shoots great, light recoil, low noise and efficient harvester of game. What is not to like? I have had both a 270 and 30-06 while nice rifles sort of vanilla icecream. I won't be in the market for a couple more weeks, but it is looking like that is going to be my next toy. I'll let you guys know if I get it.

[iceman]

I did some more research and found the twist rate for the 6.5 is only 1-9 sort of slow for anything over a flat base 140 sp. Sort of mixed comments on this twist rate. I probably would only use this on deer, but could possibly use on something larger ie moose if I ever get a chance to hunt them. Any experience out there with this twist rate? I probably won't be ordering until I'm back from vacation in a couple of weeks.

[6pt-sika]

I had a pair of these when Interarms was importing them . Both of mine started life as 375 H&H MAG's and one was rebarreled to 416 REM MAG . Both shot MOA easily with handloads .

Later when they were being made under the Charles Daly name I got a synthetic stocked one in a 30-06 that I was gonna rebarrel to 6.5-06 . But I shot the thing before I rebarreled it and found it to shoot SUB MOA . Since it shot very well I didn't have the heart to tear it apart and sold it to a friend that needed a hunting rifle for what I had in it !

If I were in ur position and with what you said was available I'd look long and hard at the 6.5x55 and the 9.3x62

[iceman]

I am looking long and hard at the 6.5x55. The slow twist is what has me hesitating a bit. I figure the 160 round nose, due to design should be fairly stable since it is a modern model 98 and I can hot rod it a bit to get velocity up from lighter loads listed for the model 96 and Krag rifles. The longer 140 spitzer boattail might be more of an issue due to length of the bullet. Of course there is nothing wrong with flatbase bullets, but I thought it would be interesting to see what those long bullets would do. For a little over $800 Canadian I can have one delivered to my door.

[CarlsenHighway]

The one I had and the ones I have seen owned by others some are okay and others were rough; milling marks, clunky sloppy bolts, and they wouldnt feed very well. You had to slam the bolts back and forth to get them to feed properly. Controlled round feeding just wasnt taking place. You could have done some work on them I suppose, I dont know how much it would have taken to finish them, but fixing feeding issues is never a certainty.
It may be they make them to a higher standard for sale in the US. In any event I would ask them at the store if you can run some cartridges through the action before you take it home.