I purchased a gew 98 receiver that had been reworked by the Turks in 1954. It was purchased from a gunsmith who had passed away. When I got it home and tried a barrel in the threads it ran all the way in but some threads were exposed. I put it next to my other receiver and noticed it was quite short in comparison. I measured from the face to the inner C ring and it came out to .525 in Jerry Kuhnhausen’s Mauser book most 98 receivers should measure to .625, my question for the community is this, should a barrel be faced off to fit the .525 dimension or is this receiver a complete throw away.

You have three options for using the receiver:
1) use it as-is since the barrel butts up against the inner torque ring. Just face off the barrel as require to set headspace and live with the gap.
2) make a spacer that fits between the barrel shoulder and receiver face. Do the math to set your headspace, adjust barrel accordingly, make your spacer .002" shorter than the shank length.
3) shorten the shank and rechamber.

The Turks removed the first thread and made a handguard retainer out of the receiver face. When people sporterize these, the remove the retaining lip and end up with a receiver about .100" shorter. This makes stocking fun if you plan on using a semi inlet.

Okay those are all good options. I had talked to a gentleman who made barrels which I had bought before and he said that much material removed from the receiver wasn’t very safe. I thought about taking the 450 bushmaster barrel I had originally intended for my Kar98a, and sticking it on the reworked receiver since it comes with a locking ring. I purchased and old 8mm barrel that looks like it might have been a guild gun? Maybe? And sticking that on my Kar98a to give it some life. Unfortunately the sights don’t line up and that Is a project that will also need to be tackled. Thanks for the help!