Daughter gave me a Mauser. Help with ID, please

[jonp]

When my daughter was sent to Florida the soldier she took over for gave her a rifle to hold onto for him as he was going straight to OCS. 3 yrs later she never heard from him and can't find him so sent the rifle up to me in a case as a "hey, you want this whatever it is"?

So, it's a Mauser action and stock. All numbers match, including the original stock stamp.
Five digit SN W16xxx, the stock just has the 5 digit number. None are crossed out or over stamped. All SN's are clear and crisp.

No markings. No eagles, crowns, crests.. nothing I can see and I can't see where they were milled off.

Bolt is bent with a flat bottom knob but with an indistinguishable mark. It is stamped with the SN on the outside of the bend and "550" on the inside curve.

All parts have a 1 stamped in either a circle or box. Some parts have both and I mean every part including the buttplate, ladder sight and barrel band. It has a part under the barrel for a bayonet with a slot on the left side of the second band for storing it I think.

Ladder sight is marked 100-2000m.

Rear stock has the slot through it for the sling but no sling. Some expert drilled it for sling mounts grrrr.

The floor plate is odd. It has the "1" stamp and the matching serial number but is almost flat with rectangular stamps around the center part kinda like it was stamped on a machine that had rectangle prongs to punch the shape. So with the stamped floorplate I'm thinking M48A? It doesn't have the stamped trigger guard which would make it an M48B I think.

Front sight is hooded with the "1" stamp in both circle and box.

Any ideas on this one? Looks to me like a M48A Yugo like this one https://www.jgsales.com/yugo-48-maus...-p-101908.html in standard 8mm. Except for the no marking stamps this rifle is in VG condition almost Excellent with little wear. Stock not split, all metal fine, bore bright no pits. Just a little spot of surface rust from sitting in the corner for 3yrs.

I did find this on a Milsurp Website:

All models of M48 can sometimes be found completely lacking all markings aside from the serial numbers. These models are collectively referred to as M48BO. BO = "Bez Oznake" Which translates roughly to "without markings". These guns would have been sold or given as foreign aid to countries and organizations with which Yugoslavia did not want to be publicly associated.


This interested me from that site:

An acquaintance had conducted a study on these rifles and after reviewing over 2,000 assorted Yugo Mausers, observed that no BO's were configured as the model A. Plenty of M48 and more M48B's but not one M48A. Since he gave me that observation, I have been watching and have not seen one either. Many have been reported but upon examination, all were misidentified M48B. If you know of a verified M48A-bo, we'd sure like to know about it.


I can't really tell if the trigger guard is stamped but it does have an outer part and an seperate inner part so if two parts then stamped? This would make it a M48B-BO

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Interesting. It sounds like a very close relative to the German K98k standard infantry rifle, which the Yugo is a close cousin as they were produced on captured German machinery. To just look at the two, German and Yugo, the most noticeable difference would be the upper hand guard which in the case of the German rifle just extends from forward of the rear sight to the front band, whereas the Yugo extends forward from the receiver ring to the front band and includes enclosure of the rear sight as shown in the J&G ad link you posted. If your rifle looks like the one in the ad, then it very likely is one.

Your description of the markings and lack thereof is in good detail, but nothing there rings a bell with me. The one unusual thing is the flat bottomed bolt knob. There are many Mauser variations, but not too many have that feature, so that nails it down a bit. The only one in my accumulation I can readily think of is a Brazilian, and the flat area is checkered. This is usually found on rifles with stocks that don't have the finger cutout area--just a different way of providing a little relief at that location for the knuckles. Those that do have the cutout have round knobs.

I think you probably have a Yugo, but just for the sake of conversation, there are a lot of K98k rifles floating around now that were captured by the Rooskies, rebuilt, many refinished, and placed in their war reserve stockpiles, many sold on the US surplus market just a few years ago. They were scrubbed of their markings to varying degrees, usually by grinding, but sometimes just by defacing with a punch. Your description would seem to eliminate that as a source, as most other markings including the manufacturer's code (like byf) were left intact. The almost newness of your specimen also pushes me in the direction of Yugo.

[LAGS]

What is the action screw spacing.
I think the Yugo 48's are the shorter Large Ring action like all my Yugo 24/47's