Third Party Press

1930 Kingdom of Yugoslavia Model 1924

ltong29

Senior Member
Finally found a non-altered (by either the Germans during WW2 or the Communists post-WW2) Yugoslavian Model 1924. Based on the serial and the Alexander 1 stock cartouche, it was produced late 1930 (115460 is supposedly the last one made in 1930).
78Pr4lxh.jpg

Full picture with BT3 marked bayonet
Amdn4F9h.jpg

Receiver crest. Interestingly, the Yugo Mausers have an FN lineage, resulting in an intermediate action (8.5") being used instead of the standard large ring (8.75") which was common for Mausers of the era.
wEsYtirh.jpg

Side Rail. The rail text changed over the years with the earliest having FN markings, middle years having the "Apt.Tex" and later ones having "BOJHOTEX".
EbkO7MPh.jpg

ogzRlpHh.jpg

KqZQLdzh.jpg


I'm personally not a huge fan of the post-war refurbished as the original markings have been replaced. Also, that's one mean bayonet!
 
Cool! The early ones like this definitely had plenty of time to see more use and get more worn. Yours is definitely genuine. Do the trigger guard and floor plate match? The underside of your stock should show plenty of inspection marks, usually single letters in Serbian Cyrillic. Congrats!

Pat
 
Last edited:
The trigger guard does, but the floor plate doesn't, leading me to believe it was refurbished/re-arsenaled at some point. There are a ton of markings on the bottom of the stock. I'm very pleased with this one
 
Very cool! The post-war refurbs don’t interest me but something like this is a different animal! Nice find! Could this have been a bring back? Early import?
 
There's no import mark, so really not sure. I don't know how common non-modified Yugo M24s would be as "bring backs" since I believe most were either modified by the Germans or refurbed by the commies. I know the M24/47 were imported later so have import marks. Bring back would make a much cooler story, but I follow the "Buy the rifle, not the story" mantra.
 
Nice rifle, it is good that the bolt matches. A lot of the original Yugo M24's have mismatched bolts. I am very confident that the majority of these were pre-1968 imports. Most that can be found actually have no sign of German modification. The many that I have seen almost always have the same patina and dark looking stock. The stock was originally much lighter in color, it looked orange, but the stocks darkened after heavy use probably by Tito partisans, the Croation Home Guard or Chetniks during WWII.

I would recommend not attempting to disassemble it. The problem is the rear barrel band fits very tight and you will dig the barrel band into the handguard and the underside of the stock trying to get it off.
 
Nice find! I would not rule out German use even though no obvious signs of such. I think the majority of German used Beutewaffen show no alterations, unless they went through a repair facility. Impossible to say how and when it got here though, or who used it after Yugoslavia fell in 1941.
 

Military Rifle Journal
Back
Top