K98 question — Controlled feed from Mag

[slm9s]

I'm no CRF expert. Recently bought a K98 for cheap at the fun show. If I place a round into the chamber, I can't close the bolt. But, if I place a round into the internal mag, it will chamber normally. Is this normal?

Sorry, I've never had a CRF rifle that acted this way.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tommie]

Those actions are designed to feed from the mag. Your gun is fine.

 

[Old Navy]

Controlled round feed.

 

[mike mccormick]

There are no dumb questions.

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

Those actions are designed to feed from the mag. Your gun is fine.

jip

 

[Adam in WI]

If you push the extractor inward towards the bolt body it'll flex the claw out enough to go over the case rim.

Much easier though to just feed from the mag.

 

[Liven The Dream]

Gunsmiths have ground those extractors for years to single load and mag feed also .
Built many a Hunting Rifle on 98 Actions.

 

[joshb]

You can cause real problems by trying to single feed a “controlled round” bolt. Best to feed from the magazine.

 

[Doug Casner]

Grew up learning on a pre 64 swift. Dad said put em in the magazine and work the bolt. Old 70s and 98s are kin. Doug

 

[Mark W]

You can cause real problems by trying to single feed a “controlled round” bolt. Best to feed from the magazine.

What kind of problems? I’ve been single feeding CFR CZ 527 and 550s for a long time and never had the first issue.

 

[Laurie]

What kind of problems? I’ve been single feeding CFR CZ 527 and 550s for a long time and never had the first issue.

These aren't military M'98 actions and have extractors profiled to allow single-loading. Military 93s, 95s '98s and similar actions are designed to use magazine feed ONLY, and their users are so trained.

Earlier push-feed Mausers in military use saw 'double-loading' caused by a user under stress in combat short-stroking the bolt. This sometimes caused misfeeds/jams in non-CRF actions, but much worse could allow the user to attempt to push a second live round up the rear of the (still-chambered; still live ) previous round and detonate it on an open bolt through ramming the bullet tip into the primer. Controlled feed, and actions that only allow controlled feed from the magazine eliminated this and other problems in military use.

As @Liven The Dream says above in Post #7, military CRF actions can have their extractors reprofiled to allow push-feed operation in sporting or target use. Other commercial actions developed out of the originally military designs, as in CZs, are built to allow dual-operation from the off.

 

[Mark W]

Thanks @Laurie, that makes perfect sense! I had wondered before why some people insisted that I shouldn‘t single feed by my CZs and now I know that it‘s probably just carry over from the old military actions.

 

[joshb]

Thank you, Laurie. You said it much better than I could. (As always)

 

[jackieschmidt]

When I did my 98 Mauser project, a fellow shooter sent me a couple of extractors to play with.

By re profiling the lead in bevel on the extractor, and trimming the edge, I did get it to close over a chambered round.

But the extractor was only catching about 1/32 inch of the rim.

So I chunked it and used the original control feed extractor, feeding from the magazine.

 

[jfk69]

As others have said, that’s normal. I’m a dinosaur, I still have at least three sporters built on 98 actions and I have another unbarreled action with an aftermarket magnum box mag and the bolt face opened up that I really should build something with. I suppose I could sell it but I doubt there’s much demand these days with precision rifles and tacticoolness.