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Jorge,

Obviously you're as unfamiliar with the 98 Mauser as Remington 700s.

You may consider the original 98 military safety as a POS, but among other folks Finn Aagaard liked it--on his first .458 Winchester "stopping rifle," which was built on one of the .404 rifles the Kenya game department issued for a while. Partly he liked it because when shooting the rifle with iron sights, when the safety was fully "on" it blocked his view of the sights. If in a distressed moment, the safety blocked his vision, he knew instantly to flip the "flag" over.

Also, there is no SINGLE Mauser 98 safety. There have been a bunch, including some offered by various companies offering either classic 98 actions or very close approximations. Here are some examples






From the top, they're a typical low safety on a 100-year-old custom 8x57; a CZ 550's 3-position safety (which blocks the firing pin, just like a M70 safety), a Gentry 3-position safety on a .375 H&H Mark X Mauser, and current .275 Rigby. Yes, two of the four are similar to the M70 safety--but they ALL include a flange on the bolt sleeve to divert any gas that might escape the rear of the action--unlike any Model 70 ever made. (Apparently other companies can figure out how to do this, but not Winchester.)

This last image illustrates why the Mauser claw extractor actually grabs case-rims tighter during extraction, due to the angled undercut. Model 70s do not have this, along with most other CRF actions. I have yet to see a 98-design extractor "jump the rim" on a hard-to-extract case, but have seen it on a few occasions with Model 70s and similar designs. This may or may not be why Phil Shoemaker chose a Mark X barreled action when he made his .458, but it sure doesn't hurt. Oh, and if I recall correctly he's still using the original Mark X trigger, with its side-safety.