What kind of wood is this?
- Thread starter polaris
- Start date
In my view they are both european Elm, but the top rifle has more heartwood in it.
Despite the info in the Bogdonovich book, where he states most M48's were stocked in beech, I've only come across maybe 2 M48 series rifles amongst hundreds that might have been beech. The very great majority were elm-stocked.
The first couple years of M48 production used a lot of walnut, which presumably the yugosavians imported from some place like turkey. These days, when you see walnut stocks, it's obvious as they used a very dark variety, and the stocks are most often re-numbered as the earliest guns saw lots of use and were often re-built. In this last batch from Tradex, I ran into a couple guns with walnut buttstocks, re-numbered to match and roughly sanded, with elm hand guards. Both were still in the arsenal storage cellophane and came out of war reserve storage like that.
Despite the info in the Bogdonovich book, where he states most M48's were stocked in beech, I've only come across maybe 2 M48 series rifles amongst hundreds that might have been beech. The very great majority were elm-stocked.
The first couple years of M48 production used a lot of walnut, which presumably the yugosavians imported from some place like turkey. These days, when you see walnut stocks, it's obvious as they used a very dark variety, and the stocks are most often re-numbered as the earliest guns saw lots of use and were often re-built. In this last batch from Tradex, I ran into a couple guns with walnut buttstocks, re-numbered to match and roughly sanded, with elm hand guards. Both were still in the arsenal storage cellophane and came out of war reserve storage like that.
Travis Bickle
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Upper Lower Middle Alberta
I remember someone saying the wood was teak which it does look like but I can't confirm that.
Beautiful rifles. Very accurate and very well built. Right on par with the K98's for quality. I bought one when Marstar first brought them in NOS years back.
The caliber sucks though. 8mm is awesome. But buying/loading/finding it is brutal in this country for anything less than too much money.
Mine just sat in the safe collecting dust most of the time so I let her go.
Would have loved to see one in .308 like the Israeli conversions!
Beautiful rifles. Very accurate and very well built. Right on par with the K98's for quality. I bought one when Marstar first brought them in NOS years back.
The caliber sucks though. 8mm is awesome. But buying/loading/finding it is brutal in this country for anything less than too much money.
Mine just sat in the safe collecting dust most of the time so I let her go.
Would have loved to see one in .308 like the Israeli conversions!
It would not be teak. Teak is generally lighter and in most cases would be too expensive to sue for rifle stocks. It's also not documented in any references, while elm wood is.
