Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters The Old "Mauser 98 action needs reheat treat" ..thread.

I've read through the years that "yes", 98 Mausers should be Ht'd and others say "no", not needed.

Is there any real data ie. actual lab testing on milsurp Mauser 98 actions, that give a more concrete answer?
If so does the year and make determine this?
Only needed for high pressure cartridges?

Has this been settled already and I'm the only looney still lost in aether-world pablum, or is this an old swayback horse that needs a good thrashing?

They weren't heat treated. They were case hardened. I have several and the only ones that I had recase hardened were the ones that square bridges were welded to the receivers.

Really very hard to say, Commercial, IE Santa Barbara. Military, Spanish 98's converted to 7.62 Nato, Israeli rifle converted to 30-06 and 308? Turkish made, arsenal rebuilds? To me depends on the rifle and where and when it was made along with it's condition.

Define "heat treating"

If someone dropped this in my lap, the first question I'd ask is what kind of metal is it made from - that is what chemistry is it? The chemistry determines what is feasible.

If metal is low carbon & alloy content, then case hardening is practical, which adds carbon to the surface and allows that portion to harden. You could nitride it too, but the hard layer is extremely thin, only .001" or so thick.

More modern action use low allow steels, which can be heat treated to though harden the metal sections.

Go over to AR and search for thread by Tom Burgess. It is at least 10 years old.

Yep, that's why I'm wondering about the claims made on the "net". What exactly IS the method and why, which actions etc. etc.

I've seen some apparently knowledgeable discussion of this at Mauser Central: http://mausercentral.com/forum/index.php

There are a handful of pretty competent Mauser gunsmiths there.

Pacmet does a lot of Mausers. Do a search and you can contact them They are aware of the makeup of the Mauser receivers and can recommend the proper course of action.

Another good firm is Blanchard Metal Processing in Salt Lake City. The late Dave Gentry knew a lot about Mausers (he made many 98 actions of all sizes, including a number that became part of rifles made by big-name British firms) and used Blanchard for heat-treating actions that needed it. He sent them a couple of my actions, one of which he used on a "using" rifle.

What I know: VZ-24/1922 actions were well heat treated do not require HT. Swedes the same. Yugos 24/48s no problems
Argentine 1909's need to be treated they are soft as are some 98's it's a crap shoot.

Just my limited experience

Thanks for the responses gentlemen. I'll check out Mauser Central.

Butch, turns out I found your link for pacmet.com on the other thread in Gunsmithing and called them this afternoon. Had a talk with Jim and got a quote for one to four actions of $150. Send in three actions and the cost drops to $50 each, etc. Pretty good deal.

I'll check with Blanchard on Monday. I have a heat treat oven in my shop and thought I might be able to accomplish the task on my own but finding an accurate formula and process hasn't paid off yet. My skills and equipment may be limited so may just go for the pro job considering the cost is reasonable and I have three M98 actions tagged for projects.

I'd still like to find the formula though, if nothing more than just out of curiosity, I've considered the art and science of heat treating as one the fundamental human skills that drug man out of the stone age. Get a kick out of pulling red hot steel out of the oven and makin' it hard.

SBTCO

I believe you might find what you are looking for on the Accuratereloading.com forum. It was posted at one time. Blanchards is a good place also.

I've had actions done by Blanchard & they've done a good job.

One that they did was a Spandau action that is built into a 25-06; I've checked its headspace regularly & it has not moved a hair that I can tell.

I also have a 280 Rem built on a non-heat treated 1909 & I also check it regularly for headspace & it hasn't moved at all either.

David Miller has used a lot of 1909's & I don't believe that he has them re-heat treated, but it's been a while since I was told that by his partner, so my memory might be outdated on that.

PO Ackley did an interesting test that is described in one of his volumes where he overloaded a Mauser action to failure with Unique..........it took a lot.

MM

I have had a few Mauser's, A 1909 did have a bit of headspace, and it did seem to be moving. A Spanish Santa Barbara had no issues at all. They were reported as "Too Hard". A Mark X in 06 had headspace issues from the get-go. A BCD '44 original has no issues either. A Swede 96/38 was good to go as well. To me it depends on the rifle.

My two cents worth is that military actions were not designed and manufactured for magnum cartridge pressures. So don't use them for magnum cartridges.

There are tens of thousands of commercial 98 Mauser action sporting rifles made for magnum cartridges since the 1950's. I'd buy one of those if I want a magnum.

Of course YMMV....

At this point in my life I have little interest in magnum cartridges, nothing against em', just don't feel the need. I'll be sticking to .473 head size cases on these projects.