Just walked out the door from Academy with a new Zastava M70 in .308 for $378. Helluva steal I think. Gorgeous deep bluing, love the trigger, but the wood does leave something to be desired. But I do like that working man's rifle look to it.

I know its a Mauser action but can anyone else tell me anything about these rifles besides the fact their made in the famous Zastava factory in Serbia? Anyone with knowledge of what to expect in terms of accuracy?

Zastava might very well be the world's top manufacturer of commercial Mauser actions these days. Back when Serbia was part of Yugoslavia, Zastava rifles were imported by Interarms, usually as the Interarms Mk X. Briefly, mainly in the 1980s, barreled actions from Zastava were mated with some nicely figured Turkish walnut inspired by Whitworth of England, and these rifles were designated the "Whitworth" line. My brother and I both own Whitworths in .375 H&H, and with their Mauser CRF, they represent a great value in a dangerous game gun. Both our rifles shoot less than 1.5" with 300 gr Noslers and Swifts.

Zastava also produced a "mini-Mauser" rifle that was offered in .223. It was a scaled down action built around the little .223, and is quite a collector's item these days. I wish I'd bought one when I had the chance.

Zastava has always been a huge maker of military arms....SKSs, AKs, and such. I need to drop by Academy and take a look at one.

They're good, solid rifles. I believe the Remington 798s were the very same actions wearing walnut stocks made for or by Remington. I'd say you got a GREAT deal!

Dang!!!!!! I'd jump all over one of those if I came across one.

I would take the stock off and refinish it to make it better.

I looked at some at academy and the fit and finish was awful.


I think a guy could take it, sand it down and put a high gloss finish on it and greatly improve the looks of it.


the action and mechanics of the rifle should be solid. a mauser 98 action is one of the best ever created

+1 on everything everybody has said above. The gun should be typically a little stiff, and rough feeling cycling the bolt...it'll smooth out nicely with use, my CZ did. These guns are built for a lifetime of hard use that we used to call "built hell for stout" as a mark of respect when I was coming up in the '60's. Barrel ought to be a hammer forged cut rifling system too.

Like Dawaba was saying. These guns have been marketed for many many years under a number of names depending on the finish out, from his beautimous english Whitworth Safari styled guns to a number of other english labels like Paker Hale 1200's imported thru Jana Int'l out of Denver for lots of years, and some of the biggest American Import house's like the Interarms "Mark X" & Santa Barbra stuff from California. They don't have quite the workmanship of the now discontinued CZ 550's, but with a little TLC and effort like the heavily used custom one that still cycled silky smooth and locked up effortlessly with no slop I saw yesterday at Best Pawn in Sherman can be impressive.

FWIW if you give up on that stock, Boyd's makes American styled stocks for them, and Stocky's has had some selections too in the past beyond the left over Remmy 798 laminates. See if you find a Remmy 798 on GB to see what they did with the same base level product. FYI Remmy's code was 7 for a CF rifle & 98 for the true mauser design. Cute huh?

The Mini Mausers are called a Model 85, and last time I looked could still be had & if I can remember the importer I'll post it. I was going to buy a 7x57 or a 6.5x57 or another 9.3x62 at the time and other things got in the way...and everytime I was ready they'd already sold out again.

Gotta go see if the Academy in Sherman has any manana.
Ron

Great guns!!! Heck of a deal I gave 525 for a LH in a 375 2 years ago, made a 375 WBY out of it!

Ed

Rub linseed oil into the stock and it will shine right up. You are probably going to want to do something about that hooded front sight when you mount a scope, though.

You can find very scattered thin inventories of Zastava M70's & a very few M 85's all in 223 at:
K-Var in Las Vegas NV in Arsenal Import labels
Impact Guns, with a location in New Hampshire? CAI aka Century Import labels
J&G Sports in Prescott Arizona in Arsenal Import labels I think
Grab A Gun in Coppell, TX in Arsenal labels.

K-Var had the most caliber selection and were priced in the mid $500's in standard calibers, but had a couple biggg DG calibers too @ Mo $'s + M85 223's @ ?$400'ish & no 22-250 or 7.62x39's listed anymore. K-Var is who I was looking at ummm last year or before for the euro calibers I mentioned, and don't even see a listing for now.... and priced the same way at mid $500's in American calibers, and had been + $100 for the euro's.
Ron

Century Arms is currently importing them. Anyone should be able to get one of the FFLs on the Forum to order and receive one from the importer for them, including the FFL's transfer fee of course. May or may not be a break from the Academy price due to the volume I am sure Academy does. And may or may not be out of stock, but still listed on the website.
http://www.centuryarms.biz/products.asp?cat=117
http://www.centuryarms.com/visualnet/consumer/july2012consumer/files/assets/downloads/page0012.pdf

I had a M70 in 7mm Rem Mag. It shot 130 grain bullets great but sucked with anything heavier: like 3" groups. I ended up emailing Zastava and they confirmed that the barrel twist was 1 in 12"....way too slow for the 160 gr bullets I wanted to shoot. Other than that it was a great rifle but I had to sell it so I could get something with a better twist rate.

I like that they are putting them in walnut stocks now but I hate how they are putting sights on them.

Also, Zastava is the same company that made the Interarms Mark X and Mini Mark X and the Remington 798 and 799.

caution, if you take that front sight off, it will be a dovetailed slot, that will be hard to find a blank for