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Clean Your Mauser
Click Here If You Screwed-Up Your Mauser Bolt!

The Mauser Rifle Is The Most Widely Produced And Copied Bolt Gun In History

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WARNING
Firearms Should Only Be Handled By Individuals Trained In Firearms Safety!


Mauser Disassembly
NOTE: After Using Corrosive Primer Surplus Ammo, Run A Solution of 2/3 Water with 1/3 Ammonia Through The Barrel With A Soaked Patch To Neutralize Corrosive Salts The Same Day You Shoot. Follow-Up With Regular Cleaning Of Hoppes And Light Oil.


The Mauser and it's many variants are some of the most accurate, most dependable rifles ever produced.  Beginning in the 1800's the Mauser factory in Germany began producing bolt action rifles; state of the art technology of the day.   Since then, Mausers have been produced in many different countries in many different configurations, each unique, yet strongly based  German Will to produce none but the best rifle possible.  The Mauser is Strong and strangely beautiful.

The United States Army, with it's old Krag rifles in Cuba during the Spanish American War saw trail by fire against the Mauser.  American troops suffered unacceptable looses to spanish troops solely because the Spanish were using superior Mauser rifles.   After Teddy Roosevelt and our boys came back from this bloody lesson,  the Government ordered the Armory at Springfield Mass to produce a new rifle.
What did they do?
They copied the Mauser.

Of course the 1903 Springfield Rifle is different in some ways to the Mauser. Unlike the Mauser, the Springfield has adjustments for windage as well as elevation.  One might think the new windage knob would signify a superior rifle, but in reality, it's only a tribute to American superiority in mass production.  Rather than having hand-fit to the extreme degree as is required of a craftman producing a Mauser,  the Springfield could be made much faster and by lesser trained assembly-line workers by leaving the final tuning to the foot soldier, which history has proven served us well.  Foot soldier against foot soldier Americans had the edge later on WWII.  During WWII, the German infantry man still used the Mauser bolt action Rifle against his American foe who was usually armed with the 8 shot semi-automatic M1-Garand.    

Swedish Mausers are believed to be some of the best quailty Mausers.  German soldiers in WWII used a version called the 98k Mauser (K for Carbine as it was slightly shorter than previous Mausers). Turkey, Brazil, and others have produced Mausers. 

Some of the most interesting and affordable Mausers today are coming from Yogoslavia.  When German troops left Yogoslavia in WWII, the left behind factories and equipment to make Mauser rifles.   The Yogoslavians didn't want the Germans to come back, so they started making Mausers and other small arms with an incredible furvor. Although Yogoslavia under communist grip forbade it's citiziens the god given right of private ownership of firearms, thousands of armories, in factories, schools, and public buildings were the store houses of millions of small arms and ammunition.  Mausers were packed in Cosmolene type preservative grease, and stored.  Every ten years or so they would be cleaned, checked, test-fired, re-packed in cosmolene and returned to the racks.  Such quality rifles would not be possible to manufacture today.  A Mauser you can purchase for 100$ or 200$ today, is definitely a $1,000 gun. A bargain to say the least.  A work of art... the product of a lost craft. A damn good rifle.

WARNING: If you buy a war gun which is packed in Cosmolene, please consult a good gunsmith to clean and check the rifle. Especially the head spacing.

WARNING: Different model Mausers are chambered for slightly different ammo. If you use the wrong caliber ammo, it may cause harm to you or others.

Yogoslavian M48a Mauser Ready For Cleaning. Old ammo is cheap and easily available. However it may be mildly corrosive. It is essential to use a liberal amount of a good cleaner like Hoppes #9 after shooting your rifle. Try to clean the gun the same day you shoot it. Don't let a gun sit around with possibly corrosive residue in it. After cleaning, apply a light oil of good quality gun oil. Do NOT use WD-40 as it will cause rust during prolonged storage.

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Point the gun in a safe direction and check gun to insure that it is unloaded. Keep your trigger finger strait and away from the trigger at all times. Visually inspect the inside of the chamber to insure that there is not a loaded round in the chamber. Dead is a forever deal. Never let the gun point at anything you are not prepared to destroy, even when carrying it. Bullets can penetrate walls, trees, floors, ceiling, rochochet, fall from the sky and kill. Always be safe when handling firearms.

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Pay Attention - Essential Step
After checking the gun to insure that it is not loaded. Keeping it always pointed in a safe direction, rotate the safety into the middle position where it points straight up. This is essential in order to disassembly the Mauser rifle.

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Pull the bolt catch, and pull the bolt out.

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It's That Easy

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Run a patch liberally soaked in Hoppes #9 through the bore with a good cleaning rod. Don't let the cleaning rod rub against the sides of the barrel. Over time, this will reduce your accuracy. Run a bronze brush through the bore if it's especially dirty. Run clean dry patches through the bore until they come out fairly clean. In a pinch, one can make patches out of old sheets and pillow cases that work pretty good. Older 100% cotton works best. The best patches are military surplus patches. These are rarely seen now even at gun shows. What you get at gun shows are frequently old sheets that have been cut-up and packaged.  Running a oil soaked patch down the bore is not necessary except for long term storage. If you do this, be sure to run a clean patch through so the oil is as thin as possible.

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Push the little black button on the bolt and the whole thing will unscrew.

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Pretty Nifty.  There's probably a cool square head saying for this. Does anybody know why the Germans were called "square heads" anyway?

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Be sure to clean the bolt face well as well as all other bolt surfaces with a good cleaner.   Apply a light coat of good quality gun oil.

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This is the tricky part.  With the safety still pointing away from from the rest of the assembly, press down against a table or other hard surface (not your leg). The 89k Mauser has a really nifty steel lined hole in the stock for this purpose.

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Press down carefully with great force.  Rotate the top piece and the whole thing will come apart.

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Clean well.

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Apply a good coat of grease if you desire.  The author prefers moly grease, but others work just fine and aren't as messy.

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Assembly is reservse of disassembly.  After all is back together, use Linseed or Tung oil to lightly massage the stock.  When you go to your next gun show, see if you don't think those hunting rifles with car wax on them look kind of tacky anyway.

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