98 Mauser action made in Yugoslavia by Zastava any good?

[Bigboar]

Has anyone had any experience with  the 98 Mauser actions made in Yugoslavia by Zastava:?  Are they a good base for a custom rifle?

bigboar

[springer222]

Short answer - yes! Need polishing and some final metal fitting, but for the price, a good base. Have yet to see a "mini-mauser" or "long" magnum action.

[Graycg]

Zavasta actions were imported for years by Interarms as the MK X and they are wonderfully made, the fit and finish may need some custom work, but they are excellent bases to start a custom rifle from.  Frankly, there are some MK X actions out there that were finished very well, others that weren't done as well.  I have an old Interarms Viscount rifle in 7x57 that has a blond stock and blue job that would make any manufacturer proud.  I had a later 243 barrelled action that looked like the finish on a chinese SKS...machine marks, etc, but still a great action for the price.

regards,
 graycg

[longgun]

I just finished up a Charles Daly ( Zavasta ) mini-mauser.   It was for 22-250 however I set this one up for 7mmBR.  It is a nice action and reasonably priced too.  The locking lugs were a bit rough but lapped in very nicely.  This is a neat rifle,  without scope it hits the scales at 5.5 lbs.  Used a Sako Finnfire stock as a pattern and whittled out a piece of butternut.  Stock is light and kind of soft so I reenforced it is a few places with devcon epoxy.  The inner magazine and rails will have to be polished so that the fat BR case will work through it smoothly.   Longgun

[wlmccann]

Longgun: Did you just have to polish or did you have to open up the rails?

[longgun]

Just lapped the lugs.  Will have to file a very small radius under the bottom edge of the rails and then polish.  Just use the file as if you were deburring  the rails.  Too much filing can cause you real heart burn.  The 7MM BR case is real short and  a little fatter than the 22-250 even though the head size is the same.  don