Mauser 98 Action

[Jdaniel343]

I have a Mauser 98 action and bolt that I have trued up and is ready to go.
I know everyone on here seems to use a 700, or one of the custom actions. I agree that this is probably the way to go. But is there anything wrong with using the 98 for a 600 to 1000 yd. I will be using a Hart Palma, in 280 AI with Berger 180's and a Nightforce BR and Jewel trigger.
I am hoping this is a good setup.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[handler]

nothin wrong with the 98 as long as u got it trued up,,have fun.

 

[olympian]

There is nothing wrong with a 98 Mauser action depending on the application. It is not so great for serious competitive shooting but plenty good to have a lot of fun with it.

 

[benchracer]

I am a big fan of the 98 mauser actions and I feel that they often get far less respect than they deserve. Having said that, they do have some limitations that should be kept in mind. As well, my affection for the mauser comes from field use rather than competition. I have never shot F-class, so I cannot comment on its suitability for something like that.

Here are some limitations that I have been made aware of:

1. Lock time

The mausers have a much slower lock time than some of the more popular and more modern actions commonly used in competition. Lock time can be improved by installing an aftermarket firing pin such as the Tubb Speed Lock, but this will only reduce, not eliminate, the lock time disadvantage.

2. Magazine box length

Although 98 mausers will accommodate 30-06 length cartridges, they do so just barely. There is very little room to exceed the SAAMI COAL of 3.340. It is possible to make some slight modifications to the mag box to get a little extra room, but there will still be pretty limited room to use long bullets seated long enough to be out of the powder column in the case. The controlled feed design of the mauser, one of its great advantages in field use, becomes something of a liability in this instance because it will not allow single feeding of rounds loaded too long to fit in the magazine.

3. Relative lack of rigidity limits use of ultra heavy barrel profiles.

The mauser actions are known to have the tendency to flex or droop when an excessively heavy barrel profile is used. I do not know exactly what profile is the heaviest that can be used reliably, but I have always kept this in mind on the rifles I have built. None of the barrels I have used are heavier than a #5 profile and I have had good luck with those. I notice that Shilen offers pre threaded short chambered barrels for sale for mausers up to a #7 profile, so I would expect barrels in this weight or lighter to work just fine. Given that a light palma or standard palma contour barrel is about the same weight or less than a #7, I would expect either of these to work just fine.

Among the various mauser actions, the post WW2 mark 10 commercial actions are, in my opinion, the best mauser actions to build on. They come from the factory in a sporter configuration, saving quite a bit of money and labor needed to sporterize them. They are also made with more modern steels that allow for more reliable methods of heat treatment. This makes them more forgiving when taking steps to true and square various parts of the action.

I have built on both military and commercial actions, and have been very pleased with the end results. My mausers are among my favorite rifles. Good luck with your build and your long range shooting.

 

[dan06]

When my grandfather died about 10 years ago he had an old 98 action that he was always going to build something with......So the first thing I did was build up a .280 ack using a cheap Adams and barnett barrel from Midway I think it was about $90 and a also cheap fiberglass stock. I had to legenthen the mag a little to get the bullets I wanted to use to feed. I added a tubs speed lock which makes a big difference. It shoots 3 shot groups in the .5's consistantly with berger 168 match hunting bullets....I am very pleased.

 

[1000yardstare]

Had a Karl Gustav Mauser in .308 as my first long range Palma rifle back in the 1980`s. It was used, cheap, bore in good shape and came with Parker Hale rear sight. Mounted an Anschutz front sight. Slow 2-stage trigger and cock-on-closing took some getting used to but I was determined.

I was warned by the old hands that the long Mauser tang at the rear of the action compresses the wood under the tang as the barrel and action torque around the recoil lug when fired. It is well nigh impossible to keep the rear action screw tight over the course of a long day of competition. This turned out to be true but it was a cheap way for me to decide if I liked that type of competition.

At my first Canadian Nationals I went up and down the line looking at other rifles. Out of 500 competitiors I was the only Mauser action.

Two years ago I experienced the same problem with a Ruger .308 Target Rifle that I was wanting to be my backup F/TR rifle. Same damned thing. The rear action screw kept coming loose as the rear tang compressed the wood, laminated wood at that. Traded it on a Savage .308 VLP which has been a fine rifle.

Pillar bedding might cure this problem. I never went that route. As mentioned previously, you can put a stop watch on the lock time but after-market triggers and firing pin kits are available.

If you go into the project with the attitude that you are out to learn and have some fun then you should do just fine.

 

[Larryh128]

The big issue is going to be lock time. A speed lock cocking piece, 26# spring, & a lightweight Tubbs firing pin will help. Bedding under the chamber will help with action torque.

 

[olympian]

1000yardstare,

I could be wrong, but I think you had a M94 or M96 (small ring) Swedish Mauser made by Carl Gustaf rather than a M98.

 

[Laurie]

Yes,

that would have almost certainly been a Swedish M1896 small-ring Mauser. Carl Gustaf built the 7.62mm CG63 model out of spare 96 actions for Target Rifle and similar disciplines. Those for continental Europe had a Soderin rearsight that restricted the maximum range somewhat (600M?) and I think retained the Mauser straight-out bolt handle arrangement. The CG63E was exported to the UK with a turned down handle and Parker-Hale match sights for shooting to 1,000yd. They were common here and the odd one still turns up usually with original (shot-out) barrel and sell cheap.

Yes, lock-time, standard Mauser military trigger, barely adequate bedding issues! They were good enough for early TR from '68 to sometime in the 70s when the superior Musgrave and Swing models appeared. CG also made a military / police sniper version that had a 4X scope on a QD side-mount as well as the Soderin match rearsight and tunnel / globe element foresight fore target shooting. As far as I know, they were only ever sold to the Royal Singapore Police, around 30 of them making them the rarest Swedish Mauser. They all came to the UK via my local dealer York Guns in the 90s and I owned one for a few years. Nice if heavy rifle, not up to Remington 700PSS standard though, certainly not by the time they arrived here. I also had a CG63E bought secondhand around 1988 for a few years until I found an affordable Musgrave RSA in good condition. It was my second TR rifle, the first being one of G.E. Fulton & Sons budget conversions of a .303" Enfield No.4. The CG was far superior!

While the '98 Mauser is heavier and stronger than the CG63 / M1896 Swede, I doubt if there are any advantages except being able to hang a slightly heavier barrel on, or if you seriously overload a cartridge and risk blowing the thing up! There are at least two destroyed CG63s on display in the UK. Even so, the owners would have survived apart from maybe a weak hand injury as the bolts stayed in position and the gas mostly went down into the magazine well and blew out downwards, splitting the stock and bulging the action side-rails as well as losing the extractor, potentially at rather more risk to any neighbouring shooter on the right.

Laurie,
York, England

 

[fdshuster]

Jewell makes a replacement trigger for the Mauser?

 

[1000yardstare]

Laurie.........interesting post as usual.

When Sweden formalized the rules for 300 metre competition, they built target rifles on the M96 or M38 action with non-stepped barrels. Those with handguards over the barrel were designated CG63. Those exported to Britain or North America had Lyman, Redfield or Parker Hale rear sights.

But it doesn`t matter whether it is a M96, M38, M98, CG63 or Ruger. They all have that narrow rear tang which compresses the wood underneath when torqued by recoil which causes bedding problems which was the point of my first post.

The bedding problems for a M96 or M98 are the same for the same reasons.

 

[M700]

It was only a few years ago that Kent Reeve won our 1,000 yard prone national championship with a .30 magnum on a Mauser action.

Food for thought.

 

[1000yardstare]

M700.............do you know if Kent Reeve`s Mauser was pillar bedded? Seems to me that would be the route to go with this action to get around the compression problem.

 

[Larryh128]

Right or wrong, what has worked for me (and these aren't benchrest rifles) is fully bed the rear tang. That means bedding the tang, floorplate AND the complete area between the 2 with J-B. I do the floorplate 1st, tang 2nd so I have it lined up correctly, I then totally fill the area top to bottom & drill the hole back to .280 which gives .030 clearance. Crank it down & they don't move. May not be the perfect way to do it but it works for me and several of my hunting rifles will consistently shoot sub 1" groups at 300 yds. ;D Best group so far has been .200 @ 300 yds so I'm pretty content with that.

 

[1000yardstare]

Larryh128...........great stuff.

I just finished using a Score High pillar bedding kit on a M700 action. One of the instruction sheets in the kit said that instead of an aluminum pillar a column of bedding material can be setup between the floor plate and action. Accomplishes the same thing as the aluminum pillar - a non-compressible column between the floor plate and action.

Sounds like what you did.

The original question was about a target rifle so I didn`t get into a hunting rifle in .338-06 that I made up 25 years ago on a M98 action and a Bishop stock. I bedded the recoil lug and rear tang in JB Weld but realise now that I did little more than a skim bed on the rear tang. After an extensive session on the bench the rear action screw would be slightly loose. The concept of pillar bedding didn`t exist in my neck of the woods back then so I never thought of the deep bedding that in hind sight is so necessary with the Mauser-type action.

 

[RossL]

I have a Mark X which is a large ring mauser clone. I have no problems with it shooting accurately at longer distances. I will admit I am not a competitor but a hunter. My rig is in a Russo laminate. The action WAS a 375 H and H interarms hunting rifle. It now has a 30" #7 barrel chambered for 7 rem mag with ample room for bullet seating variations.

A couple of tips: if you want a picatinny rail Near Mfg makes one.
http://www.nearmfg.com/

As for using a controlled round feed action: Brownells sells a single shot follower with a deep pocket so bolt face pics up the round.

http://www.brownells.com/1/1/24962-benchrest-follower-m98-fits-mauser-fn-98-mark-x-score-high.html

 

[Larryh128]

By the way, love the 1000ydstare name. It can really imply a lot of different things. No loosening issues with any of my rifles & most a built on 98's or equivilent. My shooting bud has all trued 700 actions & they are definitely easier to shoot because of the faster lock times. What we lack in my area is anywhere to shoot at a 600 yd or more range. Our club goes to 300 & 400 with a portable.

 

[butchlambert]

No Jewell triggers are available for mausers.
Butch

 

[boer]

There was a South African rifle brand MUSGRAVE that made a series RSA target rife that had a K98 action and it is really nice rifles.

 

[Flouncer]

Does the Bell and Carlson Medalist stock with integral aluminum bedding address the rear tang issue discussed above ??