Originally Posted by Mule Deer
Originally Posted by jorgeI
Originally Posted by hatari
For me, nothing better than a well done sporterized 98. .


Same here actually, then again since I only own about a dozen, I'm unfamiliar....


Good to know, but you missed a large part of my point, perhaps because I was unclear: Many factory 98 sporters have been produced with various safeties other than the military original--which, by the way, was not a POS as a safety for iron-sighted military rifles. It was good enough, in fact, to be one of the features of the 98 that the U.S. Army copied in the 1903 Springfield.

The switch to other factory-rifle 98 safeties occurred after WWII, when scopes became more the rule than the exception on hunting rifles. I only have nine custom 98s, but 5 of the actions they're built on came with non-military safeties, as Phil Shoemaker's famous .458 did.

Now I'm curious about the safeties on your custom 98s. Are they all M70-type?

Agreed , it was (is) a great safety for a military rifle, but that "over the top" motion on a hunting rifle is cumbersome , not to mention scope issues. I do have on MS (not a 98 obviously) but it does have a 98 style safety AND another on the side. My Sedgley (a Springfield, you know this I'm sure, but just in case) built on a Springfield action does have the 98 (military) type safety but that is an iron sighted rig. THe Rigby I had also the same. My Brownings all have the safety on the side, but the few sporterized 98s I had (have) had 70 type safeties. The CZs have the side safety as well. But you knew that. Lasthy and just to be clear, the "dozen" I own I include all of the above rifles. The custom 98s I had were all 1909 Argentines with combinations of all three safeties. Two were done by Mark Penrod and one Dwayne Wiebe.

Last edited by jorgeI; 03/26/21.
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”