Test Firing My New M53

[vingslo]

Test fired my new M53 and put over 500 rounds of surplus 308 through it.
Sprayed it with a light coat of Lithium Grease, along with some unwanted small amount of dirt and sand:day was windy.
Did not have any major issue, and it ran like a charm.

Mike
Texas

M53 Test Fire small.GIF (25.4 KiB) Viewed 1891 times

[DougF]

Congrats!!! Did you build it or buy it already assembled and if so, from whom?

[vingslo]

Purchased it from my local gun store: it took them less than a week to receive it.
Came in a crate, new in pristine condition, without a single scratch and a great finish, with extra belts in an ammunition can.

[12thWaffenSS]

The stock looks great! Did it come like that or did you refinish yours?

-

[noonxnoon]

yeah 12th...I was thinking the same thing.

What about the grips?

Is that the crate it came in as shown under the 53 in your picture?

[vingslo]

Thanks for the feedback Gentlemen,

I removed the black paint by sanding the stock with a light grid paper and steel wool. Then applied some Minwax Wood Finish (Cherry 235). This process took a couple of hours to complete during one evening.
The grip came with the weapon that way: lucked out!
No it is not the crate underneath! Unfortunately the weapon came in a cheaply assembled plywood crate.
I intent to beautify it over this weekend with a coat of wood finish and stenciling letters/numbers. Trying to stay on budget, and rather spend my hard earned dollars on ammunition.

Mike

[blackreichswehr]

top cover looks mg3 green?

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Not green, just phosphated grey with a greenish tinge enhanced by the camera photo. You can dip that entire top cover in in denatured alcohol to cleanse it of all oils (it will then look whitish and icky), and wash it down with cold bluing acid and the color of the phosphate will turn black. A coating of oil on top of that after rinsing the parts will be black and match the rest of the gun to a tee.

[noonxnoon]

top cover looks mg3 green?

It could be a MG3 top cover...he did say he put 500 rounds of 308...so he would have to change the top cover to something more 308 friendly like an MG3 or MG1 top cover.

[vingslo]

Correct: along with the barrel, feedtray, also replaced the factory Yugo top cover with an MG3 in order to shoot 308 ammunition

[noonxnoon]

gotcha!

mind if I ask where you got your 308 ammo?

Local or online, etc?

I got MG1 & MG3 parts for my 53...haven't shot it as a 308 yet due to the ammo is more expensive then 8mm!

Curious which brand you got...brass, how primed...I imagine it is more 'modern' and non-corrosive.

Any info about it would be great...'though I think in general 308 is less of a problem then the various 8mm

[blackreichswehr]

i know about the conv. to the 308, using that top cover-big wow, just saying it looked mg3 green--- which i thought looked cool against the black-- i'll say this, glad i bought 30,000 rounds of south african 308, 10 yrs. ago for $ 130.00 a case- now it's $600.00 + a case.

[Bil]

That is a good start-nice price,too! Everyone I know lost money on their investments,except those that bought guns and ammo!Although by the buying spree,last november,it is a wonder there is any left to buy!Most of that will sit in closets forever.[hopefully!] ---bil PS-nice looking gun-congrats.It is nice to see the amount of 42/53s that are showing up,I remember just a few years ago if there were 4 guys that built in one year,it was a lot.The ready-made ones have really added to the guys in the hobby.