Mitchells Mausers Owners Manual Addendum Disassembly / Reassembly for the Model 48

The first steps to take are safety oriented 1. Lift the safety lever to the upright, or vertical position. 2. Open the bolt and remove it from the rifle by opening the bolt release lever located on the left rear side of the receiver. 3. Check to see that the magazine is empty, the chamber is empty and that you can see that the barrel is unobstructed inside. General statement for disassembly / reassembly. To disassemble the M48, you work from the front of the rifle toward the rear and to reassemble, you work from the rear toward the front. To begin: Remove the front sight hood. It is a spring-steel sight-hood that fits in grooves on both sides of the front sight base. Remove it by tapping it forward with a piece of wood and it will move forward until it snaps off. Notice that the front sight is drift adjustable. You may choose to get an inexpensive front sight-adjusting tool that we can supply. It makes fine windage adjustments a snap. Otherwise you need a hammer, punch and another pair hands to make windage adjustments. Remove the cleaning rod by simply unscrewing it and pull it straight out. Next, remove the wide front barrel band. Notice that it is connected to the narrow rear barrel band by a steel bar that is actually a long spring located between the barrel bands on the right side. The long spring has a raised surface just aft of the front barrel band. Its purpose is to enable the unlocking of the barrel bands.

2. Notice that the front barrel band has a locking pin on the right side. This pin must be depressed in order to remove the front barrel band. Do so by using a pair of large pliers or, preferably vice-grips. Insulate the jaws of the vice-grips with heavy cloth or a piece of leather. This will prevent scarring the wood or metal of the rifle. Engage the raised surface of the long spring and encircle the stock just behind the barrel band. Exert enough pressure until you see that the locking pin is out of its hole in the front barrel band. Lock the vice grips in this position. Now tap the front barrel band forward with a piece of wood. Do not use a metal tool. It will come forward easily. Tap it all the way off. Relax the vice grips. Next, grasp the long spring and lift it out. Next, remove the rear barrel band. It has a sling slot on the left side. With a piece of wood, tap the rear barrel band forward until it comes off. If you wish, you may remove the bayonet lug. Do so by using a small punch and tap it out from the left side to the right until it comes out. Be careful to notice that the pin is a one-way pin. It will work properly in only one direction so remember which way it fits by marking the lead end of it with a red marker. Tap the bayonet lug straight forward and it will come right off. 3. Next, turn the rifle over. You can see the trigger guard and floorplate. Remove the floorplate. Do so by using a small round piece of wood (like a wooden pencil; DO NOT use a screwdriver!) and depress the plunger in the hole at the rear of the floorplate. It will only move about 1/8. Holding it depressed, exert a strong rearward motion also about I/8th of an inch and the floorplate will release from the trigger guard. Lift out the whole follower assembly; floorplate, spring and follower. Slide the follower off the spring and do so with the floorplate. NOTE:

Be aware of which end of the zig-zag follower spring holds the floorplate and which end holds the follower. They look alike but they are not. They only go on one way. Otherwise you risk feeding failure(s). Next, remove the trigger guard. It is held in place by two large screws and two locking screws. Remove the locking screws and remember where they came from. They are NOT interchangeable. The front lock screw goes only in the front locking hole and the rear lock screw only goes in the rear-locking hole. Remove the front and rear screws from the trigger guard. Grasp the trigger guard and lift it out of the stock. It will come straight out. Lift the stock away from the action and barrel. It will lift right off. The barrel assembly will them be free of the main stock assembly and will be laying right in front of you! Next, remove the upper handguard. Do so by first removing the screw located in front of the rear sight. Grasp the rear underside of the upper handguard and push it straight away from the barrel. It will resist you because it has a spring-clamp that you can see that holds it fast to the barrel. Overcome the spring-clamp by pushing the rear of the upper hand guard loose as mentioned above and lift it free of the barrel. It is easy to damage the front of the upper handguard while it is free of the barrel because the front of it is thinner than the rear part.

The recoil lug remains in the stock. It is normally not removed. If you choose to remove it, you must also replace it during reassembly. On the right side of the stock you will see a round plate with two holes designed for a special spanner wrench. The spanner wrench is needed to remove (and replace) the round plate because it is tightly threaded onto the recoil lug. The special spanner wrench is available from us. With the wrench, fit its two prongs into the corresponding holes and turn the plate counter-clockwise until it backs all the way out. Once out, drive the recoil lug straight out of the stock with a small piece of wood.

4. Now everything is exposed for cleaning or for dropping-in a sporter stock (that we can supply). Notice that there is one cylindrical spacer associated with the rear guard screw that generally, but not always, comes out of the stock with the trigger guard screws. This spacer is very important. It controls the relationship of the trigger guard to the receiver. You may remove it from the stock if you wish but it is normally not necessary. Do not lose it! It is vital. The equivalent front spacer is actually built-in to the front of the trigger guard; therefore you cant lose it. Nextif you wish, you may take out the trigger assembly. Do so by driving out the trigger hinge pin around which the trigger rotates. Naturally it doesnt rotate very much. About 10 degrees. The hinge pin comes out easily but still must be driven out with a small punch. Once out, the trigger frame and assembly will literally fall out of the receiver; it is that well designed. It has a small coil spring that lives in a small cavity in the trigger frame. The spring is small and easy to lose. It is also expensive to replace so be careful. The spring is the trigger return spring and without it the rifle will fail. You can replace the combat trigger with a special hunting / competition trigger assembly that we can supply. The new trigger assembly is fully adjustable while combat triggers are not. The new trigger assembly will drop-in in place of the old trigger assembly. Nextif you wish, you may take off the bolt release assembly. It is located on the left rear of the receiver. It is held in place by a pointed screw and it fits through two raised lugs built in to the left rear of the receiver. You cant see them until you remove the bolt release assembly. Just remove the screw in the normal fashion and lift off the assembly but dont lose it. It is expensive to replace. Congratulationsyou have now detail-stripped the Mauser Model 48. All Mauser models work the same way.

To reassemble the rifle simply work in reverse. Start from the rear and work toward the front.

Leave the bolt out of the rifle at this time. Attach the bolt release assembly onto the receiver locking it in place with the pointed screw. Make sure it is spring powered and swings and returns freely; with no drag. Restore the original trigger assembly onto the receiver making sure that the spring rests in its cavity and the hinge pin is put properly in place. Test the movement of the trigger and make sure that it does not bind in either direction. The trigger-return spring is built-in to the new hunting / competition trigger assembly and is not a separate part. Reassemble the recoil lug back into the stock if you removed it. You will need the special spanner wrench to properly lock it down. Reinstall the receiver / barrel / trigger assembly into the stock. Turn the rifle over. Make sure the main-screw spacers are in place and reinstall the trigger guard with the main screws and put the small locking screws in their correct place (the same holes from which they were removed).

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Reassemble the follower onto the follower spring taking care to install the correct end of the spring into the follower bottom. Reassemble the floorplate onto the other end of the follower spring. Then reinstall the entire follower assembly into the magazine well. Notice that the floorplate has two hook-like surfaces that engage the magazine well. Hook the front one first and then depress and slide forward the rear part of the floorplate. You will be overcoming the little spring-loaded plunger that you depressed to remove the floorplate. Make sure that the plunger clicks audibly into position. Reinstall the bayonet lug. Do so by sliding it onto the front of the stock and reinstall its retaining pin. The bayonet lug does not see the upper handguard but the wide front barrel band covers its base. Reinstall the upper handguard. Snap the clamp over the rear of the barrel making sure that it goes home securely. Reinstall the rear barrel band. Make sure that the sling-slot of the rear barrel band is on the left side of the rifle. Tap the rear barrel band back as far as it will go making sure that it butts up against the wall of the stock and upper handguard. Insert the rear part of the long locking spring under the rear barrel band within its slot in the stock. Reinstall the front barrel band onto the stock and upper handguard. You must use the vice grips again in order to depress the raised surface of the long locking spring. The spring must be depressed low enough to be sure the front barrel band can slip over the small pin on the front of the spring. It locks the front barrel band solidly in place. Also make sure it goes all the way to the wall formed by the upper handguard and the stock. Tap it on with a piece of wood. Do NOT use a screwdriver. Relax the vice grips.

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Reinstall the front sight hood. It must fit into the grooves on either side of the front sight base. It is a strong spring-hood. Force the rounded edges into the grooves and then tap it all the way on with a piece of wood. There is a special tool that will grasp the hood and allow you to easily spread the hood so that you can easily slip the hood onto the front sight base. Install the bolt assembly into the receiver. Make sure the safety is in the upright, vertical position. Make sure your rifle is coated with a light coat of high quality gun oil. Congratulationsyou have now properly reassembled your rifle! Store your rifle safely and out of the reach of children.