Israeli Mausers?

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Davo

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Ive been reading up on these, does anyone own one? They were rechambered to .308.
I would like to purchase one, and have a C&R liscense, but haven't seen any around.
 
I've been watching for one too. The first Israeli 7.62mm Mausers were originally German-made K98k's rebarreled from 8mm. Later, FN (Belgium) made up a contract order of short-action 98's barreled in 7.62mm to begin with.
 
Good luck. The main shipments of these came a long time ago. The only ones I've seen have been really ratty and abused. Check over on the Gunboards forums. That's probably the only place you'd find good ones. Whether they'll sell is another matter.
 
Some other Mausers were converted to .308's by Spain (?) IIRC. I don't know of anyone else who converted actual K98's to .308 after the war other than the IDF. Possibly some Latin countries, but a lot of them used pre-98 designs.
 
Got mine back in the 80s, they were fairly common back then, but not any more, I think I paid $75 for it. It is one of the most accurate milsurps that I own.:D
 
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I got mine about 20 years ago. It was rebarreled, refinished (all Nazi proofmarks were removed), an Israeli Defense Force crest on the receiver and looks like it spent all its time on the rack until I bought it. It was made by FN for the Germans in 1944.

As I understand it the Israelis were given a lot of captured German weapons (Mausers, P38s, MG42s, etc) and the 8mm Mauser was their first standard cartridge. I got some Israeli 8mm ammo some time ago. When they started getting FN/FALs ib the 50s they took all these Mausers and rebarreled them to 7.62 NATO same as the FALs. They continued to use them as a reserve weapon and to arm support personnel into the 70s. I think I remember seeing an IDF soldier in a photo with one during the Yom Kippur war.
 
Norway made up a very small batch of K-98s rebarreled for 7.62x51, I think. Never did anything with 'em, but they made a couple thousand.
 
Its always been fascinating to me that the first line of weaponry for the Israeli's was German, even with the huge surplus of german weaponry lying around.
I wonder what the headstamp looks like on the Israeli ammo. Ill bet the woman on that postcard is staring at rack after rack of mausers!
 
I wonder what the headstamp looks like on the Israeli ammo.
Click to expand...


It had the month and year of manufacture (I think the stuff I had was 1949) and a Star of David. If I remember correctly it was boxer primed.
 
I have two of those... K-98's converted by the Israelis to fire .308.

One of mine is in 98% condition throughout, the other has metal just as nice, but a stock that took a really good whack at some point. :p

The feeling of history that they give me is hard to describe... the rifles have German markings of course... including those eagles with the swastika at the bottom. Well... Israel smacked those markings with some kind of chisel thing, and obliterated the offensive stuff. I only knew what it had been because I'm sort of familiar with the markings.

The rifles were then marked with the right stuff that's typical of the IDF. Couldn't help but cheer for that tiny little heroic country. :)

Anyway, the rifles and the history have been passed on to me to hold in my hands, to shoot, and to reflect on. If you can find one, enjoy it. It's kind of special.
 
I've had 2 of these over the years. Both were in good condition. One had
the IDF crest on the receiver so I left it alone; later trading out towards
another rifle. It had minute of turkey platter accuracy. The other rifle just
had the 7.62 stamp on the receiver so I mod'ed it by sporting the original
stock, free floating the channel, adding a modern scope mount and installing
a timney trigger. Very accurate. Sold it to someone I know who is still doing
1 MOA with it. With that kind of accuracy I didn't feel bad at all about the
mods to it.
 
Never saw a 308 Mauser with a bad bore.....Great shooters with a lot of history......Seems they bought thousands of them after WW11, for pennies...and rebarreled them in the 50-60-'s with new barrels, made them like new.....
Buy them if you find one at a good price, you will not be disappointed....
 
I just checked century, Id like one in better than fair condition if they are avavilible.
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Remember, the Israelis have had to use their weapons many times in their short history, so if it's being sold as surplus it's because they could no more use out of it. No parade arms or arsenal queens, I am certain. It wouldn't surprise me if there are still a few scoped Mausers in some of the settlements, for when .223 just won't go far enough. :evil:
 
I just checked century, Id like one in better than fair condition if they are avavilible.
Click to expand...

I'm probably going to pick one up, even though its not in prime condition. I missed my opportunity in the early '90's when Navy Arms in NJ had racks of the things and I didn't have any money. I should've borrowed some.

Does anyone know if Century's "fair" is really "fair" (as opposed to a puffed-up "crappy" or a conservative "good")?
 
Look at the Argentian Mauser.

That postcard I a Israeli women????????????'

She looks like a more like a German what a wear propaganda...
 
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