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Scrubbed M48?
I bought this all matching M48 rifle a while back and it doesn't have any markings whatsoever. Only had the matching serial number on the right side receiver, bolt handle, stock, floor plate, triggerguard. Came with a matching bayonet, ammo leather pouch, a round brass colored two chamber oil container and other cleaning materials. Total cost $250. Almost in unused condition I would think. Has those triangle and "M" looking proof marks on all the metal parts and stock.
Anyway what's up with this? No markings? Bluing looks original and I can't find any grinding marks on the receiver. Bro has the cam so I can't take pics.
I bought this Mauser because the absence of any crests etc was interesting to me and price was kinda cheap too.
Any more info on this?
Platinum Bullet member
#2 • Sep 14, 2007 (Edited)
It was probably not "srcubbed". It's a "BO" meaning no markings version which were made with no receiver markings for export. A large number of these are in like new condition. There were over 380,000 of these rifles made in 1957.
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craig61a
Silver Bullet member
Yeah what he said. A Yugo 'BO' or Bez Onake which supposedly translates to "Without Markings". Made on the sly for a Suez (Egyptian?) contract in the late 50's, until the deal was found out, and most of the weapons were retained by the Yugoslavians in unused condition...
nothernug
M48bo
They're correct on it being an M48bo.
But the Egyptian story is just MARSTAR ad hype and pure phoney baloney. Certainly many were sold to the Middle East including Egypt. Such an order may have been balked as stated (no evidence has been produced to support this story btw) but the bottom line is that the "bo" is the single most numerous M48 model produced. They're fairly rare here though because most were shipped out for export.
It maybe "scrubbed," in fact, probably is. The "bo" did not become a dedicated production model until 1956, concurrent with the model M48B. The first "bo"s were pulled "off the rack", scrubbed and refinished for export to many of those "Liberation Front" type insurgencies so popular in the '70s.
To date, I have not found or heard of a confirmed "bo" configured as an M48A. If you have one, please let me know.
Your $250 price tag is no bargain but reasonble.
"In times of trouble and of war, God and soldiers we adore; When wars are done and wrongs are righted, God's forgotten and the soldier slighted." Ye Olde English proverb; origin unknown
Cheap_shot
The Egyptians (perhaps more accurately the "United Arab republic) did have quite a few M48BO rifles, but this lot of rifles from Egypt was slightly different than the current BO rifles , suggesting that they were produced to a contract specification that was not the same as most M48s. The Egyptian BOs have blued bolts and buttplates and a marking disk cut out on the side of the stock. These rifles were imported by Century in 1987 (immediately after import of military surplus rifles resumed after the 1968 GCA ban was lifted), along with Egyptian FN49s, Hakims, Helwans and a billion rounds of Egyptian 8mm. Most of these rifles appeared unused, as did many of the FNs and Hakims.
Hey Cheap shot. That's new info to me. Can you provide a source for that??? Have any pics of such a critter???
Yes, I do. I looked over several dozen of these rifles at Old Sacramento Arsenal in about 1988. OSA said Century imported them from Egypt along with the fn49s and Hakims that they were also selling. That is the only documentation. They are different than the currently imported BO M48s. I did an informal serial number survey some time ago and the #s interleave with Syrian and Iraqi M48s. They tend to be in the V block and early W block.
My BO M48 is in the V block and with the silver bolt and silver buttplate.
Thanks Cheap shot!
My M48bo is just like sn1945's. V prefix with bolt and butt cap in the white. The serial # is V54,347 (or something like that. I haven't looked at it in a while).
Those letter prefixes just denote the contract anyway.
One more question please. Is it configured as M48 or M48A?
Would you mind if I lift those pics and send copies to a friend of mine doing research on Yugo mausers?
They were all M48s and none of them had a brass marking disk installed in the stock that might verify their origin. They weren $70 back then. You are welcome tothe pictures.
My "BO" is in the W serial number block (W09150) and has a bright bolt and butt plate. What contract are the "W" prefix rifles for.
JIMMY C said:
Here's Branko's explanation of post WWII rifle serialization...
The serial numbers on the Yugoslavian rifles are a big problem. In fact, at the beginning the service weapons were produced with serial numbers without either preceding or succeeding letters. But the problem is that the weapons had not been produced in continuity day after day starting from the number 1 up to the end of production of certain model. Everything depended on the available material at the plant and financial sources and the need of the army.
The rifles used to be produced in the batches in different quantities. After each break or pause a new batch started from the last serial number of the former one but with preceding letter denoting a continuation of production i.e., a new batch of the same model rifle. In addition, a decision to stop marking the batches makes the thing more complicated. So, practically speaking, the preceding letter means nothing as far as it concerns the serial number itself.
The same rule was applied to the export military Mausers. The serial number was given a Latin preceding letter according to the purchaser's request i.e. according to the terms of the contract. I hope you understood this complicated explanation.
What contract or contractor the letter designates is not now known (or that I know of anyway).
The serial number survey I did was before the recent large batch of M48s was imported from the Balkans that started coming in about 6 years ago. The only thing obvious is that there were no single contiguous blocks of discrete BO, Syrian and Iraqi rifles. They were all mixed in with large gaps between them. Part of the problem is that I didn't have than many serial numbers, but from the ones I had, you could make these conclusions.
Makes sound reasoning to me.
Was that one you got configured as a 1st model or a model A?
It is a first model, not an A.
Cheap_shot Sep 18, 2007
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