Egyptian M48BO

[m4a3sherman]

Ok, So i picked up an unmarked M48BO at my shop yesterday at a great price and a cruddy bore. Some shots and cleaning later, its now a great bore! Numbers match, and overall its a solid piece. From what I can gather, its an Egyptian contact rifle which are pretty uncommon. I can't find any published sources, however, to back up the claim that only 3000 made it to Egypt as part of the contract. Apparently these are linked to the Suez Canal crisis?

The best give away that it saw at least desert service is the smooth and almost 'polished' metal finish remaining on the exposed surfaces so common to middle eastern firearms. Supposedly the fine sand in the wind causes this look. Coupled with what I have seen that most other Middle Eastern countries marked their contract rifles with something, I would make a stab at Egyptian. It does not have the sometimes mentioned 'stock disk.'

The long and the short of it is, is there any way to know for sure, and is there any subsequent documentation? Most importantly, how much is it worth!? I got into it for a good price so I am not overly concerned, but it's nice to know. ;-)

Information

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[Patrick Chadwick]

This is the Mauser forum. You write about an Egyptian M48BO. So it is presumably some type of Mauser. Ball does not mention any Egyptian Mausers at all. Maybe he didn't know everything - I certainly don't. So please enlighten me - what is an M48BO? And although I am used to flying blind on these forums, a couple of pics would be useful!

[Aragorn243]

Patrick,

An M48B0 is a Yugoslavina M48A without the crest and the "A" designation and designed for export to other nations military. So it is plausible that this could have been an Egyptian used Mauser but as for positively Id'ing it, no idea. The sand blasting story sounds interesting but Syria, Iran, Israel among others used 8mm mausers. Short of finding a serial number list showing where they went, it's guesswork.

[m4a3sherman]

Aragorn243 is our correct winner and can now choose from these three fabulous prizes!
Well no, he can't, BUT he is indeed correct. In terms of Yugo rifles, the veritable holy book on them tends to be Branko's 'Serbian and Yugoslavian Mauser Rifles.' It mentions the Egyptian contract, but doesn't offer any pictures or descriptions, let alone any production numbers for that specific contract. Meanwhile, I keep seeing the number 3000 as to how many were sent there from online places, but none of them offer any provenience for that figure. What I want are hard, or atleast as hard as we can get, numbers and sources to support it. Also, if this isn't an Egyptian contract, but instead something else, I'd like to know that too!

Pictures as follow, notice the 'BO' ring, with no crest or any other markings short of a serial number.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Thanks to Aragorn and M4a3sherman for the enlightenment.

In terms of Yugo rifles, the veritable holy book on them tends to be Branko's 'Serbian and Yugoslavian Mauser Rifles.' It mentions the Egyptian contract, but doesn't offer any pictures or descriptions, let alone any production numbers for that specific contract. Meanwhile, I keep seeing the number 3000 as to how many were sent there from online places, but none of them offer any provenience for that figure.

Probably because everybody is mentioning what they read by someone who read that someone else who read ... etc.etc.etc. - In other words, hearsay to the n-th degree, which is not uncommon. This is often the root of "everybody know that..." claims, i.e. nothing of any substance.

A rifle that is unmarked with any end-user crest could have been made for anybody. So if I suggest that the rifles were intended for the Martians, but never delivered (i.e. no proof whatsoever) and enough people pick this up and spread it around on the forums, pretty soon "everybody knows..." about the Martian contract rifles.

Failing documentary evidence of any kind, especially in a book that is regarded as authoratitive on the specific subject, I would be reluctant to attribute any provenience to this rifle. Fantasy and fact start with the same two letters, but that does not make them identical.

[m4a3sherman]

Right, and I want actual Info, that's why I came here!

Check this out:
http://www.lewhorton.com/m48egypt.html

I am going to email this chap and see if HE has any solid info on these guns, and I'll post the results (if any) here.

[Patrick Chadwick]

I checked it out.

You wrote: I can't find any published sources, however, to back up the claim that only 3000 made it to Egypt as part of the contract.

But Horton wrote:

Only a very small pre-production run (less than 3,000) was completed but only a few hundred were delivered prior to the war.

Now please note, I am NOT saying that anybody is right or wrong. But here we already have a discrepancy that indicates how nebulous the whole business is.

So the first question is: has anyone got first hand evidence (not just requoting what someone else claims) that there ever was such a thing as an Egyptian contract for Yugo Mausers?

[m4a3sherman]

Well the Branko book says that there Egypt, along with a number of other countries purchased the rifles, and shows pictures of the other countries' rifles which appear to be marked in some way, either with the countries' crest or something, but the Egyptian rifle isn't pictured. But there is no number given for how many made it there or were purchased...

[Albayo]

I have an example of one of the Yugo Mausers with the Syrian crest on the receiver Model 1948 as listed by Ball.
I also have the same Yugoslavian M48B0 with a serial number proceded by a V like your pictures Sherman. My stock has a disk on the right side and letters or numbers on the left side. I presume they are rack numbers. There is a large white outline of a square (3" X 3") with a 10 on a line separating the lower numbers 133 (like a fraction) the 33s are reversed.

[Calfed]

I've got a Yugo 1948BO with the Iqaqi Hashemite crest on it. I realize that is neither here nor there on Egyptian Mausers, but there it is...