Cosmo & The M48

[pinetop]

My M48 arrived today from AIM looks great,unfired infact, almost no clean up appears to be needed.
Do I need to worry about cosmoline that is under the barrel ?
I read that trapped cosmo turns to liquid when the gun is fired and leaks back into the stock. Is that a negative ?

[Richard Simmons]

In my opinion it's always a good idea to detail strip a newly acquired firearm. You need to see what's below the stock line. May be some pitting or other corrosion that you will want to address. Congrats on your new purchase.

[Skip]

On a really hot day I hang it barrel down from the greenhouse rafter 140 degrees. It really bleeds the stuff even after cleaning.

[trotsky]

The M48 wood is VERY loaded with Oil & grease... is yours brown? It should be TAN :)

Oddly, this wood sees to resist the Purple Power regeime... you will pull a LOT of oil out, but more will appear. I had great luck with two PP treatments, followed by wood bleach, followed by TUNG oil - NOT BLO. The wood is so thirsty that BLO will produce a brown stock if it gets within 3 feet of the rifle... 3 coats of Tung oil will result in a VERY nice tan finish.

[pinetop]

My M48 has a dark reddish brown stock, I think it looks really cool. Oily...yes
One of my concerns before I shoot it is what are the effects of trapped cosmo to the stock once the cosmo turns to liquid or is heated up. Can it be a positive having the preservative absorb into the wood ?

[Schuetzenman]

Cosmoline will soften the wood is what can happen when it soaks in.

It's not that hard to pull the barrel bands, remove the trigger guard bolts and then pull the action from the stock. Shouldn't take more than 5 to 10 minutes.

Have you disassembled the bolt and checked it out for cosmoline? Do you know how to disassemble the bolt maybe is the better question. You will need to know how to do that as most of the 8 mm is corrosive and this material can get inside the bolt and rust it up. Especially it needs to be cleaned if you ever pierce a primer.

[pinetop]

I do know how to take apart the bolt, and have already cleaned it. This is my second mauser, my first is a k98 my grandfather brought back from WW2. It was easy to take down. I didn't really know what I was doing and later learned it was a "sack-cut", so removing the barrel bands was easy. I never fired the rifle cause of the cut stock, but did clean it after finding it in my grandmothers basement. Now I'm at a lost on how to get the band spring off the M48.

[Schuetzenman]

Do you mean the bands off? If so you have to compress the band spring . . . hard sometimes to clear the band. Often bands can be tight especially if the wood swelled from cosmoline. Sometimes cosmoline gets under the spring and it's hard as hell to compress it. In such cases I use a blow dryer on high to heat the spring and soften the cosmoline. Then it's easily compressed with a padded flat blade screwdriver. A hard rubber mallet is somtimes useful to tap at the bands to get them to move forward.

In one rare case I needed to use a paint stirring stick like a punch to drive a band off while my wife compressed the spring.

[pinetop]

Is there a site that depicts taking the bands off ?
The mitchellmauser manual doesn't go into removing the action from the stock,and I don't want to screw things up. I know once I do it I'm going to be like "that was easy".
Man, I luv this Mauser......

[Chief]

Just a note on the Yugo stock. The wood on these is Teak. Ask any boater. This is one of the densest and most durable woods on the planet. It also is supposed to soak up oil. This will prevent water damage. I generally oil the teak at least twice monthly on my boat after a scrub with murphy's oil soap. Teak oil can be found at any boating supply store.