Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Mauser help

I picked up a "semi sportirised" mauser k98 in 8mm to try my first build on and have a few questions. Im wanting to rebarrel it to 300 winmag what would be a good barrel to buy that wont cost an arm and a leg? Also i herd id have to either open up the bolt face or buy a new boltface where can you buy a new one and how much are they running? Thanks

Nate,
personally, if the 8mm barrel is is good nick, leave it as is and with abit of elbow grease , tidy the whole rig up and shoot it!!!

Wouldnt bother rebarreling to 300 WM..... may get too pricey!!
Gus

I wouldn't go to the trouble. Lot's of older Interarms commercial mausers out there. I've seen lot's of 300 Win. mags for under $400.00.

Brant

Actually there is some good advice above as the changes you want are not simple changes. You can't simply buy a new bolt face as with a savage oe some of the more modular bolt assemblies. To change the bolt face you will either have to turn the face on a lathe or mill and of course the extractor and ejector will have to be modified too. An alternative would be to fit a replacement bolt with the proper bolt face and headspace it to the new barrel. This cost alone will probably be as much as you can but an interarms mauser for. Depending on the action you have you may also run into length limitation on the magazine etc as well as diameter issues that will have to be modified to accommodate the long cartridge and belt of the magnum. Throw in the rebarrel,bolt mods possible drilling and tapping and stock cost and you could easily buy a nice mauser sporter say a browning safari a whitworth or something of that nature for what you'll spend on the mods and what you can get for your rifle.

Others have given good advice above. The mods necessary to convert a military get REALLY expensive REALLY fast.

On the other hand if you have your mind made up the are quite a few considerations mentioned above: bolt face/extractor mods, feed rail/mag box mods, bolt handle and d&t, just to begin with... Then the is the barrel.

I'd worry less about the make of the barrel than about the 'smith you choose to do the work.

I agree with picking the smith and going with his suggestion on barrel maker. His reputation is riding on that decision and he knows which maker has the best turn around time and the the one(s) who back their products the best.

Often a barrel maker gets popular and due to volume, service and order time goes in the tank. Your smith will be on top of these details and will know which maker is the one to use, today. I've seen that choice change pretty quickly.

Among top makers, I don't think there's that much difference. I'm sure the bench rest crowd will say otherwise, but for hunters and even precision shooters, any of the top barrels will work. And, I've read and heard the arguments over cut vs. button rifling, etc. etc. For most of us, not a big enough issue to make a difference.

IMHO,

DF

Edited to add that Jim Kobe, who posts on this site as Jkob, is an excellent Mauser gunsmith. He just did a 9.3x62 Mauser for me. A lot of smiths don't want to work on Mausers.

ER Shaw will do the whole package and not charge you an arm and a leg. Thier barrels are decent an dPLENTY good enough for a 300 Win MAg huting rifle. Yes, the bolt face has to be opened up a bit and feed rails as well but that is no big deal. I like the idea and project quite a lot. Add a Model 70 style safety and a Boyds JRS checkered and finished stock and you will have a very fine weapon.

Mark,

Jim Kobe put a Shilen CM #3 on my 98 Mauser. IIRC, the barrel cost was $195 and he charged $200 or so to do the fitting. I'm currently glassing the barreled action in a B&C Medalist that I got from Brownells. Jim's work looks great and he also does the Mauser shroud, wing type safety conversion.

For a Mauser, I would look hard at going with a smith who likes to work on Mausers. I don't think Shaw would be that much cheaper, if at all, and my gun wears a Shilen barrel which I would much rather have than a E.R.Shaw barrel.

Quality work at a reasonable price with great turnaround time.

DF

Mark Skaggs is a local guy here, who is heavily into Mausers, does an excellent job, good turn around and you won't see your wallet raped...

I've got a Mauser going over there soon, only hold up is to finally decide what caliber to put on it...

if you want down and dirty on a workable barrel, did one for a friend on an Adams and Bennett barrel from Midway... in the white it was like $90 plus shipping...and surprisingly it was pretty darn accurate...

he did do a trigger change with one of those Bold Optima triggers from Boyd's...

Duh, forgot a link to Mark's site: http://www.skaggsgunsmithing.com/pricing.shtml

I am in the process of finishing up a small ring mauser. The rifle was give to me when I was 12 yrs old by my dad. He died about 7 years ago and I figured it was time to do it right. Here is what it wound up costing me....

90.00......257 Roberts Barrel
80.00......install barrel
35.00......commercial bolt shroud
43.00......Bold trigger
125.00.....Blue and misc. work
75.00......Drill and tap
45.00......Leupold base and rings
10.00......new extractor
180.00.....like new B&C Medalist stock
125.00.....used Leupold 39x40 vari xll

$808.00 total

And I welded the bolt handle myself. And on alot of those parts and work I had sales tax also.

Brant

Good for you to get it done.

When our dad is involved its so valuable.

Show us some pictures of it and tell us how it shoots.

IT&D will also do the work at a reasonable rate. That said it would still cheaper to find an old Interarms Marx X, Charles Daly, or even a new Zastava rifle. For that action I'd look at 06 and 57mm based cartridges or build a 9.3x62.

I would love to do it in 35whelen or 280 rem if i can find a barrel ill justgo that way

warning if you go 300 wm get the action and bolt heat treated. all mil mausers are just case hardened the cost is 75 dollars. call jim at pacific metalurgical in auburn wa. they are a boing contract shop that has some of the best heat tec in the world. he has done many for me

I would add to what Safariman said and suggest you actually go to the ER Shaw web site. You can use the price list for their services as a baseline for what this project might cost and as was mentioned, they have a package specifically for opening up a military Mauser to work with magnum cartridges.

As others have pointed out, there are probably less expensive ways to own a 300 mag, but there is also value in having something built the way you want it.

I can't say enough good things about .35 Whelen, plus it is just plain cool. The .280 is a good round but one I've never warmed up to. I think both would be better choices for your action.

Nate, I can fix you up with a .280 barrel that is already threaded, chambered and blued. I bought it some years ago for a project, but never made it to fruition. PM me if you are interested...

GH