Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Short, Long, and Intermediate Action Lengths

The Long and Short of Mauser Actions
There are four basic sizes of Mauser actions. Two of these are rather uncommon and two of them are quite common.
Mauser actions have been manufactured by a large number of companies in many different countries for over 100 years.
While the following guidelines are accurate, they are not to be taken as absolute. There are exceptions to every rule. The
most common actions you will find are known as large ring and small ring actions. The term �ring� when it applies to a
Mauser action refers to the area at the front of the receiver into which the barrel shank is threaded.
Mauser actions utilize two ring sizes. A small ring action has basically the same external profile from front to rear. The
outside diameter of the action at the front ring will be 1.3" across. The large ring action has a slight step or swell at the
front of the action and the ring will measure 1.410" across.
The smallest factory Mauser actions are the Short, or �Kurz� actions, that were made by Mauser for the commercial
market prior to WWII. Almost all of these were small ring actions, although at least one specimen of large ring Kurz exists.
These are true 98 pattern actions that cock on opening. The bolts, receivers, firing pins, extractors and bottom metal are
unique to that model and are not interchangeable with other Mauser actions. The overall length of the actions is about
8.125". These actions are among the most uncommon Mausers, quite rare and highly desirable to collectors.
The next size larger is the so-called �intermediate� size action of which there are several examples. The most common of
these are the 1893-1895 Spanish Mausers and the 1894-1896 Swedish Mausers. These are the pre-98- style, small ring
Mausers that have the long, non-rotating Mauser extractor, familiar ejector box on the left side (rear) of the receiver and
the enclosed staggered-round magazine.
Typical, M98, Large Ring Mauser Action
They lack the third (safety) locking lug at the rear of the bolt near the bolt handle root and they cock on closing. The bolt
shroud at the rear of the bolt does not have the gas deflection flange of the M98 shroud. These actions have an overall
length of about 8.5".
Slightly less common intermediate size actions are the 1910, 1924, 1936 Mexican, and the 1924 Yugoslavian. These are
also about 8.5" long but have the features of the true 98 pattern action. They cock on opening, have the rear safety lug,
and have the 98- style �flanged� shroud on the bolt. The 1910 and 1936 Mexican actions are small ring actions while the
1924 Mexican and Yugoslavian actions are large ring. Parts on all four of these actions are for the most pa.......

I didn't get an answer to this question in the Custom Rifles/Wildcats forum, so I'll try here.

What is the difference in lengths of the standard short action (308 Win), long action (30-06), and where does the so called "intermediate" action (Yugo/Zastava M24/48). I'm talking about the actual lengths in inches.

Thanks