Nicest wood on Zastavas?

wepwqdI.jpg
 
Zastava uses a very soft, type of hardwood for their stocks.

Not sure what it is but it isn't Walnut nor Birch(Beech)

When they made the 798 rifles for Remingon, they had an agreement to use Remington supplied laminated stocks, which may have been supplied by Boyd's (that's just a guess on my part)

Their later M70 models could be ordered with composite plastic stocks that were quite good as well.

Whatever wood they made their earlier imports from was very prone to warpage and loosening up in the bedding. Every single one of those stocks would really benefit from a good epoxy bedding job.

Boyd's makes a lovey laminated replacement as well as solid Walnut stocks for both models and they definitely dress them up.

I like the last imports of Zastava rifles much better than the earlier imports. Especially the trigger groups.

The Zastavas can definitely be improved with an after market trigger. Finding a trigger for the Mini action can be difficult, but a standard 98 after market adjustable trigger can easily be fitted.

I've had a couple of their offerings and liked them both. Found them to be quite accurate.

I've also purchased a couple of the barrels from Intersurplus, which were made by Zastava. Only non standard options left now.

Mark, be extremely careful when adjusting the trigger pulls/let off/overtravel on those triggers. The early rifles, which your rifles appear to be had a lot of what appear to be ''hand made'' parts, which are very soft and easily galled or damaged/broken.

I've had to repair several of them already. Later imports seem to be better quality.

These rifles are not expensive and IMHO well worth every penny as a utilitarian firearm.
 
bearhunter said:
Zastava uses a very soft, type of hardwood for their stocks.

Not sure what it is but it isn't Walnut nor Birch(Beech)

When they made the 798 rifles for Remingon, they had an agreement to use Remington supplied laminated stocks, which may have been supplied by Boyd's (that's just a guess on my part)

Their later M70 models could be ordered with composite plastic stocks that were quite good as well.

Whatever wood they made their earlier imports from was very prone to warpage and loosening up in the bedding. Every single one of those stocks would really benefit from a good epoxy bedding job.

Boyd's makes a lovey laminated replacement as well as solid Walnut stocks for both models and they definitely dress them up.

I like the last imports of Zastava rifles much better than the earlier imports. Especially the trigger groups.

The Zastavas can definitely be improved with an after market trigger. Finding a trigger for the Mini action can be difficult, but a standard 98 after market adjustable trigger can easily be fitted.

I've had a couple of their offerings and liked them both. Found them to be quite accurate.

I've also purchased a couple of the barrels from Intersurplus, which were made by Zastava. Only non standard options left now.

Mark, be extremely careful when adjusting the trigger pulls/let off/overtravel on those triggers. The early rifles, which your rifles appear to be had a lot of what appear to be ''hand made'' parts, which are very soft and easily galled or damaged/broken.

I've had to repair several of them already. Later imports seem to be better quality.

These rifles are not expensive and IMHO well worth every penny as a utilitarian firearm.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the good advice! I'm probably going to replace the trigger on the 6.5 and do a bedding job. I bought both rifles for a really good price so I won't be into a lot of money if I add a couple aftermarket parts to improve them.
I know on the LKM 85, it seems to have a different wood them the LKM 70, it might be walnut? the finish is also different.
 
no need to replace the trigger. you can adjust very simply. bedding is really a thing to do and i honestly prefer the laminate stock that i got from boyds.
i do think on the batch we got here in canada got walnut now was it turkish or serb i cant tell.
 
here is some in the family.

i got a spare stock just in case for my wife full stock (thank you Daniel).
the original 9.3x62 left handed stock.

the 9.3x62 left hand with now a boyds laminated stock bedded (thank you Ted)
and the 30-06 full stock that my is using for most of her hunt including fly out, river or lake ... she wanted one full stock in 30-06 she knew what she wanted and used it a lot.
 
MilitaryCollectorMark said:
Might not be the most pretty rifle but it gets the job done :)

I can see some wood grain in there. Might be worthwile to strip and refinish?
Click to expand...

Ah, this one is long gone - this was the Cursed Zastava from Hell sadly. That stock had received 7 coats of tung oil in this picture so it was about as nice as it was going to get. It was very "dry"!

I handled one at the range a few weeks back and I didn't even recognize it at first, the wood was much darker and the finishing was quite smooth. Original stock, as-shipped.
 
medvedqc said:
here is some in the family.

i got a spare stock just in case for my wife full stock (thank you Daniel).
the original 9.3x62 left handed stock.

the 9.3x62 left hand with now a boyds laminated stock bedded (thank you Ted)
and the 30-06 full stock that my is using for most of her hunt including fly out, river or lake ... she wanted one full stock in 30-06 she knew what she wanted and used it a lot.
Click to expand...

Nice rifles there Medved! I'd like to get a FS for my 6.5 eventually, kind of a dream rifle to have a LH full stock in 6.5x55 :D
That second from the bottom stock photos has really nice grain! Is that the factory stock from your wifes 30-06?



Ah yes, the infamous zastava. I remember your comments from a couple older threads. I guess yours was a lemon?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom