ZASTAVA M70 OR M85 opinions and advices
- Thread starter caiser soze 78
- Start date
The M70's are good guns, little rough in the action but will smooth out over time, well made 98 clones that shoot good.
The M85 is kind of a bag of ####, the action is really rough, bolt is kind of a poor design with a lame extractor, very little stock material holding the receiver lug and is prone to cracking there, the bolt guide makes for a rough as hell action, and I never had one that was accurate.
The M85 is kind of a bag of ####, the action is really rough, bolt is kind of a poor design with a lame extractor, very little stock material holding the receiver lug and is prone to cracking there, the bolt guide makes for a rough as hell action, and I never had one that was accurate.
huntingfish
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Quebec City
Supppose to be getting a brand new M70 early next week! I'll let you know about first impressions.
I got mine in a synthetic stock in 300 WM.
What caliber are you looking at?
David
Depends on what you desire and caliber. I've had the Zastava M85 in 7.62x39mm for a few years now. For the price I paid ($550) it's a very good rifle. Mine has 1,538 shots on it. After 1,500 shots the mag follower spring broke (see pic). Replaced it with a new one for $25. Grouping with Barnaul guaranteed 1.5-2" (a Vortex scope). The bolt is a bit rough but it depends on the ammo (brass is much smoother). Never had any mechanical problems with the bolt. As a matter of fact, the broken follower spring has been the only mechanical problem I've encountered in all these years. Bluing is perfect. No stock cracking. However, I think that the M85 not worth more than about $600. At the moment Marstar has some in .223.
P.S. In retrospection I think that I'm a bit guilty for that broken follower spring. The mag capacity is 4 rounds. I was loading 4+1 in the chamber. Probably, that exerted additional compression stress on the spring.
Last edited:
I bought one of those to shoot up a bunch of surplus ammo. It worked fine, but wasn't accurate with any of it, so I ended up handloading for it anyway. - dan
Pay attention to how it is drilled for scope bases. Make sure they are straight. I had a Zastava once in 308 full stock, nice looking unit but was drilled crooked and the holes didn't align with the bases' holes. It had to be re-drilled and tapped properly. Also, the rifles designed for short action cartridge (308 or 243) may have the mag follower that is too short (Zastava actions are all the same length, long action). Even with the spacer, the mag follower is wobbly and it may be hard to align cartridges in the mag. No problems with rifles for long cases such as 270 or 30-06 which use the long follower, identical (I think) to the M48 followers. I found the bolt to be as smooth as my Ruger but bluing and metal polishing was superb. You might also need to bed the action as the inletting may not be a precision job. These are work horses, not show pieces. Good looking too, I love the classic look of a hunting rifle (all wood and steel) with Mauser action.
