Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Any Mauser 98 fans out there?

VZ 98 .35 Whelen, 21" Barrel, cerakoated, Unknown synthetic stock. Favorite go to rifle.

98 .275 Robert's, decent maple stock. Has killed its share of Pa whitetails.

96 6.5x55. Bolt bent, aftermarket safety, Ramline stock. Shoots great, haven't taken it hunting yet.

Siamese Mauser .45-70, walnut stock. Purchased on here a few years ago. Shooting 430 gr hard cast. Absolute thumper on both ends.

Interarms Mark X Flaigs custom .375 H&H with Douglas XX barrel. Was in a fajen thumbhole, but the wrist cracked. Currently sits in a Remington 798 laminate stock. Was willed to me by a friends father. I killed 3 doe in one day with it while hunting with my friend and his Das. His Dad never forgot and left me the rifle and 140 rounds on ammo. Hope to someday afford an appropriate walnut stock for it.

On the lookout for a 7×57 Carbine with a full length stock.

Something kinda like the one below?

I VERY foolishly sold this one in the exchange last year and regret it often. It was a custom made by a doctor up in the Campe Verde, AZ area in 7x57, and it was VERY well done. I’d do a lot of things to get it back, but I guess I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for another or just have one made myself eventually.

And it wasn’t just any Mauser, it was a Chilean Model 1935 Carabineros “Orden Y Patria” Mauser. Rare in it’s own right, though I suppose you could argue the custom work negated any collector’s value. But not matter how you look at it, it was a rare bird indeed. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say... Oh well!

Oberndorf Mauser, Type S, 7x57:

VZ24 .338-06:

9,3x62

10.75x57

Brno 7x57

Brno 8x57

9,3x64

Another 9,3x62 prior to bluing.

This is a little Mexican Mauser I'm working on. It has a Pacnor featherweight barrel in 7mm Mauser. It's pretty much done, but the stock still needs to be checkered. I'll get around to having that done one day...

WDM Bell found that in terms of reliability-function in harsh hunting conditions the Lee Enfields he had distinctly out- performed Mausers
and other European rifles like the Mannlichers in his collection. ...worst were the fancy prima donna SxS rifles.

His knowledge/experience with the Lee and Mauser also came from his combat service, Boer War and WW1.


Largely due to extensively field proven ruggedness and reliability, he purposely chose the military Lee and Mauser
for his commercial exploit ventures in Africa.

In the worst hunting conditions, the Lee Enfield proved the most reliable.

Some really nice Mousers from the gentlemen from Co and Ga!

Well, he was English, after all! The Lee Enfield excells in two areas; the abilty to close on a round which is difficult to chamber and the ability to close on a round fed in ahead of the extractor.
Apart from that, I would have to disagree with the reliability claims. Without a doubt, the two military based rifles I saw most in the shop were Mausers and Lee Enfields. Seldom were either one in for repairs; just drilling and tapping or other alterations. However, I never saw a broken extractor on a Mauser but did see broken extractor springs on Lee Enfields. Mausers which were chambered for original cartridges never had feeding issues. Lee Enfields didn't either unless the shooter happened to not take care when filling the magazine and got the rim of the top cartridge behind the rim of the one underneath. It would then try to double feed and was truly jammed until cleared. This was strictly operator error, I know, and was reflective of the issue with rimmed cartridges in a magazine but it happened.
Currently, I hunt with both and don't expect a malfunction from either one. I have to say, I don't see malfunctions from the Winchesters or Remingtons I use either so it's all just perception, I reckon. GD

I'll admit the Lee Enfield cycles faster than the Mauser, but after that, there isn't much of a comparison, IMO.

DF

Yes, I am a fan. Have owned several, all good rifles. Pretty much bomb-proof. Currently own only one, which came with a remote cabin that I purchased sight unseen back in mid 70's. It was marked .270 Jefferson- with a nicely figured MonteCarlo stock- obviously at least semi (probably fully custom build. Very accurate.

For the record, i hate that original military two-stage trigger, would never have one. Mine sports a Timney, I think. It is set at 2.5 lbs.When I want a gun to go off, I don't want to have it second-guess me, dammit!

I loaned it to my brother, who returned it 22 years later when it "quit shooting" after a winter in a damp basement. He was right- nothing I could do made it workable for any shooting past 20 yards or so, even tho I could see no pitting in the bore. I picked up and full-length bedded in a $100 (maybe $110) "Finnish sniper" parkerized barrel in 30-06 from Sportsman's Guide. It is 27 inches from front of receiver to muzzle, and a fairly heavy contour- heavy enough I'm unlikely to pack it very far, or maybe even very fast.... Whole rifle with VXIII 3.5-10X weighs in the neighborhood of 10 lbs. Fine for hunting off an ATV, snow machine, or boat.

If the nut behind the trigger is steady enough, it gets 1" groups at 300 yards with every factory ammo I have tried. Wildly different POI between brands/loads however. Even between Hornady GMX and SST Superperformance in same bullet weights. But that's OK - I have them written down. Somewhere.....


Hmmm- maybe I should try handloading for better accuracy?

I posted these elsewhere on the fire but this seems to be the thread it really belongs in.

Mauser 96 not a 98 (traded Hatari a bottle of bourbon for the action and bottom metal though so why split hairs) 6.5x55 Off to Mark Penrod. Ed LaPour 3 position safety, Hopewell 1-8" 3 groove barrel, NEGC iron sights, lots of metal smoothing and cleaning up by Mark, he couldn't really sweep the bolt much with the new safety but it's a little. Tally detachable rings. I don't really see using the iron sights much but a Mannlicher looks silly without the. Wenigs did the stock. Stock has a surprising amount of palm swell that I happen to like.

Took about 2 years all told but a really nice custom rifle for less than many factory semi-customs. I can't say enough good about Mark. Superb communication (all these pics are his) and great discussions about options and what the overall cost I was looking for in a hunting rifle for the rest of my life. There's a reason he's got a wait.

Delivered sub one inch groups with the 100 grain NP loads and 1 1/2" with the Norma Oryx loads I had on hand. Loaded some purpose built ones last weekend but I won't have a chance to get back out to the range for a bit.









With the scope. A 4x32 IOR with the #4 German reticle.

That is an absolute beauty. Swedish 96 Mauser??

drover

Hatari had 4 of them and he thought this was a good one to work with, or perhaps just one he didn't have plans for. A 1943 one. Here's what we started with.

Sorry I wasn't clear on my question, what I was asking was it a Swedish model 96 Mauser. I expect that it probably is but was just curious since you didn't include that in your post.
Regardless it is a fine looking rifle.

drover