Over the last few months, several people, including me, have inquired here about just exactly what over all length cartridge the so-called intermediate length Yugoslavian 24/47 Mauser action can handle. Waksupi was pondering if one would handle the .35 Whelen and I was wondering if one would handle the 8mm-06 or .338-06.
I just bought a Yugoslavian 24/47 barreled action from Samco Global and just got finished measuring what OAL of .30-06 cartridge will fit in the magazine. The number that I came up with for my particular rifle receiver is an OAL of 3.213” will fit. I managed to photograph a cartridge that had been inserted all the way down to the bottom of the cartridge well, although the perspective doesn’t show very well that it is indeed all the way down at the bottom. The two cartridges in the next to last photo are just laying on the outside of the magazine, the upper one is an 8x57 and the lower one is the .30-06 with an OAL of 3.213". The last photo is the 24/47 compared to a long action 48/52c Yugolavian Mauser, which is based on the Czeck M24 and very close to the WW2 German Gewehr K98K Oberndorf/DWM Mauser. The bolt from my WW2 Oberndorf will fit and function in the 48/52c.
I test fired this barreled action and found out it is acccurate enough so that it would be a rather tragic waste to tear it down and re-barrel it. The 8x57 cartridge has some very good ballistic qualities, so it is staying in its original form!