One piece Model 98 Floorplate ( pics up)

tokguy

tokguy

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Just got a beat up Chinese made 98 today. Original Configuration as far as I can tell.
It's rather crudely finished, almost reminiscent of the Late war era German rifles.
But the floorplate appears to be an extension of the trigger guard. Is this as unusual as it seems?
I will get some pictures up should anyone care; just not this evening.

The back side of the sight is numbered as well?

The 'V' in the rear sight cannot be viewed until it's at 400 meters, whoops!

Look at the crude machining on the reciever.

A regimental marking on the left cheek piece of the buttstock

This old girl was treated poorly.

The bolt is the only part of the gun that isn't matching strangely

The machining marks on the firing pin look like I built it in my garage.
 
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Nope, appears relatively normal until you realize that a screwdriver is required to service the magazine instead of the tip of an FMJ.
But I've scarcely touched it as of yet. But don't worry, I'll carefully sand it and use the wire wheel sparingly.
8 X 57 with pitted bbl but all bands and screws, sling attachments for cavalry usage in addition to squaddie sling points. Reversed Swastika with a 'Z' prefix on the serial number
 
Well I'm definitely interested in seeing some pics. Who knows with the Chinese Mausers. Some were very crudely made with parts that seem to be hand made at times.
 
God yes, it's crude. The receiver bridge is scrubbed of course, but there may be enough left of the other markings combined with the stock cartouche to figure things out.
But it's a short rifle; 23.5 bbl.
The cavalry points are a pretty cool touch though.
Could be shot with cast perhaps, but careful scrutiny is required 1st. It vented out the primer when the previous owner 'Test fired' it.
I must be too far gone as milsurps go when I find this dog interesting...
 
Don't worry, I find the Chinese Mausers very interesting as well. Crude for sure but they have a ton of history and are a neat collectible.

You have to consider that despite being very crudely made these things are often worn out from firing thousands of rounds. The M98 is a massive and forgiving action and despite the poor workmanship and materials they were strong enough to last that long. I still wouldn't recommend firing it with any high pressure rounds but it really makes you wonder how strong they really are and on that note, I will be doing some destructive testing to a Chinese made M98 action I have in the near future.
 
can14 said:
Right up there with the Thailand Mauser rifles.
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Thailand Mausers? You mean the Siamese Mausers? If so, they are a high quality M98 variant made in Japan and are made with high quality metals and suitable for high pressure rounds. I have one converted to .45-70 and load it to the hottest levels with no issues. A 400gr Woodleigh Weldcore at 2100fps is no slouch.
 
jbmauser said:
Don't worry, I find the Chinese Mausers very interesting as well. Crude for sure but they have a ton of history and are a neat collectible.

You have to consider that despite being very crudely made these things are often worn out from firing thousands of rounds. The M98 is a massive and forgiving action and despite the poor workmanship and materials they were strong enough to last that long. I still wouldn't recommend firing it with any high pressure rounds but it really makes you wonder how strong they really are and on that note, I will be doing some destructive testing to a Chinese made M98 action I have in the near future.
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You're joking now, right? :) :joke:
 
Until you have one in your hands it seems like madness. While this one seems neat, it's scrubbed and the the bore is so-so; I've enough kid's and nephews that would love it...so it'll live.
It could get written off in the sake of ballistic science, no problem. It's like a Lada...no attachment here.
 
jbmauser said:
Thailand Mausers? You mean the Siamese Mausers? If so, they are a high quality M98 variant made in Japan and are made with high quality metals and suitable for high pressure rounds. I have one converted to .45-70 and load it to the hottest levels with no issues. A 400gr Woodleigh Weldcore at 2100fps is no slouch.
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I have one of these in original 8mm rimmed I was thinking about listing on the EE. Matching bayo too.

It is a superbly made rifle - perhaps the nicest "Mauser" in my collection.
 
I'll get a pic or two later in the morning; but I assure you, this is likely not the 'nicest' in my collection.
Kinda neat in a 'This crude and still works !' way.
 
Well that's typical crudeness there. I haven't seen a firing pin that bad but I've seen and have a lot of other small parts that are that crude. Not sure what the deal is with the floor plate but you're probably right that it was some "fix" or maybe just hand made so the release was too hard to make. Who knows.

What about the bolt? Is it Chinese? Any marks on the bottom of the bolt handle flat? Hard to tell but it doesn't look like Chinese made to me. Could be Czech, Belgian, or just about anything really. Lots of Czech and Belgian made M98's went to China and you often see these parts mixed into Chinese M98's and vice versa.

These things have a lot of mileage on them and very poor treatment it seems. Still very interesting rifles and great pieces of history.
 
I'm going to guess Belgian as although worn it appears to have the 'Perron' marking on the handle of the bolt.
It has a 2 stage trigger, but the second stage is reminiscent of a Cooey .22.
It vented gas for the last owner through the primer; but (without the proper tools of course) the headspace seems pretty tight. The condition of the firing pin probably caused the primer to be pierced IMO
I'll likely don the PPE and give it a try, just not anytime soon. Lots to do before we try this old Chinaman out ( no offence intended ).
Number 1 being locating some cast to feed it
 
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I would guess so as well. Max protrusion should be around .065" and the tip should be nice and round and smooth. Any roughness and it will pierce the primer. Should be easy to clean it up.
 
jbmauser said:
I would guess so as well. Max protrusion should be around .065" and the tip should be nice and round and smooth. Any roughness and it will pierce the primer. Should be easy to clean it up.
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Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to check that out.
The action is surprisingly smooth, I've an extra parts gun around, might have to look into that trigger pull. See if this old dog can group or not.
The fact that the 'V' of the rear sight remains hidden until the 400 m setting is pretty wild. And why numbers on the backside of the sight? They correspond properly BTW. 400 meters on the topside is also at 400 m on the bottom.
 
Putting the numbers on the underside was a waste of time. Why they bothered is anyone's guess. The Germans deleted that feature sometime during 42 at most makers to save time.

As to not being able to see the numbers, I suspect the stock isn't the correct or original stock to the barreled action. It would have had a K98k style handguard and stock originally. Probably a VZ-24 stock was put on at some point.
 
IMHO, there aren't a lot of flies on the Chinese 98 clones. I have built up several sporters on those actions when they were released by International. They were built very close to original specs and any of the missing parts needed to complete them seldom required fitting of any sort.

The metallurgy in them is just as good and maybe better than many of their European cousins. I don't know if the Chiang Kai Shek Mausers were checked out by German inspectors but they were pretty basic copies of the M24 models.

Of all the receivers I used, they all came with removable floor plates. Some needed to be cleaned up but most only required polishing and D&T.

That is an interesting rifle. To bad the Chinese markings have been scrubbed from the receiver ring.

I never came across one that didn't have a badly pitted or shot out bore or I would have kept it as is.

The other Chinese produced firearm I would love to acquire is the Type 99 that was built in captured Japanese factories and produced after WWII in 7.92x57. I have only seen one of those and it was in a US collection.
 
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