About my new to me Spanish FR-8

[BudMan5]

Picking it up this weekend. Wanted one for a long time. My sw MO home is extremely rural and we have a couple of acres of grass and a couple more acres of heavy woods. And we're surrounded by heavy woods. So, every once in a while, while on my tractor or ATV, I have a coyote pop up and some of the neighbors have reported seeing hogs so I have wanted something decent in 7.62 just if the odd opportunity suddenly arose. I started reading about FR-8s months ago and started looking for one.

Here's the question; can I exchange a 98K bolt for the FR-8 bolt? The reason for that is I would much prefer a turned down bolt, the FR-8 bolt sticks straight out as it it's waving at the neighbors. It makes sliding full length into a leather scabbard difficult.

Thanks in advance!

Information

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[Aragorn243]

I cannot attest to either the safety or function of a K98 bolt in an FR-8. I did check it out. A VZ-24 bolt will not close. A K-98 Bolt will close and fire but the safety will not function without extreme force, force I am unwilling to try. It will not go into the full safe position. FR- 8 bolt will fit in both of the others. The guide on the VZ-24 bolt looks (by eye) to be wider. No idea what type of headspace nightmare you could be getting into.

[BudMan5]

Thanks I think I will pass on that idea. As soon as I pick it up this weekend I'll fire 100 rounds or so. It may be that it's no problem at all.

[Aussie48]

If it's not a collector but a shooter just turn down the original bolt

[Aragorn243]

I don't know about that. These are highly sought after and they aren't making any more of them.

[Aussie48]

I thought about bending my bolt handle down but it is all matching and you get used to the straight bolt. I didn't know they were that sought after but they certainly aren't making any more of them.

[Aragorn243]

The FR-8 is not one of the best known milsurps but when people find out about them, they typically want one. This fellow waited a long time to find one, availability just isn't there. It has two big positives going for it, it's 7.62/308 and it has a certain "cool" factor going for it. Add in that it's short, it makes a great truck/brush gun. When found in the US, they are typically in excellent shape.

[BudMan5]

thought I would add a photo:



The first one turned out to be such a great little rifle, I found a deal on GunBroker and picked up a second one. Some nimrod also didn't like the straight bolt handle and he bent this one down using (apparently) a vice:



a good friend is an accomplished gunsmith and he says to leave it alone, don't rry to fix it (other thn maybe filling in the cracks) and it will fire fine