Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Westernfield 720B Heym Mauser 30-06

I was going to sell this safe queen...Figured it was FN action built by Heym.

zr1, a more knowledgeable guy on Mausers corrected my understanding, it's an intermediate length Mauser built by Zastava for Heym.

What else can you guys tell me about this rifle?

Maybe some of you Mauser guys would like to look at the pretty pictures.

It's a beauty.

pictures here ------> https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...d-720b-fn-heym-mauser-30-06#Post18071159

Is there any inherent issues with an intermediate length action for the 30-06 cartridge family?

Were good donor actions for me never had one I ever chambered the 30-06 round in.

Thanks for the feedback.

I've been messing around with the rifle. I loaded up 4 inert rounds to c.o.a.l. and have cycled them through slow, medium and fast speeds.

Positive feeding and ejection, slick as can be.

I have one and it's been my favorite hunting rifle for years. Mine likes 48 grains of IMR 4895, topped with 180 grain interlocks. The rifle just fits me real well. I don't remember the B, after 720, I'm going to look.

Just looked, I can't read any of the etched Westernfield writing. It must have got polished off during the reblueing process. All mine reads is, made in west germmany, and has proof marks, and serial number.

I had one of these. Very nice rifle, just didn't like the safety and didn't want to spend the money for a model 70 style. Its not made by Zastava. Its a Heym made action.

No, Heym did not mfg the action. They made the rifles from Zastava actions in Germany and marked them Heym. They were made from FN or FN licensed machinery that was used to produce the models 24 and 48 Yugo's.

Not according to the research I did on mine when I had it.

Looks like a commercial version of the Yugo intermediate length Mausers. The bolt shows that it is a "safety breech" configuration like the Yugos (no protrusion on the bolt where the ejector slides through).

Lotta misinformation out there. Best info is that nobody was making large ring intermediate Mausers during that time other than Zastava.

My Heym .308 fits in the stock that came with my 1948 FN (except the barrel channel). Didn’t see any markings on the action, but it has the clip slot and thumb cut, a C-ring breech, and a slide-off floorplate with the locking screws. Best as I can tell, the bolt handle was originally forged for scope clearance. Tried to find the same model online, but no luck.

Heym history is pretty muddled in spots.

Just saw one for sale. Guy had a picture out of the stock. The barrel was marked Heym. Maybe I was thinking it was on the bottom of the action on mine. So i don't know. It was a really classy rifle. I just don't like the safety. I would carry it slung across my shoulder and it would knock the safety to fire. Didn't like that and sold it.

I think I had one of these that had the Heym markings and was sold under the Herter's name but i don't remember it having this safety, it was in 7mm mag, but remember researching Heym at the time, some gunsmith wanted it worse than me for the action.

They have a butterknife bolt handle that has clearance for scope. Yeah the rear flag safety sucks but there's options for replacing the rear shroud with an 3 position type safety. I need to upgrade mine.