It was, essentially, a BRAND NEW 50-plus year old barrel.and it was PRISTINE.Ī good way to tell about this is whether the barrel in question has only a proof mark.or whether it has an assembly number (in addition to the proof mark). When I received it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was NOT a take off barrel at all, but rather a SPARE barrel, that had never been mounted. It was sold as a 'take off' M48 Numrich. The barrel I used WAS fully chambered and finished. No reamer required or did I miss something? Headspace can be adjusted on the shoulder and the shank (boss) on a lathe. I thought these were fully chambered and throated. I did all of the work myself - for only the cost of the barrel ($34).

The rifle is quite safe, has really tight headspace.and excellent accuracy. As I only shoot hand loads, well below maximum pressure, I had no fear of problems.Īs I thought would be the case, there have been NO problems. Thus, I didn't have to worry about indexing the barrel at all - only adjusting the external barrel shoulder, to get the headspace to a minimum. I used a file for this, along with an accurate machinist's square. I removed this feature, when I rebarreled my M48, a few years ago. With good quality modern brass and loads that are not on the ragged edge.the safety breech is not really necessary. The 'safety' breech design was created early in the 20th century, to compensate for the relatively poor quality of brass of that time, as compared to now. This causes NO problems, as long as the brass you will be using in the rifle is in good condition. You can also remove the barrel boss (the 'c' shaped extension on the chamber end, which is what needs to be indexed when installing a barrel). Overall preserving appearance but making it a better shooter.This may seem controversial to some, but I'll mention it anyway. Buying a spare rear sight leaf for $15 and modify the rear 'V' notch to a 'U' shape or squared up to accommodate the front sight post. 375 blank front sight and carefully adjusting the height to zero at 100. Rifle shot high and sight picture was poor. A small slip on recoil pad could remedy that.

The butt plate is very smooth and even using a sling slides around in your shoulder. Trigger engagement easily cleaned up removing rough machine marks on bearing surface. Next the muzzle crown was uneven and I'm thinking Brownells could have a tool to greatly improve that without removing the barrel from the action. First the inletting of the original stock is crude and imo well worth re bedding the action. I inspected and shot one recently and found a few issues that can be easily corrected to make thisĪ good 500 yd shooter with iron sights. Hunting performance? Any mods you've found useful? Anyone shooting one? What kind of range performance have you gotten? Accuracy / best loads.

Yugo mauser barrel