# Yugo 24/47 Mauser Clean up



## olchevy (Dec 10, 2009)

Okay well last week I finally bit the bullet and ordered me a mauser. After doing tons of research I found that the yugo 24/47 mausers were usually by far the most accurate compared to used and abused kar 98's that still demand a high price. I wanted a shooter, one to hunt with and keep forever.
So after looking around I went with JGsales which I have ordered a few rifles from over the past couple years, and always had a great experience never a problem. When I ordered it it was $149, a couple weeks prior it was $129. So I decided to jump in an get my first mauser. Luckily for my sake I ordered it when I did, because less than two hours later when I went to the site to check and make sure the order had went through the price jumped to $179!

I recieved my newley beloved possesion yesterday at my local gunshop,and brought her to her last home where she shall live out the rest of her life only to be handed down the generations(at least I hope, my grandkids someday dont sell it).

As with any surplus rifle it was PACKED with cosmoline, which doesnt bother me in the least. Because with out the usually dreaded cosmo, most of our rifles would be mere dust by now.
I wanted to do a COMPLETE cleaning before any shot is to be heard, So I did a COMPLETE dissassmbley i mean everything came off from trigger section to the thing that holds the bolt to the front sight and every one of those parts were disassymbled. I have pictures to come later today,but i just finished the whole actuall rifle and all its parts, so far it has taken roughly 6 hours to just do the metal.

Now for the stock it is next, it will be my project when I return home in a few hours.Last night i held the hair dryer to it and could not wipe fast enough to get all cosmo off, it just kept on bubbling up from in the stock, it almost ozzed out.

So for the stock I am going to make a set up similar to what can be found on surplusrifle.com, the "easy bake oven" for rifles......

Pictures will come later today! Oh and as far as I can tell the bore looks darn near perfect, it is almost as sharp as my recently acquried rem 700 .308 varmit. So hopefully it will be a great shooter!

If anyone has any comments that might help with any process of what I call reclaiming this mauser, please chime in, I'm new to the whole Mauser ways.....

Thankyou for reading, have a good one, and as always God bless!

This isnt mine but the generic picture from jgsales.


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## Cknerr (Dec 10, 2009)

Olchevy,
There are a lot of projects carried out on them. Most are to raise accuracy of course. What do you want to do? Be glad to pass on some links pointed in that direction. 

There are people that have gotten very creative on here like Weagle. He has a knack for being creative and keeping things shootable.

Mauser 98 is my choice for building all the custom guns that come out of the shop. They might be getting on 60+ years old, but they are standing up to the true test of time!

Have fun!
Chris


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## Uncle Grinch (Dec 10, 2009)

*Cosmoline Stock Cleaner*

I built a plywood box about 16" square and maybe 4' tall. Lined it with tin foil and placed a couple of 100 watt light bulbs inside it. It has a removable lid with a ring to hang the stock on. Put a small door in the bottom to pull out my aluminum pan that catches the drippings. 

Simple but very effective. It sure beats those messy oven cleaners and wipe downs.


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## thomasr (Dec 11, 2009)

This is my Yugo 24/47 in new shoes, so to speak.  Have more contemporary rifles in way cooler calibers but this old war horse has become my favorite hunting rifle.    The ole 8mm, properly handloaded for, is a very potent hunting caliber.


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## thomasr (Dec 12, 2009)

Boy if you sure want to kill off a thread let me be the last one to post on it.  Can't tell you the number of treads that have died with mine being the last post.  Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong...maybe they die because I've said all that can be said about the subject!!!!!


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## density1 (Dec 13, 2009)

Ok thomasr, I'll bite.

Please tell me how you got the bolt turned down enough to clear the scope?


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## R.Kelly (Dec 13, 2009)

i need to get me a mauser to add to my ww2 rifle collection.  I made a "cosmo oven"  to bake all the cosmoline out of all my stocks.  Works really well, I have an enfield in it now


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## thomasr (Dec 13, 2009)

density1 said:


> Ok thomasr, I'll bite.
> 
> Please tell me how you got the bolt turned down enough to clear the scope?



Bending the bolt was one of only two things I had a gunsmith do in my conversion.  The GS had a special Mauser jig that holds the bolt while he takes a torch to it to get it hot enough to bend while bleeding the heat off from the other areas.  All that said, if I had to do it again I'd probably have the old handle cut off and a new, longer one welded on.  The GS mentioned he could do that "after" he did the bending.  The bent handle functions fine but it is just a tad short in comparison to other factory bolts.


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## weagle (Dec 13, 2009)

Are you going to keep the gun as is or do you plan to sporterize it ?  Since you titled the post "clean up" I'm assuming you plan to keep it original.

If that's the case you can still keep all the original parts and drop it into a sporter stock and install a timney trigger that will make it much more hunting friendly.  You can always return it to original.  

Weagle


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## Cknerr (Dec 14, 2009)

The usual way is to cut off the handle and weld a new one on that is at the proper angle. Brownells and a few other places sell a jig just for this. The big part is the heat sink. The end of the bolt where the lugs are is heat treated. You really don't want to anneal that! There is an ablative paste you apply while using the heat sinks to keep things cool. 

Works pretty well most of the time. 'course people like me who don't weld a lot usually get an air bubble or two that has to be redone. 

I prefer basing the custom guns that come out of my shop on Mauser98s. They are very tough and do catch people's eyes!

You have a good start!
Chris


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## olchevy (Dec 15, 2009)

well today my ammo finally arrived! I got two boxes of selliorbellet for hunting and a 340rd 1950's tin of fmj......Man does she shoot like a bute, with iron sigths and no good rest just the ledge of the porch she was grouping around 1-1/2'' to 2''!!!!!

the only problem I am running into on it is when feeding ammo in the the mag the first round goes in perfectly but when I try and place the second round in it gets bound up and wont budge. However if I push with my finger of my left hand down on the ammo I can push it all the way down and with my right hand slide in the second round and then all the rest pop in perfectly fine, and feed easily its just something about getting that second round in.

Regardless though I love it, I had cleaned it all up I mean to every screw bolt pin everything and refinished the stock after getting all the cosmo out of it, I have to say as of now this is my favorite rifle over even my newer ones!


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## olchevy (Dec 15, 2009)

on a side note: 

does anyone do what i do to save money on hunting ammo on the milsurp guns?

I buy the bulk surplus fmj ammo use the cut off wheel to cut the tip of the bullet off(HAS TO BE SQUARE!!!!or it wont fly right) then use the drill with a tiny drill bit to put a whole in it to make it a hollow point.In my expereince with deer the 10 or so i have killed with these bullets have always droped dead where they stood. and they always maintain the exact same accuracy as they did before when still fmj,sometimes even a tiny bit better. Just a little idea to help save money. I do it and it works great.


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## olchevy (Dec 15, 2009)

weagle said:


> Are you going to keep the gun as is or do you plan to sporterize it ?  Since you titled the post "clean up" I'm assuming you plan to keep it original.
> 
> If that's the case you can still keep all the original parts and drop it into a sporter stock and install a timney trigger that will make it much more hunting friendly.  You can always return it to original.
> 
> Weagle



this one keep as is visually. i may rebarrel it to .30-06 with an 03 A3 barrel to maintain the military barrel profile so I can reinstall it in the military stock and only i would be the wiser! But for now its staying 8mm atleast for now. I will buy another one soon enough to completley overhaul(I hate the word sporterize). In laymens terms yes sporterize but the thought of the term sporterize usually conjures up images of peoples hackjob, halfass attempt at doing what ever they were trying to do. When I do something such as that I overhaul it, I do it right and take my time, well atleast now,"the marlin project" taught me to slow it down and step back and look and think about things before doing anything major.....lol


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## weagle (Dec 16, 2009)

STOP, STOP, STOP.  No matter what else you take away from this thread, do NOT cut the tips off of FMJ bullets to make hollowpoints out of them.   You are lucky you haven't blown up a rifle already if you have been doing this.  Basically the lead core will blow out of the jacket leaving you with a barrel obstruction and a very dangerous situation.

Back on topic.  I love the 8x57 and wouldn't change the barrel.  For hunting ammo: It is out there. It just takes a little searching.  Look for the european stuff as it will be loaded to modern pressures.

Weagle


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## Cknerr (Dec 16, 2009)

Olchevy, strongly agree with Weagle here.
Very surprised you haven't had several come apart so far if you have been shooting them regularly. One little piece that doesn't clear the barrel will make for a bad day.

Usually being frugal is smart, here is an exception - this trick is going to get you hurt....it is only a matter of time.

Sorry about the bad news man,
Chris


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## olchevy (Dec 16, 2009)

weagle said:


> STOP, STOP, STOP.  No matter what else you take away from this thread, do NOT cut the tips off of FMJ bullets to make hollowpoints out of them.   You are lucky you haven't blown up a rifle already if you have been doing this.  Basically the lead core will blow out of the jacket leaving you with a barrel obstruction and a very dangerous situation.
> 
> Back on topic.  I love the 8x57 and wouldn't change the barrel.  For hunting ammo: It is out there. It just takes a little searching.  Look for the european stuff as it will be loaded to modern pressures.
> 
> Weagle



Okay, I understand what you are saying about how the lead core can come out. but these are not like the fmj in my ak where the back end of the bullet has exposed lead, these are soild coated all the way around, I had pulled one just to be sure. I understand what you are saying on some bullets, but for a trully fmj I dont see how it could seperate. If it is still unsafe I will stop. But I have done roughly 200 rounds this way with never a single glitch....maybe Im just lucky


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## leoparddog (Dec 16, 2009)

Yes, you've been lucky and you really should stop this dangerous practice.  Think along with us here.  The FMJ is a cup and core bullet. The lead core is not physically or metalugically bonded to the jacket.  Even less so possibly than a standard SP bullet.  With a perfect bullet  you may never have a problem as there is enough jacket near the tip to hold it all together.  But these are MilSurp bullets and sooner or later you will get a bad one.  Depending on manufacture method and quality control there could be a number of things that could go wrong when the bullet is made.  

Lets say you get one that is a few decimals larger than it should be .005.  and you have a decent throat area in front of the chamber.  In an unaltered FMJ bullet that is over sized, it gets sized down by the barrel and by increased pressure and friction.  In an altered one, it also gets sized down, but the pressure starts to squeeze lead out the tip that you cut off, the increased friction on the jacket makes the jacket want to slow down, but the core is now moving due to the squeeze.  In THE bad scenario, the core leaves the barrel for parts unknown while the jacket stays behind.  You will likely never notice until the next pull of the trigger.

Its not like the FMJ AK rounds, it wouldn't be the lead coming out the back end staying in the barrel, its the lead squirting out the top and the jacket staying behind.

You could have an undersized barrel and every shot is tempting fate with modified bullets.  Have you slugged your barrel and measured it?


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## Cknerr (Dec 16, 2009)

...and to add to the squeezing, don't forget spin. The rifling adds sharp edges = stress concentration. At the end of the barrel the bullet is turning 180K to 200K rpm. That puts a huge amount of hoop stress into the jacket. Since the lead can move around, and the jacket is now modified outside  design parameters it can split fairly easier. That is why it can come apart. 

Hope this helps explain another facet?
Chris


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## olchevy (Dec 16, 2009)

thankyou big time.......well atleast I know now, from my point of view the wolf hp I use in 7.62x39 looked just like fmj cut off and drilled so that what I had done all mainly in 7.62x54r mosin. I had ran out of that ammo, and had recently bought 100rnds of barnaul 220gr. Sp ammo it shoots great and is cheap. So I guess those days are behind me.....

Anyways the mauser is shooting great and I am trying to decide what to do with it, keep it as is or make it mine.


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