The Gun Counter

My sons have thoughtlessly outgrown their deer rifles. One of them is a Mossberg youth bolt action, so not a problem because it extends out to adult length, the other is a Rossi single shot so there is not too much I could (or would want to) do to make that fit the freaking monsters.

I am currently leaning towards getting him a Yugo Mauser, probably 24/47 since they are pretty reasonably priced these days, but maybe an M48 if I can find a good deal on one. I think it would be a tad short on him (he is 15 and about 6' 3" and still growing like a weed), but I would probably throw a limb-saver pad on it and would be about right for length of pull.

I already reload for 7.9X57, so that would not be a problem. I think the rifle itself would be plenty accurate for deer hunting inside of 200 yards, which is what he would be using it for. The only thing that concerns me is that I would want to scope it, and that would mean a scout scope, not sure if that would be a great way to go for him.

One plus (maybe) is that I think he would find the rifle somewhat cool, and thus might be more inclined to shoot it more / want to hunt with it. My older sone likes shooting, but has not taken to hunting as much as the younger one - so I am looking for ways to keep him interested in it. I have been thinking of getting a 6.8 SPC upper for the AR as I think the cool factor on that would definately motivate him, but that is just too much money for me right now.

Any thoughts for or against?

I had a Yugo that was not very accurate. I would have hesitated to use that rifle hunting. That said, my brother's yugo, from the same dealer, would group very well, with the right ammo. A scope could help that issue. I believe there is a Cantavleir-type scope mount for them, I remember seeing one on the projects section of the old surplusrifle.com. I'll see if I can find the link later, for now I need to run to work.

You're going to spend at least 200 bucks for a clean yugo.

You can buy a nice used Remington 700 for 350 or so, if you look around, especially now that rifle season is over.


HTRN

HTRN wrote:You're going to spend at least 200 bucks for a clean yugo.

You can buy a nice used Remington 700 for 350 or so, if you look around, especially now that rifle season is over.


HTRN

You can bed and rebarrel a Yugo for the extra $150. Might make for a nice father-sons project...

It will cost you more than that to rebarrel. Go see what Pac-Nor, Douglas, Lilja, Hart and like charge for just a barrel blank.


HTRN

I spent waaaay too much money on a yugo project, turning a crappy rifle into a "decent" one. With what I spent I could have bought two or three new rifles, that would probably shoot at least as well.

For $350, you can get a Savage in .30-06 with a scope at Big5 or Wal-Mart.

You can probably find a similar rig for less at an ELGS.

That would be a better deer rifle.

Also, 8x57 hunting ammo is hard to find. .30-06 hunting ammo you can find at Wal-Mart.

Nothing wrong with a Yugo Mauser for a 15 year old boy, but it's a battle rifle, not a deer rifle.

Of course, he needs to start practicing with a real battle rifle as well, so you should get both!

HTRN wrote:It will cost you more than that to rebarrel. Go see what Pac-Nor, Douglas, Lilja, Hart and like charge for just a barrel blank.


HTRN

it's a deer rifle, yes? Numrich has barrels for $100, IIRC. Timney trigger and some Devcon...

Regardless, what's the cost-benefit break $$ for some father-son bonding? Especially with a teenager.

You already load for the round and it's a fabulous round for North American big game.

Does the Yugo catch his fancy? Is it's historical association likely to engage his interest in getting into the field for a hunt? Then by all means start him off deer hunting with it.

Our grandfathers took more deer with bone stock iron sighted milsurps of that vintage than you could shake a stick at.

Fill wrote:Numrich has barrels for $100, IIRC.

Have you ever seen GPC barrels? "Crap" doesn't begin to describe them. Hell, they may actually be worse than the military barrel already on the rifle!


HTRN