Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Mausers worth the headache?

No Springfields Mark?

That's a good looking rig. I always liked the look of that style floor plate.

Dewd that's a cool rifle. I love how you confused the overall classic design with non-traditional end cap & checkering. Very distinctive.

I hope you don't mind me complimenting your wood .

I like the SS tube too.

What are the details? Who did the stock work? What kind of wood is it? Is that a rosewood end cap? Who did the checkering? What's the cartridge?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder....you be the judge...

Ted/Yukoner:

I love it. Tell me all about it!

The short answer is not only no, but hell no!

Building around a military Mauser action has the potential of becoming a serious money pit. It is really easy to get trapped in the slippery slope of "stone soup" creep/add-ons. Just one more thing, becomes two more things, becomes three more things, etc.

A case in point, I have a $1,200+/- Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55. It started as a 1942 vintage Husqvarna M38 in minty condition for which I paid $150 in 1995. Then the "stone soup" creep started; there was the Timney trigger, the Douglas barrel, the Boyds stocks, the Dayton-Traister Cock-On-Opening kit, replacing the bolt handle, milling the clip guide off the rear receiver ring, d&t for a Redfield one-piece base, reblue job on the receiver and bottom metal, etc.

Jeff

I like mine, .257 Roberts. . .

Mike that was one worthwhile money pit; I have Mauser envy!!

I have a bunch of rifles built around military Mauser actions, 27, so I'm not opposed to them, I just don't think that they are a very practical route to take.

My favorite SR is a Mexican in 257 Roberts that Mule Deer put together and my favorite LR is a pre-WW2 FN in 7x57 that G&H put together.

Jeff

Very neat package Mike, I like the open grip

Thanks for the tech help. I really like the open grips on a hunting rifle.

really nice rifle mike, what action is it built on? OP, I hope they're worth the headache, because im building my first two right now. One is a small ring g33/40 .30 U.S.A 1906 and the other is an interarms that is getting turned into an all weather .375 ruger or 9.3x62/64. As others have said, these builds aren't cost effective and a factory tikka could probably do much if not all of what a mauser can do, but mausers just reek cool and are nigh on impossible to break.

John

I like all of mine and wouldn't trade the first one for a tikka Not even my plastic stocked M98!

They're just good, rock solid hunting rifles.

4 in my safe
VZ24 in 7mm RM
Voere Cougar in 308 Norma Mag
FN commercial 9.3x62 Mcmillan all weather finish
FN commerical Sako in 300 H&H mag at McMillan for a McWoody
and will get a bluing like cerakote finish by Charlie Santoni .
next project most likely 375 H&H with pretty furniture.

You most certainly can, in just about every meaningful way. It's a mindf�ck to 'engineer' something so revolutionary every major manufacturer missed it. Not to mention the privilege of paying triple for equal performance, and the divine right of recouping less than half of your 'investment'.

The OP should do himself, his kids, and everyone else a favor, buy a nice production rifle that fills a need, and invest the remaining fortune in Little Johnny's retirement fund.

GFY

It's a mindf�ck to 'engineer' something so revolutionary every major manufacturer missed it



George,
Did you ever consider that it might not be profitable to manufacture a Mauser that follows the original design?

Most posters with Rem 700's replace firing pins , blueprint their actions replace the trigger bed their McMillan stocks and replace their factory barrel and your point is?

Something to think about. I am visiting in Albuquerque and I stopped in Ron Petersons gun shop, sitting on the used shelf are two nice Husqvarna Mausers in 30/06 one has a cheap scope on it and is priced at $395, the other one does not have a scope and is priced at $365. If I was going to build a Mauser based sporter I would jump on one of them in a heartbeat. They are used but not abused, I do not recall that either had significant blue wear or wood marks, both have the schnabel fore-end and one has some light fiddle-back markings in the wood.

drover

Jeff,

Good to hear you still have that Mexican .257! That was one of the last walnut stocks I did. Just didn't have time for much stock-work after that.

The most cost-effective way to get a 98 Mauser actioned hunting rifle is definitely NOT starting from the beginning with a military action. There are too many good commercial-actioned 98's around, or used custom rifles built on military 98's with some or all of the work already done.

But there is also a certain something about a rifle put together the way YOU want on a good military 98, whether you do some of the work yourself or hire it done.

These days, however, the lengths to which some people go are incredible. 50-75 years ago a lot of custom 98's were built with the military magazine assembly, but today many people replace the perfectly good hinged floorplate of the 1909 Argentine (perhaps the major reason 1909's were always desirable) with custom "bottom metal" costing $600. Then there's the money spent turning a military 98 into a "double square bridge" with a lot of welding, machinging and filing, when you can buy a CZ 550 or Ruger Hawkeye with the same basic feature.

However, rifle loonyism knows no bounds. It's never been about need or practicality. Instead it's about WANT....

It is a VZ24 put together by Guild member Ray Price before he passed, surface ground and all the "trick moves" ;-). Ray was a friend of Chic Worthing and Chic put some of the finishing touches on it. I've shot several half MOA grops with it at 200 yards, so I have to grin when I hear mausers aren't accurate.

Mike