The Yugo MD 24/47 Mauser was manufactured at the Zastava factory at Kragujevac in Yugoslavia in 1924 and rearsenaled in 1947. Mauser 98 action, straight bolt, receiver bears the Yugoslavian Communist Coat of Arms, 23 1/4″ barrel, overall length: 43.3″, flat metal buttplate, and beautiful dark hardwood stock.
In 1947, the first postwar Yugoslav Mauser rifle, the short action 7.92x57mm M24/47 appeared but the ‘new’ M24/47 rifles were rebuilds using recycled Belgian, Yugoslav, German, Belgian and Czechoslovak parts. Model 1924 walnut stocks were used and the carbine version stocks had their rear side swivels removed and the hole plugged. New stocks were made as required. The first of these postwar versions, the Model 24/47, is almost identical to the Model 24 except for the presence of the Yugoslav communist crest (a star atop two symmetrical curved sheaves of grain surrounding a row of six torches each representing the six Yugoslav “republicsâ€: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia, located above a scroll with the date 23.VI.1943 – June 23, 1943, when the structure of the postwar Tito government was first officially established in Jajce, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The left side of the receiver ring was marked M24/47 and the left receiver wall was marked in Serbian Cyrillic ‘Preduzece (Enterprise or Establishment) 44′ (the old Military Technical Institute at Kragujevac).
