The rifle for mountain hunts, on the base of M98 system, is produced from the titanium alloy, cal. 300 WinMag. It's weight is just 2.870 kg. The barrel is from Nickel-chromium-molybdenum gun steel with the length 665mm. The magazine capacity is 3+1. Made by Johann Fanzoj (Ferlach, Austria).
Constant striving to improvement and gun’s optimization is the main feature of “Johann Fanzoj” management team. One of the main direction in the company is the development of classical Mauser rifle with a longitudinally - sliding bolt, which was canonized in 1898. It’s easy to explain why they are adherents of this system. M98 has genius construction which allows to control the transfer a cartridge from the magazine and not matter what the shotgun orientation is or how fast you pull the bolt action. The system 98 has the most reliable locking of cartridges in the magazine among the same class rifles. The original bolt action has the third, emergency lug in front of the bolt handle, in case the primary ones fail under pressure.. It’s fixed in the back part of the receiver and activates when the breech bolt moves to 0,2mm back. One more advantage of this system is that the controlled-feed mechanism, consisting of a large, non-rotating claw extractor, engages the cartridge case rim as soon as the round leaves the magazine and firmly holds the cartridge. When the shooter tries to make pressure and to remove the cartridge, the hook of the bolt mechanism pushes it to prevent its slippage. It makes M98 one of the safest and reliable systems in the world.
Not long ago, all rifles of “Johann Fanzoj” company was produced on the base of steel system M98. It’s evident that piece production allowed to improve guns’ quality in the comparison with the original a century ago drawing of the Army rifle M98. The manufacturer used not only good quality steel but provided less dimensional tolerance. The highest level of all surfaces treatment, especially the connected ones, allowed to increase the lifetime of their rifles. The company reduced the diameter of a striker and the place for it in the bolt action. This measure reduced the risk of breaking through the powder gases when primer exploded. The hole in the breech bolt displays torn gases to the side, perpendicular to the axis of the shotgun. The third position safety mechanism, rotated on a vertical axis on the right side of the trigger, adds more comfort when you use the rifle.
The family hunting lands are located on the steep slopes of the Karawanken ridge and the management of the company realizes how important for the mountain hunting is the weight of the rifle and they try to minimize it. If they tried to reduce the weight cutting the length and the diameter of the barrel it could damage its ballistic.
Every hunter knows that each gram is very important in the mountain. It’s easy to understand the mountain hunters desire to have light and long-range weapons. Some hunters can say that the recoil depends on the guns’ weight and is stronger then the gun is lighter. But it’s not important in this kind of hunting because you feel real euphoria when detect the rare trophy and don’t pay attention to anything. The power of the recoil is important when you shoot with high tempo but it’s more actual for sport shooting than for hunting. In case you have some problems with the recoil intolerance you should order the rifle with a muzzle brake. All Fanzoj rifles have the elastic backing for such case.
The company spent few years looking for the best decision how to reduce the weight. They rejected all variants connected with the lighten of a barrel or locking system. It’s unlikely to get accurate shooting with the barrel length less than 600-650mm. So idea was born to use titanium for producing almost all parts of the rifle, excluding a barrel. Not pure titanium but doped one.
The history of this metal is very interesting. The titanium oxides were discovered in different minerals in the end of XVIII century. Then the titanium oxides was wildly used in the paint production (titanium white). Today about 90% of these oxides is used as the pigment in the paint, the fillers of paper and plastic. Only 10% of all titanium is used as metal. It became possible in 1925 after Dutchmen had invented that technology. Titanium is very light. Its’ density is 4.54 gr/sm3, steel has 7,8-7,9 gr/sm3.
The pure titanium is soft and plastic but alloying adds it toughness. Its toughness, resulting in a cross section of equal weight, exceeds steel. Titanium is heat resistant and quite chemically inert. It is prone to oxidation but the process is limited to a thin surface layer. The mechanical processing of this metal complicates by the proximity of the forced yield strength to the tensile strength. Thermal conductivity of Titanium is in four times lower that steel conductivity. It means that it heats in the local cutting zone and became plastic. Metal sticks to the cutting tools and it leads to a catastrophic deterioration in the quality of the treated surface. Changing the geometry of the incision doesn’t improve the situation. The only way to avoid it is to reduce cutting speed and to cool intensively of the cutting area with an emulsion and to use of cutters with special coatings. You have to know that Titanium dust has the property of spontaneous combustion. It means that grinding needs special tools and ways.
Titanium viscosity and thermal conductivity cause the problems in cases when parts of items rub each other. But telling the truth today we have some technologies which help to decide this problem.
The Fanzoj management have found and attracted specialists who can produce rifles with the same accurance characteristics as heavy tactical rifles have. But they are much lighter.
It happened four years ago when I tried the Titanium rifle, produced by Fanzoj company, for the first time. The first impression was overwhelming. Just imagine, the very serious bolt-action rifle with the weight 2.870kg!
But the balance of the titanium rifle is moved to the barrel in the comparison with the original Mauser rifle. It only has sense when you shoot from the lying position or use bipods. The barrel is obtained by cold rotary method from Nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloy steel used for the barrels of automatic guns of modern NATO Eurofighter fighters. These barrels are almost non-corrosive and have long lifetime due to its resistance to high- temperature erosion. This characteristic depends on nickel content which increases steel temperature. It also prolongs life time of hunting gun’s barrel. The production of all bolt parts from Titanium (except a striker and a spring) has led to reduction of strikers weight and time of the trigger system. It also helps to increase the shooting accuracy. The shotguns vibrate when we are aiming and we try to catch the optimal moment to shoot. The faster we can shoot, the better. The lighter all parts of the trigger are, the rifle moves to the side less before the gunpowder combustion.
They used special coats, sprayed in vacuum. The same covers, used for Formula 1 cars, allow to make all movement of titanium parts softer. Even the dry bolt moves easily.
Stocks of Fanzoj rifles are made of natural walnut which dried in the natural conditions. We know that engraving and the inset of precious metals to Titanium is more complicated process that to steel but all rifles are decorated by elegant engravings. The top of the magazine is decorated with a Golden emblem of the company "Johann Fanzoj".
