One of the times Finn was in our camp he and I would discuss the same pros and cons of M-98's over M-70's and we discussed pretty much all the same aspects that have been brought up here. And although Finn's 375, that he dearly loved, was a M-70 - when he had to bet his life of a rifle and stop an animal his 458 was a Mauser ! He said he had seen problems in Africa with sand and dust in the bolt of the M-70 but the much longer and stronger fall of the M-98 striker was a better design for reliability.
Finn's assessment was brought home a couple of days later we went to the rifle range and one of my guides, who was using a M-70, sat down to fire the rifle only went "click". We pulled the bolt and firing pin and found it was fouled up with old, sticky grease and rust and after cleaning that out the rifle worked perfectly.
I know that while I also carry my M-70 9.3x62 most of the time, when I absolutely have to kill something I grab my MK X 458 Mauser.
That about says it all.....wrap it up and put this thread in the can.
Well, not so fast. With all due respect to the posters, the M-70's failure to fire was the result of an inattentive guide not maintaining his rifle. The "old, sticky grease and rust" did NOT just appear overnight but over an extended period of time.
This does not, in my opinion diminish the M-70 but demonstrates what can happen if you are lazy and irresponsible.
This was a "failure to perform" that resulted in a "failure to fire".
