VZ-24 (Century 79.00 "VG") report (sorry, no pics yet)

[Ezra Coli]

Well, my VZ-24 came yesterday from CIA, one of the VG ones for $79.

Wooo! Man, almost 95% blue, real deep blue too, only slight rubbing on corners. Bore is a strong and shiny VG, maybe better. Stock isnot as dinged up as I had expected and looks to be very nice, will clean up in a few weeks. Handguard and stock match pretty well too, stock serial number matches gun, bolt does not match.

Gun is marked in the typical way, it once had a lion crest that could be matchedto a reference pic, but its been scrubbed. Appears to be 1938, but I don't have my reference material so I can't yet look up and interpret the codes. There's an R in the serial number, perhaps this was one of those Romanian contracts?

Overall- very nice, worth every cent, I'm pleased as can be, but no cleaning rod. Anyone know a good source for a VZ-24 cleaning rod?

:rockin:

[REDSTAR]

I really think these old soldiers were out there in the field roasting wienies on their rods!

Man I hate it when I don't get a rod.

Try the old standby Numerich I guess, or try a K98 rod in the rifle. I/O has K98 rods for $15. If you want I can compare the two types to see if they're comparable. Let me know.

[Ezra Coli]

Originally posted by REDSTAR
I really think these old soldiers were out there in the field roasting wienies on their rods!

Man I hate it when I don't get a rod.

Try the old standby Numerich I guess, or try a K98 rod in the rifle. I/O has K98 rods for $15. If you want I can compare the two types to see if they're comparable. Let me know.

Sure, a K98 rod would be fine is its at least close. Since the Germs used these rifles too I won't be too far off.

[AKWARRIOR]

Congrats,

I have a VZ-24 like yours.Missing the crest on the reciever and it has a non-matching bolt.No date of manufacture whatsoever.
Mines also void of a cleaning rod as expected.Finish on mine was about 10-20% before I atempted my first blueing job in history:rolleyes:.I sure need to redo it and will never blue a rifle such as this ever again.It was a good lesson.Still its a damn fine mauser and shoots straight.The syock was impregnated with dark old cosmo and grease but I cleaned it up very nice and sanded a lot of the dings out.Ive had her about 4 years now.I have seen VZ-24 cleaning rods on ebay.There is a guy that sells them quite often for $15.00.Thing you have to watch out for on a lot of these VZ's is that many were counter-bored sometime during their service life.

Regards,

[Scoupe]

First of all, AKW, please don't take this as a flame - you just got me thinking.

Counterboring doesn't bother me at all. It is simply an adjustment to bring a rifle into accuracy standards. The Finns did it a lot, and it's generally agreed that as a whole, Finn worked rifles are the most accurate Mosins, although not soley as a result of of counterboring. They apparently thought it was worth the time, as we see so many of them counter bored. I guess to some folks, counter boring could look like a last ditch effort to coax a little more life out of a tired barrel, but I prefer to look at it as accuracy work. ;)

[AKWARRIOR]

Originally posted by Scoupe
First of all, AKW, please don't take this as a flame - you just got me thinking.

Counterboring doesn't bother me at all. It is simply an adjustment to bring a rifle into accuracy standards. The Finns did it a lot, and it's generally agreed that as a whole, Finn worked rifles are the most accurate Mosins, although not soley as a result of of counterboring. They apparently thought it was worth the time, as we see so many of them counter bored. I guess to some folks, counter boring could look like a last ditch effort to coax a little more life out of a tired barrel, but I prefer to look at it as accuracy work. ;)

Scoupe,

Im aware of the counterbore philosphy.However some of the Czech Mausers Ive seen it done to were quite horrible.:eek:The general reason on the old beaters to counterbore was to extend service life and on the ones Ive seen it done to,they sure have seen better days.We were talking mausers here not Finnish M39's:DMuch...much different!:D

Regards,

[Scoupe]

Originally posted by AKWARRIOR

We were talking mausers here not Finnish M39's:DMuch...much different!,:D

Regards,

Good point.

[Tracy]

Ditto on the VG without the cleaning rod. Mine's been scrubbed too and I've looked all over the internet trying to find some information on them. Finally, I just e-mailed Century to see if they could tell me something. It sounds like the Czechs sent those to about half the nations in the world. If Century sends back any worthwhile information, I'll post it here.

[SS396]

my vz 24 uses a larger diameter cleaning rod than my german mausers. i ordered one from sarco for 10.00 the invoice shows vz24 for the stock number. go figure.

[lpspinner]

Originally posted by Ezra Coli
Anyone know a good source for a VZ-24 cleaning rod?



Springfield Sporters in PA. has them advertised for $10.00 VZ-24 Mauser Cleaning Rod.

Phone #(724) 254-2626

I didn't check to see if they had any, just saw the ad in Shotgun News.

[REDSTAR]

Opps, I lost track of this post. I'll still check the K98 rod tonight, but Springfield sounds like a better deal and it's the correct rod.

[Ezra Coli]

Ahhhh, I just looked- counterbored. Now let me ask, since the lands and grroves of this rifle appear to be sharp and shiny, just dark but no pitting, what is the purpose of counterboring? Does the last half inch of rifling wear out faster for some reason?

[Tracy]

I've been doing a lot of research on this rifle and have come up with some answers as to its history. Century informed me that they "thought" that these might have been rifles sold to Romania in the late 1930's. I can justifty that with the following--assuming that I can rely on the internet as a reliable source of information.

The bolt is obviously Romanian, based on the use of their unique "CM" mark, which stands for Copsa Mica, the Romanian arsenal in the city of Cugir. Here is a picture of a bolt like mine.
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/IndianaTLH/VZ24+Bolt.jpg
I also have the same mark on the right side of the receiver. Moreover, the crest is not totally ground off of my reciever. It still has some of the sides which resemble the following picture of the Romanian crest.
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/IndianaTLH/Romanian+Crest.jpg
I don't know if this is the "specific" crest that was on my gun, as it appears that Romania may have had a variety of crests. However, the sides of my crest match up with the "leaflets" (or whatever that is supposed to be) on this crest. I would scan my crest, but the wife is asleep next to me and I would like to completely solve this mystery before I die.
The following is the crest on an M44.
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/IndianaTLH/Romanian+M44.jpg

As if that isn't enough, I also have a serial number that begins with an "ER." As I understand it, the "R" signifies that it was shipped to Romania.

What I am not clear on is when the receiver was ground. Romania sided with Germany in the first part of World War II. Later, a coup overthrew the government and they sided with the Allies. This was late in the war. Had some of these rifles been in the German arsenal, I could well understand the Germans grounding off the crest as they would have considered the Romanians to be treasonists. On the other hand, perhaps this crest represented totalitarian rule and the Romanians ground it off themselves. I seriously doubt that either one of these assumptions is correct as I do not have a sufficient understanding of the situation. Is there a historian out there who could provide an answer? Is there someone who knows a source that I could go to for an answer? This last part of the puzzle (assuming I have correctly put it together) is really bugging me.

NOTE: I have noticed that some of the pictures (randomly) do not seem to be loading well. I think that it is due to a high demand on the hosting site.

[Tracy]

I've scanned the remnants of the crest on my receiver. Here it is.
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/IndianaTLH/Crest.jpg
It would appear to me that this reciever once had the Romanian crest stamped on it.

I've managed to find a couple of different crests for Romania. One of the crests has a red star at the top which represents a communist country. The one in my previous post doesn't. However, I still don't know if the crests were ground off as a result of going to, or coming from, communism (or some other reason). It does appear, though, that the very good VZ-24's from Century were in Romanian hands. Any comments from anyone with some insight would be appreciated.

[Ezra Coli]

Tracy,

Thanks for all the hard work. Your gun is different than mine. I do have an R in the serial number (35XX R4, where x's are numerals), but I don't have the "CM" mark anywhere on the rifle or bolt. My bolt has a small Czech lion on it, and the crest, while ground off, I too can see the edges and it matches perfectly with one of the common Czech lions. Like I said above too, mine's counterbored.

Cheers!

[Tracy]

Originally posted by Ezra Coli
Tracy,

Thanks for all the hard work. Your gun is different than mine. I do have an R in the serial number (35XX R4, where x's are numerals), but I don't have the "CM" mark anywhere on the rifle or bolt. My bolt has a small Czech lion on it, and the crest, while ground off, I too can see the edges and it matches perfectly with one of the common Czech lions. Like I said above too, mine's counterbored.

Cheers!

Hmmmm...what do you know...I guess they did have different ones after all. It looks like the only thing our rifles have in comon is that MINE IS COUNTERBORED TOO! [I was so busy looking at the markings that I didn't notice until now]. :cryeyes:
:rolleyes:

[REDSTAR]

Finally remebered to check the rods. The K98 rods that I/O sells are 2.5 inches shorter than the rods on my two VZ24/47's. It's also thinner. I'm not sure if the 24/47 has the same rod as the 24 though.

[Ezra Coli]

Originally posted by REDSTAR
Finally remebered to check the rods. The K98 rods that I/O sells are 2.5 inches shorter than the rods on my two VZ24/47's. It's also thinner. I'm not sure if the 24/47 has the same rod as the 24 though.

Thanks for checking! Looks like I'll try to find a true VZ-24 rod just to be sure.

Love the new touch on the avatar! You are a dashing example of manhood! ;)