zastava M98 first impression and concern!

fleury

fleury

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zastava M98 first impression and issue
Good day, just bought my first hunting riffle, (there is barely enough space for it in the safe) and it's a zastava m98 in 9.3X62. Here is a list of my first impression.
•Machining is not as bad as people describe it. Don't compare it to a 1000$ riffle but it's still nice
•It's much smaller then it looks. That means for a 5f2 and 140 pound guy I am going to take a beating. Its small size is mainly because the wood is thin, and the barrel is a pencil barrel.
•For the milsurplus fan, it was packed in grease! and I now need to find the proper bore brush to clean it
•Trigger is not that good, but not horrible, It will have to be adjusted
•Safety is a bit noisy when I take it off



now what I need to do on the riffle
* Get a proper bore brush (for now I will pour warm water in it)
* Remove it from the stock for cleaning and trigger adjustment. Any one know the size of the bolt and type that old the stock, I don’t recognize them.
* for the recoil I will have to change the but pad. However there are no screw visible, any one have an idea how to remove it?
* Most likely the sight will have to be adjusted for windage, it's really far on the side and it will most likely shoot off. Any one has an idea how to proceed (sight hood look to be firmly in place, I guess that I have to use brut force)?
*Does some one know of an after market iron sight that I could put on to upgrade it?

I will update this thread once I get to know the riffle more and will try to include picture of bruised shoulder if it's worth it!
 
If you take a close look at the buttpad, there will be slits visible where the screws were put through the pad surface. You may have to pull on the pad face to see the slits.
As for the sight hood, it will either come off towards the muzzle or to the rear by drifting it with a plastic hammer or dowel. Drift the front sight with a non-marring punch such as brass or plastic.
You can put a peep sight on the rear. Not sure if the rifles are drilled and tapped for the side mounted sight. XS makes a receiver sight that utilizes the rear scope mount holes.
 
My son has an 9.3 X 57 and it's a pussycat.
Daughter shoots a Bubba'd K98 in 8 X 57 that weights maybe 6 pounds. Steel buttplate too ( she's 20 lbs shy of you too)
If you go into the deal thinking it's a tiger, it'll seem like it.
I should snap some pic's of the gr 8 daughter shooting my M44.
Get a cheesy slip on rubber butt sock / recoil pad and get shooting, it'll be good.
 
I can manage my m44 whit russian surplus ammo, last time I did a military shoot and the shoulder was... raimbow and in pain (60 round). If it kick as my M44, it's all good!
 
The .375 bore brush works perfectly with the 9.3s.
The action screws are hex heads, you need an Allen key (metric #4 or english 5/32) to remove them.
Slightly grease the safety mechanism and put a little drop of oïl on the actuator (the lever that swings when you move the safety) and it will be mush better. Do not flood with oïl, though.

I didn't try it but the stocks (is it a synthetic one?) where made to Remington specs, so a Remington 700 pad should fit right in place.
 
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It's a wood stock plain and simple from trade ex. I will try to pinch the butt stock to see if I can find the opening and thank you for the size of the hex heads.

If I have time I will grind a bit the stock to have it free floating and beded it before hunting season.

I will remove the but pad and bring it to sail, they have a little collection of but stock, I might get lucky! or worst case I will remove the one that on and place a lumb saver for this season. I should be trying it sunday at EOSC!
 
As for the sights, yes, the Hood is easily removed by pulling it forward. You can even use a soft mallet if you want...
To my point of view, there is little need to change the existing sights, as they are totally functional, fully adjustable and of all steel construction.
The trigger is easyily adjusted by unscrewing the upper screw. This should bring you around 3.5 lbs, the minimum you should have on a Mauser type action with most triggers.

To remove the buttpad, use a bit of liquid dishwashing soap on the scredriver bit to be able to slip it in the thiny slots... that sentence sounds funny though.
 
Well so far so good. It work well. After 8-9 shot the shoulder was a bit painful. My main concern is that when I was sighting it the sight base moved while I was lightly tapping on the post. I replaced it and finished it. I was happy and taught I was ready for the hunting season. Well look like when I got home it was loose again.... so, look like for this year I will just get it scoped. Does any one know where I can get quickly a scope base quickly? I am very short on range time to get it done.

I hope trade ex as some, I call call Morrow.

And also 1 round of Remington yellow box failed to fire (confirmed what I taught... It's crappy ammo). All my reload where ok!

Thank you for the input
 
Weaver bases are the easiest to find. # 46 front and # 45 rear. Rings are very easy to find too. With these bases, I like Grand Slam rings.
 
Speaking of machining
My Zastava 9.3 seemed the shoot good but was hard on brass, left extractor marks on the brass even with factory loads upon closer examination I noticed the bolt face didn't look right

View attachment 7343

The cartridge alignment notch at the top of the bolt has a ridge under it smeared with brass, I sent the gun back to dealer for warranty
 
Sad this happened to you. But if that may comfort you, I saw more than one commercial FN bolts with badly machined or rough heads. They should fix it pretty quick, though, sounds like refacing the head and checking headspace (or fixing it, depending on the fix on the head).
That is one reason why they want to go CNC instead of jigs and fixtures on conventional machine tools. But that sounds like somthing the proofhouse should have found... anyways...
 
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