Lubricating a Yugo M48

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Lubricating a Yugo M48

Posted: 1/17/2009 4:21:09 AM EDT

The last time I shot my Yugo m48 mauser, I shot it so much I was having problems actually disengaging the bolt to eject the spent cartridge as the gun got so hot. I assume the heat burned off what little lubricating oil I had on the moving gun parts. I was wondering is there a heavier oil/grease recommended for these older guns? I mainly shoot pistols so i'm sure I just under lubricated it but I want to make sure I don't do that again.

Posted: 1/17/2009 5:02:46 AM EDT

[#1]

Thin film of CLP or grease on the bolt and in the recess of the bolt head. How many rounds were you firing?

Also, it's a military rifle. You don't have to baby it when feeding and extracting, work the bolt in a vigorous, manly fashion.

Unless I'm mistaken, you Mauser is cock-on-open, which means you're also fighting the striker spring when opening the bolt. BSW

Posted: 1/17/2009 5:12:31 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
Thin film of CLP or grease on the bolt and in the recess of the bolt head. How many rounds were you firing?

Also, it's a military rifle. You don't have to baby it when feeding and extracting, work the bolt in a vigorous, manly fashion.

Unless I'm mistaken, you Mauser is cock-on-open, which means you're also fighting the striker spring when opening the bolt. BSW

What kind of grease do you guys use? I've pretty much only used clp or light gun oil.

I wasn't babying it, it phyiscally was getting harder and harder to rotate the bolt the hotter it got. I had to really start hitting it with the heel of my hand to get it to rotate back up to pull it back.

I put around 40-50 rounds through but I wasn't firing too fast. But then I did a 40 rounds pretty quick and by the end of it i could barely rotate the bolt. I never had issues with it before so i'm confident it was from me underlubricating it.

Posted: 1/17/2009 5:17:54 AM EDT

[#3]

I've pretty much done light CLP on anything shiny with some USGI rifle grease on the bolt locking lugs and the striker cam area.

I would not expect that 40-50 rounds rapid would cause the bolt to tighten up. Have you had the rifle's headspace checked? Is there any sign of either overpressure of stretching on the brass? Which ammo are you using? BSW

Posted: 1/17/2009 6:22:05 AM EDT

[#4]

My bolt guns get grease. Grease the locking lugs and the camming area for the striker, and the boltways.
I found a tin of military rifle grease at my local ffl sometime back, it says
"grease,rifle mil-g-46003"
nov/1963

It must be for the M14.

Posted: 1/17/2009 6:50:29 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
I've pretty much done light CLP on anything shiny with some USGI rifle grease on the bolt locking lugs and the striker cam area.

I would not expect that 40-50 rounds rapid would cause the bolt to tighten up. Have you had the rifle's headspace checked? Is there any sign of either overpressure of stretching on the brass? Which ammo are you using? BSW

I have not had the headspace checked. The spent casings looked fine but I really didn't inspect them with a fine tooth comb. I was using the surplus 8mm ammo on stripper clips. turkish/yugo/romanian? i cant remember i used it all up :(.

Posted: 1/17/2009 6:51:15 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
My bolt guns get grease. Grease the locking lugs and the camming area for the striker, and the boltways.
I found a tin of military rifle grease at my local ffl sometime back, it says
"grease,rifle mil-g-46003"
nov/1963

It must be for the M14.

I"ll look out for the rifle grease. Thanks for the tip on that.

Posted: 1/17/2009 8:35:35 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I've pretty much done light CLP on anything shiny with some USGI rifle grease on the bolt locking lugs and the striker cam area.

I would not expect that 40-50 rounds rapid would cause the bolt to tighten up. Have you had the rifle's headspace checked? Is there any sign of either overpressure of stretching on the brass? Which ammo are you using? BSW

I have not had the headspace checked. The spent casings looked fine but I really didn't inspect them with a fine tooth comb. I was using the surplus 8mm ammo on stripper clips. turkish/yugo/romanian? i cant remember i used it all up :(.

I have a 48 yugo that was doing the same thing with 40's turk headstamped brass. After shooting better (gulp) wolf and having no issues with the bolt I was able to compare the brass and determin the turk stuff must have had bad brass. some of the casings had hairline cracks mid case. Properly lubricated or not I wouldnt think you should have that type of problem. You should however have the headspace checked before you fire the rifle again.

Posted: 1/17/2009 8:58:00 AM EDT

[#8]

So is this a combinaton of the gun heating up and possibly bad brass causing the bolt to become difficult to function?

I'll check the headspace this weekend.

Posted: 1/17/2009 9:31:21 AM EDT

[#9]

Mine does the same thing with lacquer coated ammo. I would check the headspace, but I've headspaced mine and it checks ok. I never have the problem with brass ammo.

What ammo are you shooting?

Posted: 1/17/2009 9:45:08 AM EDT

[#10]

I used to put a lot of surplus through 98-action mausers and noticed what you described in two cases:

Turk 8mm: This stuff is usually hot and always inconsistent. I believe it has been chrono'ed above 3100 fps at the muzzle. I stopped shooting it after one bando when Yugo was almost as cheap and much better.

Anything Lacquered steel: If you chamber is fouled with crusted cosmo, carbon, or lacquer, the lacquer on these rounds cools down after firing and bonds with the junk in the chamber.

As for the lubrication, I used grease on all my bolt-actions.

Posted: 1/17/2009 12:43:55 PM EDT

[#11]

The ammo was a box of 80 on 5rd strippers and said m/937.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Lubricating a Yugo M48

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