Got my Turk Mauser today!

Tinman204

Tinman204

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Bought this Turkish Mauser from another CGN'er around Christmas, it just showed up today. I saw it in a thread a couple of weeks ago and thought it looks like it's been through hell but it's super cool. After talking with another member of this forum I soon realized that this Mauser could be a great shooter. So long story short, I rolled the dice and mailed a money order.

In the original thread posting pictures of it a couple people said it was junk and basically the action should be used for a Sporter. I think it's a beautiful piece of history and if it could talk, I bet it would tell some great stories rivaling that of any Garand or Enfield. I know it's a mix master of parts but that's fine by me, I'll give her a good home!

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Looks like a Gewehr 98 that was converted by Turkey in the 1940 by K. Kale. This Gewehr 98 was one of many sent to Turkey (Ottoman Empire) during the latter stages of WW1 as war aid. She would have fought in the Turkish revolution of the 1920s against the invading Greeks and helped established the modern state of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal.

So to answer your inquiry, yes you indeed have a true piece of history :). Take good care of her and she will do the same for you.
 
That is a cool Turkish Mauser and certainly not junk! As Nabs pointed out the Turk Mausers have a ton of history behind them and are very interesting to collect.
 
I'm a .303 guy (Ross,no1,no4) but I really like this Mauser. It's a been there done that gun. I'm cleaning it right now, it's dirty but all in all not too bad. Took an hour to break it down, got all of the screws out but the wood and nose cap was a pita! May take me awhile to get this barrel in shape, I've been scrubbing it but I think I may some it in some solvent and try again tomorrow. Slow and steady wins the race!
 
You are right. I have been amazed at the condition of the bore in some rifles after thorough cleaning. Some have looked really ratty until you start to cut through the crud and fouling. JB Bore Paste is great stuff for fouling in my experience and non abrasive as well.
 
Very nice! I'm still looking for a good G/K 98 myself (prefer a German or Russian capture). They seem to be harder to find these days, and fairly pricey for good examples.

Let us know how she shoots!
 
I'll hopefully shoot it this weekend, if I can get the bore in shape. The lands are shiney but the grooves are loaded with crap, I let solvent sit in the bore over night so hopefully it has resolved the junk. I plan to eventually shoot cast bullets in this gun so I'd like the bore as shiney as possible.
The ejector spring was broken, I made a new one from some staiess sheet last night and she ejects with authority now.

Also I don't have a headspace gauge, does anyone know the proper headspace measurement for a gew 88? Figured I'd load a piece of brass and then stack metal shims behind the shell and then take a measurement.
 
For those that are interested, I just put 12 rounds of 180gr federal through her. shot 3- 4 shot groups and the last one was 2 1/2". I'm only shooting at 50 yards today, and I'm I'm finding the sights to be tricky to see but all in all she's a decent shooter.

I didn't know what to expect as this is my first 8mm Mauser experience, I found the gun to be light recoiling and the famous Mauser action is so smooth. I shot better groups with my new long branch but there's something neat about shooting a 4 foot plus long war horse!
After the first shot my wife laughed, and said when our enfields are shot they're a "crack" but the Mauser is a "thud". I'd say that's a good way to put it.
 
Likely the headspace will be okay or not too far from it.

Thing is, you can measure the EFFECTIVE headspace by looking at the pace between the forward face of the Bolt, when the rifle is completely locked-up, and the rear end of the CARTRIDGE.

In theory, the Cartridge should come to a STOP with the Shoulder against the inside shoulder of the Chamber, and the base of the Casing sticking out to the rear just enough to ALMOST touch the bolt-face. But that is in theory.

In actual fact, if the Cartridge Casing is HELD TO the Bolt-face (for instance by the Extractor), then excess space ahead of the Shoulder DOESN'T MATTER. IF there is space there, the Casing will just BLOW OUT FORWARD, fire-forming the brass to your Chamber. HATCHER has a whole chapter on this in "Hatcher's Notebook" and it is fascinating reading. Several years ago, I needed some almost-perfectlt-straight cases for a project. I didn;t have any and you can't buy them, so I grabbed the old M954 Mauser, went out to the range and ran a box of .308W through her. The cases came out of that somewhat-loose .30-'06 chamber straightened out almost perfectly. It was no trouble at all to open out the tiny remaining inward curve of the brass at the case-mouth.

Note that the M954 is a Brazilian Mauser, reconstructed from a pile of worn-out, scrapped rifles and rebored/rechambered to .30-'06. It is a NINETY-EIGHT Mauser action, the same as your rifle. That old long-claw extractor grabs the case when it pops up out of the Magazine and holds it against the Bolt-face so that no matter what you might be cramming into her, you are relatively SAFE. MAUSER actions of the '92, '93, '94, '95, '96 and '98 types all share this feature. It is part of what makes them among the safest rifles ever built.

Note also that any rifle with the long-claw Extractor should only be fed THROUGH THE MAGAZINE. Load your rounds INTO the Magazine and let the Rifle feed itself. As the Cartridges pop up out of the Magazine, they come against the Cartridge Stop at the TOP of the Bolt-face (when the Bolt is unlocked: right side when the Bolt is locked) and stop there, with the Extractor Claw holding them firmly by their Rims, the Claw itself embedded in the Extractor Groove. No matter what the actual gauged headspace of the rifle, they CAN'T go too far forward because the Extractor is holding them in a SAFE position. THIS is why I could bang off a whole box of.308 through a .30-06 rifle with no problems. I would NOT attempt such a stunt with a LOT of rifles, including a Remington 700, because there WOULD be BIG TROUBLES. But with the Mauser it is safe. Many other rifles share this same characteristic: M-1903 Springfield, P-'13, P-'14, M-1917, Ruger 77, Winchester 54, original Winchester Model 70, Remington Model 30 and others. It s the safest and best system ever developed, but it MUST feed from the Magazine. Tossing a round into the chamber and slamming the bolt shut is fine for SOME rifles, but it will WRECK the Extractor on many others, including yours.

Old girl is looking nice. Glad she has a good home.
 
Nice piece of history.
I picked up a Turk about 10 years ago in very used but very usable shape.
Shoots as good as my eyes will let me.
When I first took it apart to clean the stock, it was filled with fine sand.
Indicative of hard use in the desert, I'd guess.
The stories some of these old girls could tell..........
 
Thanks as always for the good info Smellie. The headspace seems fine, a couple primers are ever so slight backed out, not anything to worry about. I even shot my very first handload, today and it didn't explode!
The load was 39.5 gr of IMR 4895 pushing a 220gr sierra pro hunter bullet, Cci large rifle primer and federal brass. I'm going downstairs after dinner to reload this brass, I'm dying to start working on a load for this gun.

Other then scrubbing the barrel, anything else I can do to clean it up?
 
A lot of people discredit them as being junk, but I think they are missing out! (thier loss, our gain)... Mine is very accurate and the workmanship is excellent.
 
they feel and the look is amazing and you can tell people who build these took pride in there work, i love mauser and the turk feels alot like my k98 , i dont understand why people would call them junk
 
I agree with them not being junk! Mine has a fine walnut stock and the wood is probably the most beautiful in my collection. I take people's gun opinions with a grain of salt, when I bought my Ross at the last show 4 or 5 people told me not to shoot it and basically led me to believe that Rosses are junk. That's their opinion, and at the end of the day the holes in the paper tell me weather a gun is any good or not.

I've spent 2 long nights scrubbing the barrel, I've probably put 50 patches through the barrel and all have come out black. The funny part is when I first looked down the barrel it looked as if the last 2" were completely shot out with almost no rifling present. Now there's a decent amount of rifling at the end and the rest of the barrel almost looks new with good sharp lands and grooves that are getting cleaner and cleaner.

That's why milsurps aren't for everyone, if you're not willing to put time in and make things right you're better off to buy a new plastic gun. To me that's the fun, cleaning, shining and getting to know a gun. We're in the middle of a big storm right now so I guess I'll have to wait til next week to get some more trigger time and developed a load for her.

Oh well there's still barrel scrubbing to do, eventually those patches will come out clean!
 
I plan on reloading 150gr bullets but the only 8mm projectiles available in my area were the 220gr Sierra pro hunters. This is the joys of the big box stores running the town, if you don't shoot .30 cal you're very limited as to what is available. I plan to cast bullets soon so the 220gr bullets will get me by until I purchase a mould.
 
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