What should I do with this rifle?

[Russ16]

Opinions wanted.

Cleaning out my g unsafe I ran across a gun in the back I literally forgot I had. It’s a Charles Daly by Zatava in 30-06. I won it at some raffle years ago and threw it in the safe then forgot about it. I not longer have the box but it is unfired.

I don’t know anything about these guns but it is a variant of a Mauser action. Overall the bluing is solid and it’s a nice synthetic stock. The actuon has a little wiggle in it when working the bolt—not the smoothest I’ve used but solid and locks up plenty tight.

I have no need for another 30-06. I looked a bit online, there aren’t many of them for sale but they seem to be listed at $600-700. I’d be kind of surprised if I could sell it for that when a lot more well known brands are in that price point or slightly more.

I could have it rebarreled to a caliber I’ll use more but I’m not sure that putting money into it makes sense.

Does anyone know anything about these guns? Are the actions good enough to be worth building a gun around? Any other thoughts or opinions appreciated.

 

[roklok]

They are solid rifles ! They may be a diamond in the rough at times, and need a bit of polishing, but they are a Mauser 98 clone action with most of the attributes of such. The safety and trigger are really the biggest departures from the Mauser 98 of old. I would send it to JES reboring and have him turn it into a 338-06, .35 Whelen, or 9.3x62. Cost is $300.00 for a rebore last I knew. Then find a nice Mauser 98 walnut stock for it, turn it into a first rate classy hunting rifle.

 

[roklok]

These are the same actions as the Whitworth Mausers, the Interarms Mark X, the Remington 798, H&R 340, etc. Some well known gunsmiths such as Paul Jaeger have built rifles on Zastava Mauser actions.

 

[roklok]

Here is my .375 H&H on a Zastava Mauser (Remington 798) action. It has been flawless.

 

[Puddle]

If you've a hole fill somewhere between from .30-06 to .375 then as have already mentioned a chat with JES might be in order. You can go a step further and have a '98 Mauser gunsmith have a look and give you some feedback.

 

[Badboymelvin]

They are solid rifles ! They may be a diamond in the rough at times, and need a bit of polishing, but they are a Mauser 98 clone action with most of the attributes of such. The safety and trigger are really the biggest departures from the Mauser 98 of old. I would send it to JES reboring and have him turn it into a 338-06, .35 Whelen, or 9.3x62. Cost is $300.00 for a rebore last I knew. Then find a nice Mauser 98 walnut stock for it, turn it into a first rate classy hunting rifle.

I think they're great rifles
If it were me I'd go the 9.3x62 route... such a cool, capable cartridge.

Russ

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Why mess with the best cartridge ever? If you want a shooter, dont change that. However, I'm not a fan of synthetic stocks. Find some nice wood. Lots of options on the net. Usually several on ebay or gun auction sites. Any gunsmith can smooth the action. Didn't take much to make my Springfield and Czech Mauser.smooth as glass.

I'd like to see what you've got.

 

[R eight]

I’d leave it as is. If you have a use for it then keep it, if not then pass it on.

As to investing any funds into improving/ modifying her, I would not.

A Zastava is a pigs ear and no matter how much you spend on her she’ll never be a silk purse.

 

[spike.t]

Make a nice low cost 9.3x62....you will enjoy it.....

 

[Certus]

I’d leave it as is. If you have a use for it then keep it, if not then pass it on.

As to investing any funds into improving/ modifying her, I would not.

A Zastava is a pigs ear and no matter how much you spend on her she’ll never be a silk purse.

You say that after the post by @roklok ? I’m gunna have to disagree, his indeed is a silk purse!

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Good workman’s rifles. I believe that they use an investment cast Mauser Model 98 action.

I personally think you can’t do much better in terms of non dangerous calibers than a good old .30-06 Springfield

 

[Hogpatrol]

Unless is something special, not a proponent of putting money in to a factory rifle. No matter how much you spend or change, it's still a Zastava and worth a $700 rifle. My 2¢, sell it and put the money on your want list. YMMV.

 

[VINOYASADO]

If you haven't used it, will continue like this...Sell it, dont waste time and enjoy the money in other rifle, hunting or ammo or whatever you fancy

 

[dogcat1]

Sell it. You obviously don’t think much of it. Buy something you really want. You would be putting money into something that is a compromise and won’t be worth what you spent.

 

[Russ16]

Good workman’s rifles. I believe that they use an investment cast Mauser Model 98 action.

I personally think you can’t do much better in terms of non dangerous calibers than a good old .30-06 Springfield

I agree. But I already have 3.

Thanks for everyone. Didn’t realize how reasonable it was to have it rebored. I’ll consider that. I had been thinking of going the other way. Rebarrell to a smaller caliber. That’s what’s really missing in my armament. I don’t have much in the way of smaller calibers for targets, varmints, etc.

 

[cash_tx]

+1 for selling it or using as is. I have had six Zastava M98-based rifles (still own five of them), and they are very usable rifles; but they are not something I would sink much money into. Unless you can get a really good deal on reboring to 35 Whelen or rebarreling to 25-06, I probably wouldn't pursue this very far. Either way, you'll have more money in the gun than it's worth, and that's before you even start to replace the synthetic stock with a nice wood one (if that's of interest).

 

[roklok]

I am almost certain that these Zastava actions are forged. I saw no indications of casting on mine. Here are two references that state the action is forged, one an advertisement from Interarms when they were the importer, and the second is an American Rifleman article on the Charles Daly Mausers. My 798 has beautiful lustrous bluing, its action was a little rough out of the box but smoothed up considerably by repetitive hand cycling. Even out of the box it wasn't much different than a new production Ruger for example. Some of them are a bit rough. If I needed a smaller caliber I would probably sell it and use funds towards a different rifle. However if you wanted something medium bore, reboring would be a cost effective way to have a great rifle. Rebarreling would most likely cost a lot more than a rebore unless you could do it yourself. Midway sells short chambered Shilen Mauser barrels for less than $400.00 in various chamberings.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1858271283...LB0XYLuPEJ34PeWQzn7fevDLRA==|tkp:BFBM4u7b74Zl

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1566120692...rKdXmivtn6g8/14EXF85/Uvw==|tkp:Bk9SR6TVo_GGZQ

 

[ActionBob]

You could try offering it up for trade? Even for ammo, or anything else you can make use of.

Or if you have any interest in trying your hand at gunsmithing you could re-barrel or re-bore to any caliber that uses a 30-06 case so that you don't need to get into redoing the magazine. However I'd have to agree that to spend money paying someone else to work on it is not going to be a good investment.

 

[leslie hetrick]

a 3006 is never wrong. you could kill 90% of the game animals on earth with it and with a little luck kill them all.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Okay, I'm in the same boat. I already have two 30-06 so no need of another. Already built myself a 404 on Czech 98 Mauser so no need to go any further in the thumper direction. I don't have a varmint rifle and historically only shot them with the 06 when opportunity arose hunting big game. But this year I saw unprecedented numbers of coyotes in Montana. Ridiculous. And another property I bird hunt has a large tract of state land that has been obliterated by prairie dogs. The range on an entire section has been cleaned to the ground smoother that the top of a pool table. I have a camper trailer in storage there and a place to park it. So I'm thinking I should build a varmint rifle and return earlier to Montana and help clean up the problem with them. Zastava Mauser action would be a good candidate. I've also been looking at small ring military Mauser. Finding a 243 barrel shouldn't be too hard. You don't have any money in this gun now so I think you can afford to spend four or five hundred to make a decent looking varmint/target rifle. Not a great market for those but you should get close to what you put into it if you decide to sell. No need to go whole hog. A decent piece of walnut or even laminated with no checkering. Forget the iron sights, barrel band sling swivel, and other African decorations. Put a big scope on it instead. Not sure how fussy one needs to be with silky cycling in a varmint rifle. What's the point? It's primarily used single shot.