Used Zastava M70 Mauser Rifles Provenance

762mm

762mm

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Hello,

A sponsor on this site has a whole bunch of "used" Zastava M70 Mausers for sale in different calibers. I asked them where these rifles are sourced from, as they are commercial and not military surplus, but received no answer. I've read on some American forums that Zastava paused (and perhaps even ended due to production cost) the manufacture of these Mauser rifles.

Does anyone know where these "used" rifles are coming from? I saw a few other dealers in the US who are / were also advertising used Zastava M70 and Interarms X for sale. The thing is, these appear to be made in the 70's - 90's and are in different states of wear and have different accessories on them, some of which appear DIY. It's quite puzzling.

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/threads/more-mausers-added-to-our-used-inventory.2498976/

Thank you !
 
Stuff that was originally destined for civilian use during the Balkan War but were confiscated? I read something similar regarding the 1997 made Zastava M48 factory assembled sporters, one of which is in my collection. You still find the odd one for sale by a few site sponsors.
 
That is a lot of 8mm mauser!! Not a bad thing!
Interesting that they didn’t replied to you request!
 
DGY said:
That is a lot of 8mm mauser!! Not a bad thing!
Interesting that they didn’t replied to you request!
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There were / are other calibers offered as well in this lot : 30-06, 300 Win Mag, 308 Win, 7x64 mm and I believe even a few in 9.3x62mm "safari" that sold really fast. I was too late to pull the trigger on one of those, lol !

The variety of calibers adds to the oddity of this lot of sibling rifles. If they were destined for some sort of paramilitary operations, one would assume that they would all be in the same caliber for logistics reasons.

.
 
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762mm said:
Hello,

A sponsor on this site has a whole bunch of "used" Zastava M70 Mausers for sale in different calibers. I asked them where these rifles are sourced from, as they are commercial and not military surplus, but received no answer. I've read on some American forums that Zastava paused (and perhaps even ended due to production cost) the manufacture of these Mauser rifles.

Does anyone know where these "used" rifles are coming from? I saw a few other dealers in the US who are / were also advertising used Zastava M70 and Interarms X for sale. The thing is, these appear to be made in the 70's - 90's and are in different states of wear and have different accessories on them, some of which appear DIY. It's quite puzzling.

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/threads/more-mausers-added-to-our-used-inventory.2498976/

Thank you !
Click to expand...
There are well maintained secrets. Not even today I do not know the source of milsurp VZ 24 romanian contract refurbished rifles.
 
Baribal said:
The Zastava rifles made prior 2007 were marked "Yougoslavia" and after that, Serbia.
There were quite a bit imported in the '80s and early '90s
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All of the ones for sale at this sponsor seem to be marked Yugoslavia.

There was/is also an Interarms X or two in the mix, also made by Zastava... and these stopped being made in the 80's, I believe.

The lot implies that some business or government, somewhere, were stockpiling used civilian Mausers from the same gun maker. I just can't imagine a straight forward scenario where a business comes across a huge lot of similar "used" civilian guns in different states of wear and different calibers.

The possible and highly speculative scenarios in my mind are as follows :

A) They are from a gunsmithing shop who did warranty repairs / other work for Zastava and had a bunch of new & parts rifles that accumulated over the years ;

B) Perhaps these are old stockpiles of unclaimed repaired / warrantied rifles from Zastava themselves ;

C) A hunting resort in Europe which rented out rifles to tourist hunters closed down and sold all of their hunting guns ;

D) Putin.


;)
 
Interarms (or International Armament Corpotation) were mostly sold in the US but they also worked on the Zastava - Mark X rifles in the UK. So, the rifles may well have been trial rifles sent to writers / reviewers or anything else you may think of, including remaining stock from Interarms days... Sometimes, it's very hard to know from which country the stock was imported.
 
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Baribal said:
Interarms (or International Armament Corpotation) were mostly sold in the US but they also worked on the Zastava - Mark X rifles in the UK. So, the rifles may well have been trial rifles send to writers / reviewers or anything else you may think of, including remaining stock from Interarms days... Sometimes, it's very hard to know from which country the stock was imported.
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Why Canadian importer does not disclose their source?
 
There was a retailer a few years back selling rifles confiscated during the wars in Yugoslavia as "former sniper rifles confiscated". Presumably gross ad copy, guessing these are from a similar source and not "paramilitary" as you suggested
 
Dosing said:
Why should they? Because someone on the internet has an active imagination? They are selling a rifle, not a backstory.
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Oh, that's rich lol.... :sneaky:

FYI it's not because of "active imaginations", but because it's customary for anyone selling used goods (especially if they may be collectible, to some extent) to provide a backstory or provenance of whatever they are selling, so that the new owner has some context and can temper their expectations.

Having background information on something like a firearm or a piece of old furniture also adds to the appeal and enjoyment of the item, even if it's something as simple as a conversation piece.

Is it really that hard to understand...? It doesn't sound like an extravagant request to provide this information to a potential buyer. I have various background information on every single "used" firearm I've ever bought, that I did / would gladly provide to the next potential owner.

It's common courtesy in the firearms collecting and shooting community, after all.

We're not shopping at Costco or Walmart here.

.
 
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Dosing said:
Why should they? Because someone on the internet has an active imagination? They are selling a rifle, not a backstory.
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The story of Sporter Mausers : they were in a warehouse in Republica Sbrska in former Yugoslavia. From there moved to a Disposal Warehouse in Belgrad. Next step was in the European dealer warehouse. Last step one Canadian dealer brought some for Canada.
 
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