Bought a 1903 Turkish Mauser

[nuget102]

I bought a 1903 Turkish Mauser yesterday. It was manufactured in 1937 and has a 29.5" barrel.

It's in rough shape, and costed me around $175. It has the cleaning rod, and comes with a sling. The guy I bought it from says it fires and loads okay. I tried loading it when I got home (didn't have any 8mm ammo on me. And yes, this one was modified to be 8mm by the Turks.) and I had a problem.. The bullets wouldn't feed.

We could feed a single bullet no problem, but more than that and it'd be difficult. To the point we had to get a screw driver and fiddle with the bullets. I'm slightly annoyed, but the gun looked okay to me. Hoping it's just a weak spring? The stock appeared to be okay, and I seen no visible rust.. But I couldn't get the floorplate out of the trigger guard, so naturally I just took the trigger guard off. And I seen rust mixed with rotten wood. I began to field strip the rifle and I found more of the same. My observation is the stock will probably need replaced eventually. Although I think it's okay for now.

But, the bolt cycles flawlessly and easily. The safety flips without a problem. And the iron sights look okay, although i'm missing the front sight hood. I'm guessing the previous owner did nothing but routine maintenance on the gun, since all the visible areas are pristine.

So basically my problems: floorplate won't release. I think it's a push pin and then push on the plate and slide it towards the trigger type release. But my guess, it's rusted shut. So soak it in WD-40?

And the follower won't feed the bullets properly. It's like they get jammed in the mag, so the bolt can't even catch them. Weak spring? Or perhaps the spring was re-bent some one who doesn't know better?

Also, here's a couple pics of the rifle. Not the best, but all I have is my cell.
Attachment 79123 Trigger guard pins
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Attachment 79125 The part of the stock where the trigger guard inserts
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