On hardness and heat treating. I worked in a gunsmith shop during the early 60s, when a large number of 03 Springfields became available.

Scopes were becoming affordable and popular, and my job was to drill and tap these rifles and bend the bolt handles down, cutting and re-crowning barrels, turning machine marks out of the 03A3 barrels, plus a lot of bluing. I also installed low scope safeties.

There were also many 98 Mausers around, and their owners wanted scopes and low scope safeties on these, too, along with the military sights removed and the steps turned out of the barrels.

Most of my work was on 03s, but I did do a lot of 98s. As best as I can remember, the WWII Mausers were very hard, much like the nickle 03A3s.

The exception was the 1909 Argentine. These were very soft and easy to drill and tap. Again, as best as I can remember, the outer surface was about the same hardness as the interior. I did not have to use two or three cobalt drills to punch through that hard outer case, as I did on the German 98s and 03s.

This was a long time ago, and I can't remember the different models of 98s, but as this was the early 60s, just 15-18 years after WWII, I am thinking that most of the 98s were war souvineers. Seems like I do remember that most of them were made in the late 30s and early 40s.

A cousin still has one, in original condition, that my uncle, his dad, brought back from WWII. Next time I see him, I will try to find out the origin of it. I have a CZ 27 that he brought back and gave to my mother.

Some of the 98s might have been Czech made, but I can't remember.

Actually, at that time, all I knew about 98s was that they were the German military service rifle in 8mm Mauser. I didn't know about all the different manufacturers, but my boss had one, I believe it might have been a Brazilian, in .30-06. As far as I know, it wasn't rebarreled, but made originally in this caliber.

There were also Jap 99s coming in, and I mounted a few scopes on these, too. The best I could do on these was make a very high scope base, and mount the scope high enough that the bolt handle did not need bending.

For some reason, I don't remember why, we didn't bend the Jap bolts.

This is a picture of a 98 I put togather, in about 1964, for my own use. It is an FN commercial action, Douglas barrel, and chambered for the 7mm Wby. I still have it.

The stock is from a blank I purchased from Bishop.

The scope is a very old Kollmorgan Bear Cub in 4X, with a 26mm tube. Weaver bases and rings, about all we used on the 03s and 98s.

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