Mauser 98?

[Robert]

I have over 100 Mausers, dry fire them all the time, take them apart and look at the firing pin assembly, and I have yet to have or see a problem.

+ 1 on that. I hane handled 100s of them amm brands, and am yet to see one.

R.G.C

 

[shortgrass]

I may not have had a 100 Mausers, but I've had many and seen many more come thru my shop over the years. I've built many nice customs on '98's. Evidently, we're not looking at those firing pins in the same way. They are made of low carbon steel that has been case hardened. That main spring, even if worn out, has more than enough power to deform the cocking cam on the collar, near the "pin" end of the firing pin if you dry fire. Smack case hardened steel against case hardened steel and something has to give. I've got a whole handfull of 'um in the junk box.

 

[shortgrass]

Here's a pic,,,,,,,

 

[shortgrass]

Here's a couple of pics of one of my

customs,,,,,,

 

[Robert]

I may not have had a 100 Mausers, but I've had many and seen many more come thru my shop over the years. I've built many nice customs on '98's. Evidently, we're not looking at those firing pins in the same way. They are made of low carbon steel that has been case hardened. That main spring, even if worn out, has more than enough power to deform the cocking cam on the collar, near the "pin" end of the firing pin if you dry fire. Smack case hardened steel against case hardened steel and something has to give. I've got a whole handfull of 'um in the junk box.

Shortgrass,

To the best of my humble knowledge, your pictures show the ramp preventing the FP to strike in the case the Bolt is not fully closed. This in no cse set the protrusion.

On the G or K98s, the protrusion is set by the Sear piece front face against the bottom face of the recess in the Shroud. This is intended as a generous surface for military rough use and dry fire training.

Can you imagine a military action without a reliable dry firng shoulder?..

If the pictured ramp at front is allowed to engage, this simply means the protrusion is too long. On the 98, it is given, with the Berdan-primed Infantry Patrone, to be 1,4mm (.060”). The ramps (the ones you picture) at front is set to be clear for this dimension. Any more protrusion would mean same time a modification of the two angled ramps on the FP as well, in order for them to move close from their counterpart in the Bolt, but no-friction. Letting them to bear against each other is against the principle of the device.

To my knowledge, only the military Mausers have this feature?. Many, if not all, the copies does not. The ramps are then replaced by a simple shoulder.

Any damage to either the cam on the FP or its counterpart in the Bolt (one of the elongated holes along the bolt) simply means there is unwanted friction there on closure.
From quite a few original FP I have had hardness-test, I have seen none case hardened…..I do not think case hardening by the then methods was a common practice for small diameter parts such as firing pins tips!!.
R.G.C

 

[shortgrass]

Robert, you're puttin' words in my mouth, I said nothing about protrusion, it's about function. Those surfaces are actually a set of cams. If you clean out all the 'goop' from the inside of the bolt body , and use a light to examine the inside , way down there, you'll see the mating surface. This cam set-up will assist in closing the bolt when the trigger is released if it is not completely in battery (If I remember the numbers correctly the battery engagment needs to be at least 95% for this to work, otherwise, it prevents the rifle from firing and acts as a "firing pin block"). Upon raising the bolt handle, to cycle, that bottom surface withdraws the firing pin enough for the cocking piece to 'take over' the process of withdrawing and cocking the system, it moves the firing pin just enough that the cocking piece can engage its cam in the bolt more easily. Case hardening was a common practice for Mausers manufactured thru WW2 and beyond. All the parts , except the springs (spring material hardness has to be high carbon steel, 1070 to 1095) were made of low carbon steel (equivilant to 1020 to 1035, approx.) and then case hardened (carburized), receiver, too. The Mausers strength is in its design, not the material it was made of. With the parts being carburized, hard on the outside, and the inner core still being soft, the hard outside surface will 'give way' and break thru the carbuized suface, but, the inner core, being soft, will just deform to prevent a 'catastrophic' failure. Bolts are harder than firing pins, dry firing will deform the softer part (the cartridge primer gives a slight 'cushioning' effect when firing a round and helps prevent this from happening). I can tell when I raise the bolt handle on a '98 whether that 'safety shoulder' is deformed of not. If it's deformed it takes more effort than a 'smooth' one will. Read "The Mauser Bolt Action a Shop Manual" by Jerry Kuhnhausen, he says all this much better than I am capable of. By the way, most everything made of steel was made of low cabon steel when the Mauser was designed. High carbon steel was less available and reserved for springs and other crtical parts that low carbon couldn't be used for. Alloy steels, such as 4140, and high carbon steels weren't widely used until the latter part of the 1930's, The U.S. being the manufacturing giant and home of innovation for production of these steels.

 

[butchlambert]

This is my 1909 Argentine in 284. It is a 5/8-3/4" shooter with handloads.

This is my 7X57 half octagon barreled Mexican mauser.

This is a CZ 458 Lott.

This is my Banner mauser in 9.3X62.

I'm going to post a photo of my Remington clone on the general forum. I built it cheaper than the mausers.
If I were doing a mauser on the cheap I would bed it in a good glass stock. Blueprinting the receiver is money thrown away. Jim Kobe will take your old safety and make it a 2 pos safety for a very reasonable price. Get a Timney or Blackburn trigger. Get a good CM barrel[Shilen, Lilja, Kreiger, Douglas or so on] Have the receiver drilled and tapped. If you do much more you are spending money that won't make it shoot any better.
Butch

 

[shortgrass]

Lookin' good , Butch. Id' bet Butch and I have, at least, a couple of things in common,,,Like maybe a couple of years of tech training at an accredited school and quit a few years of bench experience. I posted the pic of that maple stocked Mauser as just an example. Not everyone who wanders in and posts is just some 'nob'. I don't post much on any forum, probably because I'm busy building rifles,,,,,,, or shooting them. ALL the work on this rifle was done in my shop(by me, I'm the only one there), metal work and wood work. Maple stock blank (not pre-inletted) came from the mountains of Pennsylvania. Inletted, shaped and finished by hand. Shilen CM barrel chambered in 7mm/08, slow rust blue on all the metal, my bolt forging & tear drop on knob, right down to the jewelling on the bolt. The only job I ever send out for is checkering.

 

[butchlambert]

shortgrass, actually I'm a semiretired auto mechanic. I worked in the machine shop during the Vietnam conflict and I do have a pretty nice machine shop at the house.
Butch