Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Best 98 Action

I have four 98s on hand, three FN and a Heym. All but one of the FNs, a Paul Morton custom that cost $750, cost $600 on GB. The only issue with them is they sometimes need another hole drilled for a base, or maybe an odd one filled then re-drilled for current bases, and the triggers of course. The Heym also cost $600 coinkadinkly. Other commercial versions can be found at similar prices, and will save you a bundle on gunsmithing over a military conversion, and you won’t be futzing up a piece of history or throwing collectible money down the toilet. If you can find a military action with all the work done and paid for by someone else, that’s fine too.

Building a sporting rifle around a Mauser 98 military action strikes me as being cost prohibitive if you're not able to do most of the work yourself.

It would be less expensive to start with a commercial Mauser 98 action, like the FN actions that Husqvarna used on some of the 640 series rifles. Simpson LTD in Galesburg, IL, imports used firearms from Europe by the shipping container load and is a good, reliable, source for the FN actions that Husqvarna used before they developed the HVA small ring action.

If you're set on using a large ring 98 military action, those made by Mauser and DWM/Ludwig Lowe in Germany before WW1, those made by Steyr in Austria, those made by CZ in Czechoslovakia, those made by FN in Belgium are all good choices if the action itself is in good condition. The only ones that I'd avoid like a syphilitic whore would be those made in China and Spain.

I have them built on the following military actions; 1908 DWM, 1909 DWM, 1912 Steyr, 1912 Mexican, 1916 Erfurt, 1924/30 FN, and 1936 Mexican.

As someone wrote early on, "best" is a relative term and subject to interpretation.

You can read up on Mauser rifles forever and handle as many as you can find, and you will still find variations that are rare and unusual that most guys have never heard of

This one: BRNO 22 post war small ring commercial 98. A custom small ring Mexican 98 is close, but takes a lot of work to get to the point that the small ring BRNOs came from the factory.



ETA. I'm referring to sporting rifles, not collectible military or commercial mausers.

The OP was asking specifically for military actions.

I think to build on a "mauser" you either need to do it as cheap as possible (without being ridiculous) or go all out in terms of components and work. Anything in between is going to be worth pennies on the dollar. Certainly a labour of love, not practicality.
Still, I keep an eye out for a really nice south american crested (oberndorf or dwm) or pre/early years of WWll (oberndorf or Brno manufactured) action to consume all my disposable income!
Those commercial Brno small rings are very common "up here" but IMHO need a bunch of work and parts to really be practical hunting rifles in modern terms. Trigger, safety, bolt handle and stock can all use improvement, even before getting into a nicer fp/tg. As a nice period piece mimicking a Mauser Sporting rifle they are nice as issued.

psycodog;
Good afternoon, I hope you had a good Christmas and that your part of Oklahoma is having an acceptable winter so far.

Thanks for the interesting question and of course thanks to those who've answered, it's always educational and fun for me to read where other 'Fire folks are at on subjects such as this one.

Since you've stipulated military 98 actions, off the top of my head I've worked on and/or built rifles on actions made by Steyr, Brno and a good handful of German factories. Straying off the military actions, I've worked on Santa Barbara, FN and Mark X commercial actions, Husky commercial and Swedish 96 actions.

As far as fit and finish of the metalwork, even into 1943 during Nazi occupation, there's not a huge difference, especially if one is going to smooth, true and polish up the action a little anyways.

Some posters have mentioned that it's a potential money pit unless one can do the work yourself and hopefully I can be forgiven if I say a hearty "Amen" with a couple exclamation marks behind it.

Showing my age here, the walking around rifle I currently hunt with is a between the wars 98 with no Nazi proofs and a Mauser roll mark on the top. It had external rust pitting on the action, but internally was clean and I thought it was worth every penny of the $35 I paid for it about 20 years back. We could get bolts for $20 at the gun show back then too and I might have even had a spare in the parts bins?

The Steyr and another German made one - where escapes me but perhaps Erfurt - both covered in waffenampts so wartime made, were $50 for a rifle with an unfinished Bishop stock in the case of the Steyr and a complete barreled action - it was a .308 with the Star of David on the barrel - for the German made one.

I did some gun work for a friend, didn't want to take anything for it and he left a VZ24 action on the bench when he left - all illustrations of the price I like to pay for a military action that's going to keep me out of mischief in the shop over the winter.

Even after all the work I put into them, honestly a small ring Husky action is smoother, looks better and of course is lighter.

The slickest military action I've ever personally done was a 1903 made Carl Gustav 96 Swede that I installed a Dayton Traister cock on open kit, as well as smoothing and stoning some of the parts - it runs like it's on greased rails. Everyone who tries it has the same look when they run it, you know that, "Huh" sort of expression.

Even it's only about on par with a Husky though for smooth running in my opinion.

For all that, to be clear and open, I do not own a rifle that's built on a Husky action and am of Teutonic lineage as far as I can learn, so it's not nationalistic pride or anything, just a lifetime of fooling with rifles for family and friends.

If you're interested in reading up on Mausers, I believe that Ludwig Olson's "Mauser Bolt Rifles" is as good a place to start as any.

Hope that was useful to you or someone out there.

All the best in the New Year.

Dwayne

the Husky made some dang fine rifles. i have a Husqvarna m46 in 9.3x57 that was made in 1936. i had a Dayton Traister cock on open set too. when i first got it, the trigger was excellent. somebody already stoned it. i had my gunsmith D&T for a scope mount and bend the bolt handle. i put on 2-7x Leopold and shoot a 275gr WFN GC with IMR 4895. the Husky is #2 on running it. i have a 1898 Springfield Armory (1903) in 30-40 Krag that has that honor.

tdoyka,
Everything in you post above is great. But the best part is:
""Russia sucks."
---- Me, US Army (retired) 12B & 51B"
I'm the biggest Mauser fan in the world (prove me wrong!!) but these days I love your signature block the best. Which has nothing to do with the subject.

Happy New Year,
Rex

Specifically "98", or do you also entertain 'derivatives of' as well?

^^^Oh yeah

I have 4. All large ring M98's. As has been already stated the easiest thing is to get a commercial 98 as the work is already done. Or as in my case buy what somebody else already spent the time and money on converting. Just some examples of what you can find if you want.

Rifle 1 is a war time FN 98 sporter in 30-06. Slick action and shoots well. I paid $185 for that one.

Rifle 2 is a pre-war 98 custom in 257 AI. Pretty stocked rifle that came bedded, drop magazine, mashburn trigger, that shoots bug holes. That was my most expensive 98. Paid $540 and came with dies, brass, and some bullets.

Rifle 3 is a FN commercial M50 sold by Sears in 30-06. Haven't shot that 1 much but little bit I did, it shoots. I had a M50 before, also a true commercial FN, and this one. This one has the slickest action of the 3, came bedded, and has a nice stock. Paid $375 this past June.

Rifle 4 is just a 98 with original 8x57 stepped barrel and a sporterized stock. Has a steel redfield receiver sight and still has the original safety and bolt handle. Think I paid $300 for that one which was before I bought any of the others, and $300 was enough.

I've got one that developed lug set back, it had been chambered in 308 Norma. So, it is possible. My 9.3x62 seems fine, and i have 2 more mag bolt 1909's coming my way soon. All 3 (not the 9.3) will be sent off for heat treatment once they're here and stripped.

The 1909 Argentine gets my vote.

1909 Argentine have a cool crest and hinged floorplate, but I put the VZ24 ahead of it. I think the VZ24 is the best of the common large ring military 98's

Commercial large ring would go to the FN & Browning FN.

Small ring military would be the G33/40 & the VZ33 Mauser, followed by the Mexican 1910 then the Swede 96

Commercial small ring would be the Husqvarna

I just said military because I was given a choice. The reason for my original question is I see a lot of rifles built off the older actions that are waaaay up in price. Mines built of an FN military action, unknown barrel, but its not factory, beautiful walnut stock and a Timney trigger in 6.5x55. A very nice rifle in itself. i was just throwing the question out there as I am curious to see what most considered the "best" action to build off of if one was wanting a top end custom built Mauser rifle. I'd kinda like to know what to look for and what to shy away from.

Well then my friend, IMHO you will never do any better than a BRNO 21 or 22 commercial...but some think it a sin to cannibalize near perfection that they represent. Yeah you can go much further with bling and cosmetics and eye popping wood, but I doubt you will improve on metallurgy, strength, function, overall quality fit, and reliability. Just one man's opinion.

Two men's opinions.

I like the all of the Intermediate length M48 derivitives all great for building on. You are getting modern post war steels and heat treat. At this point the German machinery is perfected and tooling is post WWII. They seldom have any pitting to deal with at all. Bolt is already bent on most of them. People like Ken Farrell make scope bases out of steel that do not require the charging hump sanded down with up to 30 MOA off the shelf and if you want more can be custom machined for more. I have other Mauser actions but I liked the "newness" of my M48A I just replaced the stamped steel bottom metal with billet steel bottom metal. I added a $25 Swiss Machine Gun Barrel to it allong with a Ken Farrell 30MOA scope base. Waiting on stock. I did no machine work to the action outside of the drilling and tapping. I can put it back to stock with it's stock barrel. Last I checked the M48's have no collector value and are not at all rare.

I have a three VZ24's I plan to build as well but two of those where road hard and put away wet the other one is my truck gun they will need significant cosmetic work on top of a lot of other work like forging the handles down or wielding different bolt handles on. Mine are prewar and show heavy use so everything is suspect until I know it is not from hardness of the steel to levels of concentricity and precision of the machine work. Nothing wrong with them at all they are all fine rifles but lets face it the further back in time you go with rifles the more variability there is from part to part, lot to lot, and from one batch of steel tot he next batch. So if you are going to build off of antique military weapons it pays to inspect everything with a keen eye and to be prepared to need to do more machine work and finish work. This clearly also depends on the condition of the rifle you start with.

Now if we are talking commercial actions from finished rifles it does not matter. All of the European Commerical Actions post war that where finished and proofed rifles are all great to build off of. Clearly you want to shop for one that is in great shape and has as many modern features that you want already built into them.

If we are talking modern Mauser or Near Mauser clones again not going to matter. They will all work great. Some people poo-poo investment cast actions but I think all of the Mauser and Winchester Mod 70 clones even the investment cast ones work great. If done properly investment casting can produce a part that is as strong or stronger than a forged part. Since it creates a part that is far closer to the desired outcome it takes a lot less machine work or man and machine time to complete. In some cases this could allow for more time to be spent on gettingthings close to perfect as compared to just getting a usable part to kick out the door. In the case of the Ruger M77 MkII Ruger failed to take advantage of this and the finished machine work is rather crude. Nothing wrong with that almost a Mauser action just saying the machine work could be better. I think Montana and Kimber use investment cast actions and I have heard good things about them. The few I have encountered have been really nice rifles those are more like Mau-chester designs. Finding a nice CZ/Brno/Zastava modern rifle would be the cheapest way to go and they would need nothing.

A lot of use picked up Mausers of various military origins for $50 or less. My M48A brand new and unissued was $149 to $199 from Dunhams but I got mine on a Black Friday sale and I think I I paid $99 for it. I got an unissed Yugo SKS that same day for $99 I think regular price on that was also $199. Some guys on here picked up 1909's for $50 or less and gunsmithing rates and barrel prices where much friendly back then as well! So keep that in mind. When I was 12 my grandfather bought me an M1 Carbine from a pawn shop in Ft. Benning Ga for $50. There used to be a ton of parts from a lot of suppliers for sportirizing Mausers and Springfields.