at my local big 5 they sell mosin nagants and 8mm mauser for anywhere from 49 on up to 109 i've serioulsy considering picking one up but which one? i mostly do deer and elk hunting out to about 200-300 yards for deer and 100 for elk i kinda like the mauser for no other reason than i've never had an 8 mm i have a .308 which i'm assuming is close to a 7.62x54r? the safety issue kinda concerns me about the mosin nagant. also how do i know if the rifle is a good one? headspace and etc?

I'd go with the Mauser. Better deer/elk cartridge, IMHO, and usually better made.

The 7.62x54R is somewhat similar to a .300 Sav/.308 Win in capability. Some folks say it equates to the 30-06, but I'm not one of them.

Mauser hands down. Don't like the split receiver bridge on the Nagant! Like kdub said I belive the Mauser to be better built, plus rimless cartridges feed much better than a rimmed one, and no magazine hanging down in front of the trigger guard.

Lee L.

Don't forget the clunky, awkward safety on the Mosin. It well and truly bites.

Mauser. Mosins aren't bad guns, but you'll find much better aftermarket parts for sporterizing / repairing the mausers. A replacement trigger will do wonders if you aren't used to the military two-stage triggers, and Mosin triggers are notoriously bad.

A decent mauser will always be worth something, as the action can be used for building a nice custom rifle. Mosins are plinkers, which is not a criticism, that's just what they are. Some of the Finnish ones are very nice, though.

The Turks are rough but serviceable. Most are 98 patterns, but there are a few 93/95 models, not common, but I have one. If there's a 93/95 in the crowd, it'll stand out.

The Yugo and Bosnian 48 and 48A rifles are bargains, but dimensionally different from a 98 mauser, so that's an issue if you want to change the stock out. My turk had a decent stock, so I kept it.

Yugo 24s and Czech mausers should be a 98 pattern, I think.

There's Spanish (1916) mausers floating around, a bunch of them converted to .308, but I think they are really based on the 93/95 series.

The '96 Swedes are very nice guns, but the supply is drying up, and they are getting expensive.

The Chilean (7mm) mausers are also the earlier 93/95 pattern. By the way, the 1893, 1895, and 1896 are all more or less the same thing, mechanically, and the predecessor to the 1898. Somewhat less desireable, strictly from the custom rifle standpoint.

Be sure to inspect the bore - an 8mm (or probably .30 cal) bore snake will help determine if there is any rifling left, vs. the normal dirt and so on.

If the bolt serial number matches the receiver - that's a good thing.

I doubt you find a bargain priced German or Argentine, but they would be the cream of the crop (assuming it's not a real late wartime production german gun, view any 1944 or 1945 date stamps with suspicion). German guns are expensive, anyway.

Anyway, we could write about mausers all day, go back there and get some information on a couple, and we'll try to go from there.