Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters FN Mauser

If you do decide to jump I have a factory FN sporter stock I am not going to use.

Most of the ones I have originally had aperture sights.

Do you know if it would be a drop in fit ?

I do not know, I would think it would depend on what barrel yours has.

About half the Mauser rifles I have are FN commercials. One still all original, a J.C. Higgins M50 30-06 from Sears that looks almost new is a good shooter as is. I think I have something like four of the M50s, one made into a 7x57 custom. I also have two of the commercial FNs, one made into a custom with a new barrel, The old one was toast. It's been placed in a McMillan stock. Extremely accurate with 165 gr. Nosler Accubonds. The other is chambered to the .270 Win, stock shortened to fit the original owner. Very accurate running the 150 gr. Nosler Partition. It sits in the cut down original stock that was glass bedded including the full barrel length. It also has a cut down Butler Creek synthetic and is equally full length bedded. I just stuck slip on recoil pads and let it go at that.
Frankly, if I had need for another Mauser and the price was right, I'd be all over that one, JMHO, but I consider a good Mauser, commercial or clean milsurp to be a better rifle than the beloved pre-64 M70 Winchester by a long shot. No pun intended.
PJ

Neat barreled action, could be turned into really nice woods rifle with an aperture sight without a big investment. A classic styled Boyd’s stock would be another couple hundred.

Well I went ahead and picked it up tonight after work.
It did still have the factory grease on it. I started cleaning it, the chamber was loaded with it. I still have more to do. I need to take the bolt apart, it looks like it’s packed.
The trigger is long and heavy so I might have to do something with it. And I don’t know if my eyes will be able to handle a peep and small bead may have to drill and tap for a scope.
I have a stock deal in the works so things are falling into place nicely.

That’s good to hear!

If you decide to look for a fine receiver sight for your new rifle, the top choice, if you can find it, would be the Lyman 48 FN. This is a version of the 48 that is especially contoured for the FN action without the stripper clip hump that military Mausers have. The Lyman 48 M as well as the Lyman 57 SME with not only fit the FN but will also fit around the stripper clip hump on the military actions.
Redfield also made the model 70 and 80 (80 has a quick-release slide like the Lymans, 70 doesn't) for the Mauser.

Good luck with your new rifle!
Rex

So if I decided to go with a Redfield sight the correct one would be a 70m or 80m? And it should bolt right up? How do those compare with the Lyman 48’s?
The Redfield’s look more compact and more ready available.

Correct. The MH has the hunter knobs and MT has the target knobs. I have a few vintage ones on hand if you want to PM me about it. Include the exact center-to-center spacing on your mounting holes, and the distance from the edge of the rear of the loading/ejection port to the forward screw hole so we can be certain of the fit. The hole spacing is the same on Redfields or Lymans, but the position of the sight when mounted may vary slightly.

Cheers,
Rex

Well I have a sporter stock, Redfield sight, Timney trigger headed my way.
I do have another question about the safety. It seems mine is only a 2 position safety. Is this correct or is something wrong with it? All the research I’ve done only shows a 3 position safety.
Mine when down is fire and when it’s at about at a 45* position it’s on safe. There’s no straight up or all the way to the right.

That is the standard safety for commercial FNs. IMO it’s a great one for use with irons, almost like thumbing a hammer. A little troublesome for scope use as the flag rests pretty close to the ocular. Locks the bolt when on, so you need to unload with it in the off position and/or use the floorplate.

Disassembly is also a little tricky, but there are illustrated instructions online. You’ll definitely want to remove the striker for a good cleaning as it may well be full of cosmoline or other grease. After cleaning, I use DriSlide for lube and protection without the possibility of gunking it up again, which can cause misfires and light strikes. Some run them dry. I use moly truck bearing grease on the outer contact surfaces.

I disassemble the bolt last night. It took a chunk out of my thumb. And yes it was loaded with cosmoline. I watched a couple videos on how to do it and they all said to have the safety in the straight up position. Well mine wouldn’t do that and the bolt only would come out in the fire position. So I had to wing it and my thumb got in the way.
I even took the bolt stop off because it looked greased up pretty good.
The chamber and front of the action were packed. It took the most time cleaning, hard getting in the nooks and crannies you can’t even see.
I also ordered Jim Kuhnhausen’s book.

You’re watching the wrong video. The FN bolt differs from military 98s, so you need to get that Mauser notion out of your noggin. Since the FN safety only has two positions and the ON position locks the bolt, once you remove the bolt you have to push the cocking piece against a hard surface and stick a dime or something similar in the little slot that gets exposed to hold it. A Ruger bolt is similar except there’s a hole for a small nail or pin.

This is the rear sight that came with my FN. I have it around here somewhere. Very simple with two settings.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/274448727616?

Of course it has been scoped since I have owned it.

As had already been said, that is the correct safety for your rifle.

I find that style of safety to be very intuitive and easy to use, with or without a scope.

From personal experience, I will say that I much prefer the safety to be on the right side of the bolt. The reason for this is that when I have the rifle slung across my back, it is possible for the safety to get switched off. Not normally a problem since I practice good firearm safety fundamentals, but it did surprise me when it first happened. I didn't have an ND, but hearing the safety click off on its own was a bit disconcerting. Now I am very careful about how I carry my FN rifles, especially my .25-06 custom rifle with FN action, which combines a relatively easy left-sided safety and a hair trigger. I now carry that rifle in condition 3 if I have it across my back.