Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mauser Actions

Greydog- based on your comment, any after market stock that'll fit an Mark X will fit the J9? I'm not too educated on mauser actions. With this being an intermediate action will it fit the standard long action stock. Bell and Carlson list their Mark X as below. Will this stock work for the Herters J9?

2197-___ Interarms MK X, Long/Short Action
Sporter style, fits current model long or short action with magazine
area block - .22-250, .243, .25-06, .270, .308, .30-06.

Yup

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.

Yup, my choice. Basically, I'm well set up for the .308 and too damn many other cartridges. Actualy, the truth of the matter was I'd planned on it being a 7x57 but the magazine was too shortfor the bullet I wanted to use. So. I went with the .308. Anyway, the barrel on the gun wasn't in the best of shape anyway so I probably would have had to do a barrel job regardless. I'm happy and that's what counts.
Paul B.

I bought a Husqvarna M98 (1948 vintage as best I can tell and a "Hi Power" according to the Canadian Government whose fancy firearm system know everything though the rear sight doesn't look like the HI Powers I've seen on the net) in 9.3x62 (Thanks John!) a few years ago because I specifically wanted an iron-sighted bolt action rifle. I also wanted a Mauser with the original flag safety. To me, they're incredibly easy to flip off (from the middle position, of course) as you mount the rifle and the added bonus is that your thumb ends up on the right (meaning left) side of the action where it belongs.

Unlike a lot of people out there (apparently) the fixed magazine doesn't bother me in the slightest. In fact, I don't really like a floorplate that you can pop open with ease. I'm pretty much certain that the military Mauser floorplate will never spring open by accident, another positive for me. I also wanted to be able to load via stripper clip. Mighty convenient in your pocket and doesn't rattle. Sadly, the clips I've found so far don't work (sorry Ted, same with yours).

Now, the bottom metal and trigger guard will never be described as having smooth, flowing lines nor will anyone claim that they are pleasing to the eye as they came from the factory. However after some turning the action over and over in my hands and some judicious marking and remarking of the bottom metal, I contoured the trigger guard's sides and relieved the rather blunt transition from the trigger guard to the bottom metal. I also gently rounded the floorplate and eased the front and back to make them more graceful. Had I gone all the way and rust blued it afterwards (rather than the cold blue that I had to do because of time constraints) it would have been perfect. When it got it's new stock (a semi-inlet from Brownells) and was finally finished I was pretty happy with it. Now, I'll likely get bored some day and strip the rifle and reblue it preperly and might even venture into making a new (and really nice) stock for it, but the point is that not everyone wants a new rifle. I would never have bought a "modern" Mauser for this project as it just wouldn't have suited me, and some one would have ended up picking it up on the Exchange and I'd be back at square one.

BFaucet,
those are nice pictures of the project.
Are the parts that were added to the new barrel Brazed? I remember reading about doing the bands with epoxy but yours looks a bit diff.
Again very nice project and cool to see an old one brought back to life.

I really have no idea how they were attached. I'll try to remember to ask my gunsmith.

-Bob F.

Is it better to just buy a new mauser action or have an old one rebuilt? By the time you buy the rifle and have all the work done is it about the same price as a new action?

Jlin: Great post!Thanks for doing that as I can tell it took considerable time.Sorta jogs the old brain as to reasons why the 98 is still,after all these years,possibly the top choice as an action for a BG rifle.They don't make them like that anymore!

So...What's a Mitchell M48 never issued 8mm Mauser with all the accessories worth?

those are really a rip off, all you are paying for is a bunch of phony documentation. although I haven't checked recently I could get m48's which is what those are for about $125 bucks a couple years ago.

If you run across any more at a $125, please PM me. I'll take every one of them. Seriously.

$125 Mausers? - that was then, this is now. If you want to go back 50 years, you could buy very good condition Mausers for $19.95 to $25.00 (depending of markings) at a number of sources (check back copies of AR).

What is the difference between an M48 and the other military issue military Mauser 98s, the ones used by Germany and other countries?

I bought some M-24/47s three for $150 a couple years ago. I had trouble getting what had in them for actions alone.....

The M-48 is about the same.....a shorter M-98 and IIRC made in Yuglslavia.

They just are not what the custom Mauser builder wants!

I did buy a M-98 GEW (German made in 1940) recently for $175... It needs a trifle cleaning up but is a very good donor rifle. At that price it was a bargain!

Thanks for the summary, Jim 222. You wrote that?

I'm a hopeless Mauser crank, I have been scarfing up whatever commercial 98's I can find, including the store-brands -- which were pretty darn nice rifles on the merits. I now have a lifetime supply of build platforms.

It would be a simple matter to haunt pawnshops for a while, find a nice Higgins or Sears and then get an A and B from Brownells for a "home brew" sporter.

Very interesting and informative thread - thanks! It got me to thinking about one of my safe queens that I purchased in 1968. It was part of a shipment of guns sent to a Kmart type store that was just opening. They used all kinds of strange guns to fill the racks.

This particular rifle is a FN Mauser in 30.06 made for the Colombian Army. I noted from the discussion that military models are not the most desirable.

My question is this, should I just get rid of it or would it be usable as the basis for a good rifle?

I'm hoping that the photos I just took are attached.
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mngunner/4660881911/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mngunner/4660881077/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mngunner/4661500276/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mngunner/4661499788/[/img]
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/mngunner/4661498264/[/img]

The photos require permission for viewing

The FN Mausers were fine guns and the .30-06 made for Columbia is (was) used for Magnums by a friend gunsmith years ago....

I have not personally used one but wouldn't hesitate doing so.

Be warned.....by the time you get a finished rifle.....the piggy bank will be milked severely. One can easily invest a grand in bolt handle change, safety change, trigger change and drill and tap for scope mounts.....then add the bottom metal.....

Now add a barrel and a stock.....the sky will seem unlimited.

BobinNH and Dave_Skinner,

Thanks for the kind words. I did write it, but of course based on the expertise of others, many of whom I quoted in the write-up.

CRounds

I would say that the discussion has concluded that military Mausers are less desirable ONLY in that converting one to commercial standards is MORE EXPENSIVE than starting with a commercial action that has already had changes made such as scope-ready bolt handle, single stage trigger, etc. Commercial actions, in many cases, have their own compromises, such as less good gas handling, etc. that I discussed in my post, although those compromises are no more than many other actions have. Certainly, your FN Mauser is a very high quality action, but as vapodog points out, converting it to a sporter could be an expensive proposition unless you are able and willing to do quite a bit of the work yourself.