[ Israeli SP66 Sniper ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at the Morphy
Auction Company taking a look at some of the guns
that they are going to be selling in their upcoming
April of 2019 Premier Firearms Auction.
What we have today is an Israeli Mauser.
Not the old style, but kind of the newer style
of Israeli Mauser. This is an SP66 Mauser sniper rifle.
And in IDF service it replaced Mauser Kar98ks as sniper rifles.
The Israelis had used a substantial number of 98k Mausers.
And they had equipped out some of them as sniper rifles by mounting telescopic sights,
... modifying the stocks to include these really substantial cheek rests
so that they could get a good cheek weld with the aforementioned optics.
But those really were fairly obsolete rifles, it was a bit of a kludge.
And in 1980 they decided to purchase a batch of these guys.
Depending on who you read it's 100, or maybe 140, 150 of these in total,
and they purchased them brand new from the Mauser factory.
And what they wanted was a proper, from the ground up, sniper rifle.
So this is based on Mauser's Model 66 bolt-action rifle
which was developed in the 1950s as just a hunting sporting rifle.
It was developed by one of Mauser's engineers, who was a fantastic target shooter.
These are really excellent rifles,
and they have a number of advantages over the original Mauser 98 design.
We'll take a look at the details of the system in just a minute.
What Mauser decided to do though in the early 1970s,
spurred on by events like the Munich Olympics disaster,
was to develop a military and police sniper version of the Model 66.
Mainly they wanted a military and police sniper rifle,
and the 66 was the best ... system that they had to build it on.
This time period is really when we saw the development of
... what we think of as the modern counter-terrorism team.
So guys like the SAS, GIGN, GSG9,
these sorts of units that are specially trained, specially equipped,
and basically kept ready to respond to terrorist incidents.
The Munich Olympics were really a wake-up call for a lot of countries,
because the German state wasn't really able to respond
with much more than kind of standard police forces.
... Nothing against the guys who responded there, they did their best,
but they weren't really trained for that sort of event.
And so everyone ... wanted something in case that sort of terrorism came to their country.
And that's the group that these rifles were designed for.
So like I said, they were purchased by a bunch of different people.
GSG9 used these, I believe the SAS bought some of these,
some units of the Italian Carabinieri bought some of these, and the IDF bought some.
So let's take a closer look at this one in particular.
This is a quite chunky rifle, this thing weighs in at like 13.5 pounds.
That's like 5.5 or 6 kilos, and that's without a scope or a bipod.
So a little heavier once you've put the optic on it.
This massive wooden stock was done deliberately.
The problem with wooden stocks and forends is that as humidity changes
they will tend to swell and warp, and that can affect your zero.
So the Mauser solution at this point for that problem with these rifles
was to put on such a huge stock
that it wouldn't, as a practical matter, actually warp with humidity changes.
... That problem is magnified ... with thin wood that will warp and bend more.
So if you just make it really huge it won't be a problem, and that was their approach here.
The stock is of the thumbhole variety here, so right handed only.
It does have an adjustable butt plate.
So you can loosen this and then adjust it up and down.
And you can see these teeth here will lock it in position
wherever you decide it is most comfortable for you.
It also has an adjustable cheek rest.
It's interesting, the Israelis clearly have a fondness for getting a proper cheek weld.
If you look at their M14 snipers and their Mauser 98 snipers,
they all have these really weird-looking massive cheek pieces on the stocks
to allow a proper cheek rest.
Well, Mauser built this one right in, so the cheek pad is actually spring loaded.
(Hold this upright.)
So you loosen the thumb screw, put this to wherever it's comfortable for you.
Down there. And then just tighten that screw up, and that'll hold it in place.
This piece of Picatinny rail on the bottom of the stock unfortunately is not original.
A previous owner decided to drop that on there in order to put on a modern bipod.
Which I can understand from a shooting perspective,
it's a bit of a shame to have put it on a ... rifle with some relevant history like this one.
But when you see pictures of these in Israeli service,
they will often have something like a Harris bipod on them.
Which would have been drilled into the stock in a similar manner,
but not quite the same as that Picatinny.
Mauser fitted these rifles with a fairly distinctive muzzle brake.
A whole bunch of horizontal slots there, and then one diagonal one at the end.
Mauser outfitted these rifles in their catalogue with a 6x42 Zeiss scope,
but the Israelis didn't use that, they actually had their own.
And the Israelis used a variety of different scopes on them.
This particular one is a 6x42 power Swarovski.
They also used Kahles, they used Nimrod, 6x power and 10x power Nimrod scopes,
and probably a few others that I'm not thinking of.
It's a little bit hard to see these markings because they are pretty darkly Parkerised there.
But you can see it's a 6x42 scope.
It doesn't have the brand name on it, I'm pretty sure this is a Swarovski.
It does have a patent number, and a catalogue number, and an ... Israeli property mark.
Also kind of neat to point out here,
the elevation turret (which will adjust out to 800 metres), is actually marked M118.
And that indicates M118 ball, which is the US military spec for 7.62 NATO match ammunition.
173 grain bullet at a nominal 2,550 feet per second.
And this particular rifle also has this rubber (used to be painted it looks like) sun shade on it
which you can kind of push back when you don't want to use it,
pull forward to get it in position.
And then the rifle itself has a number of relevant markings.
Made by Mauser in Oberndorf, it's a Model 66S according to Mauser.
Got a serial number over here, as well as
a couple of Israeli proof and property marks that are still on there.
And then the calibre marking, German proof marks.
Up on the top it would say "Original Mauser" with the Mauser banner logo,
but that is kind of hidden under the scope mount.
And of course "Made in Germany".
The action is definitely distinct from the original Mauser 98.
... We don't have a flag safety, we have a little lever safety here.
This one's actually stuck in the fire position, I'm not entirely sure why.
And it comes off along with this rear bolt cover.
If I push down on that, I can slide this off the back of the action.
So a totally different receiver than you would expect on the original Mauser 98s.
This magazine interestingly is flush,
so ... covered by the bottom there, and only holds 3 cartridges.
The bolt is a two locking lug type.
And it actually uses this bolt shroud as part of its cocking mechanism.
So you've got this sort of blade on the cocking piece,
and when you lift the bolt handle that is trapped in that groove, right there.
Which forces the bolt to cock when you open it.
So there it's de-cocked, because of course there's no sear
to hold the cocking piece back when the bolt is out of the gun.
And I can then lift the bolt handle up, which is going to force this to cam backwards.
So ... in fact less complicated than the original Mauser 98.
It also allows the whole length of the bolt to be a bit shorter.
And last but not least, I should point out the trigger here.
This is a two-stage trigger, but just barely.
So it's got a little bit of take-up right there, and then a very light and extremely crisp press.
... I think a lot of people would define this as a hair-trigger.
It is in fact a really, really nice trigger.
With a very wide shoe on the trigger itself.
The reticle that the Israelis use in these scopes
is one with both elevation and windage hash marks.
And then also a rangefinder at the bottom.
The function of that rangefinder, the way it works, is you ... fit a person in the two lines,
and depending on their height that will ... give you
ranges there for 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1,000 metres.
Obviously ... not that difficult to use in close, a little bit trickier at very long range.
Eventually these would be replaced in Israeli service with newer Mauser Model SP86s.
And they stayed in inventory for a little while.
And then in the 1990s most of them were surplused out
and purchased by Springfield Armoury, who brought them to the US and resold them here.
I believe there was at least one other importer that brought in a few,
but it appears that the Israelis sold off their entire stock of these rifles.
They were replacing them, they didn't bother to keep any.
And so there weren't very many to begin with,
and they are pretty much all in the United States now, I believe.
They are rather scarce to get a hold of, they sold out quickly,
and people who have them tend to like to keep them.
So if you've been looking for one of these, this might be a good opportunity for you.
Because of course this one is coming up for sale at the end of April here at Morphy's.
If you take a look at the description text below the video
you'll find a link to ForgottenWeapons.com.
And from there you can click over to Morphy's catalogue page on this rifle.
You can take a look at their pictures, their description,
their price estimate, and place a bid for it online.
Or just browse through everything else that they have in the catalogue.
Thanks for watching.