Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Zastava 85 mini Mauser - opinions

Based on my sample of one each M85 and Model 70, there are nice, solid steel rifles hiding under the roughness of the action and less than quality wood finishing.

As tdd4570 noted, the stocks are thick and long and the checkering appears to have been done by blind, drunken people with a particularly severe case of apathy, but the stock ergonomics are actually very good with proper cast and cant. Wood is hit or miss, you could get a plank or you could get some nicely figured walnut under the brown wash finish. Accuracy on the model 70 7x57 was very good and others reported similar fine accuracy. Exterior polishing on both rifles was very nice.

My Model 70 needed several hours with files and sandpaper to fix the ratchet teeth on the feed rails and other areas, but after doing so it operated fairly smoothly. IIRC the feed rails on the 85 weren't nearly as bad but it still would have needed some fine grit paper and elbow grease to get it operating smoothly. I didn't have the ambition to do that on the M85 so sold it unfired.

A note on Zastava in general. They can actually do a very good job on finishing rifles, it all depends on what the buyer wants. But they build to a price point, and the M85 and M70 are built to the lower end of that. So to summarize - good solid rifle, mostly likely will produce good to excellent accuracy, a well shaped stocked albeit somewhat long, very nice exterior metal polish and bluing, with little or no money spent on polishing up the interior or putting a quality finish and detailing on the wood.

That was my opinion 5-6 years ago and examinations of some Model 70's at Cabela's within the last two months verified that nothing seems to have changed since then.

Here are some pics and part of the description from my ad for the Model 85:

...The rifle weighs 6 1/4 pounds as pictured and has a 20" barrel, .550" at the muzzle, and the magazine holds 5 rounds. It is a trim little thing in a rather large stock... Outside polish is very nice, action interior can stand some polishing....















Few more pics to follow.