The American Eagle Mauser 98/85 in 308

[indy1919a4]

Came across a Mauser with the greatest crest of all Mausers, The American Eagle 98/85 from Federal Ordnance. Seems in the 80s Federal ordnance imported a slew of Mausers.. In this batch there were about 4000 rifles with rusted out barrels. So they took these rifles cleaned and rebarreled them in 308 and remarked them with the American Eagle.

One nice thing is the gun is chambered in 308 and is the Newest looking Mauser I have ever owned..

Another thing, there are several different styles of Mausers that were used, there are k98s, Spanish Mausers & Vz-24 So a lot of variety,

On the negative side, they did not put in a spacer in the magazine well for the shorter 308 ammo..

But in a range test today the gun shot very well And other then an embarrassing feed jam because of the lack of the magazine spacer the gun was perfect..

Some 1980s ads

 

[EvilKidsMeal]

That's awesome. I've always kind of wanted a Mauser, but never wanted to dive into another surplus caliber. I own a .308 so I would be much more likely to own a Mauser if I ever came across one in that caliber.

Nice find, looks really clean and solid.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

That's awesome. I've always kind of wanted a Mauser, but never wanted to dive into another surplus caliber. I own a .308 so I would be much more likely to own a Mauser if I ever came across one in that caliber.

Nice find, looks really clean and solid.

You can find Mausers in 308 pretty easily. I have a Spanish Model 1916, a Chilean 1895 (I think), and an Israeli K98, all in 308. It's a nice option to have a Mauser that uses readily available ammo (although 8mm surplus is still readily available too).

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I very much enjoyed shooting that rifle Mike! It's a beauty, that's for sure!

 

[oldpink]

Really a nice find, and getting one already rebarreled to .308 was a bonus.
I'm sure you could get the magazine well spacer installed for not very much to make it much more of a shooter.
btw...I don't think getting a Mauser in one of its original calibers -- particularly 7x57mm -- would be very bad at all, especially if you were a reloader.