Terry G
01-15-2007, 05:36 PM
It's quite possible I'm slow on the uptake, but did you notice the machined notch on the right side of your Mauser bolt? I hadn't until someone mentioned the "re-cocking notch" on his M-38 Turkish rifle. Cocking notch? What the devil is he talking about? I took one my M-48A's out of the safe and sure enough, there it was. The idea was to use an empty or loaded cartridge to re-cock a Mauser in the event of a misfire. You insert the rim in the notch and pull the cocking mechanism to the rear in the same manner you would pull the cocking knob on a "03 Springfield, SMLE, or Mosin-Nagant. Except it does not work. At least not easily or safely. I get mis-fires all the time with surplus 8MM ammunition and just wait a minute or so and lift the bolt and fire again. When I learned the notch thing I tried it with an empty case. I don't like dinking around with a loaded cartridge that's being poked around metal and pointed toward my chest. Anyway, it was almost impossible to re-cock a M-38, M-48A, or 24/47 using this method. Can you imagine a Soldier under fire trying to do this? The Mauser rifle system is genius personified, but this re-cocking method was absurd. If I was to guess I would say that in the event of a mis-fire in combat a Soldier would immediately yank the bolt to the rear and keep shooting. I would.