I studied the M39 for a long time. The simplicity of the design and the cartridge ballistics seemed like a good choice. I finally ended up buying a 98 Mauser custom. My 98 was converted to a 30-06 sporter by a gunsmith named Flaig. The rifle was one of those that was advertised in the National Rifleman for $59.00 during the 50's
I have update the Mauser at great cost to a modern custom rifle. The Flaig conversion was a 30-06 barrel, side mount peep sight and custom stock. I updated the gun with a scope mount, scope safety and timmey trigger set. I pillar bedded the stock and re-blued the metal.
Each step in the sporter process I realized that I was stepping away from the original Mauser design with costs and benefits. I keep coming back to the understanding of the simple inline design of the M39 was the reason it worked so well. Adding the scope mount to the M98 required drilling the receiver to add the Leopold one piece mount. Drilling through crest on the receiver was hard and it also hurt the value of the gun. I was lucky and the mount went on ok. The final design is a mount that relies on three 6-32 at a 90 degree angle to forces, the opposite to the original Mauser design. All of the other sporter modifications had a similar flaw in the design, The timmey trigger set hung on two screws at 90 degree. The stock hung on two screws at 90 degree. All of the military mounting of the full length wood was lost.
