GEW 98 Mauser chambered for 303 British.

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bearhunter

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No, it's not one of the original batch of rare intermediate action Mausers used by Rigby back in the day but it's similar.

I came across this old GEW 98 that surprised me with the chamber area stamped 303 British.

From the stock design and the very early style #48 Lyman rear sight, I'm thinking mid 1930s.

It's obviously a custom job, likely by one of the European cottage builders but there are only early type acceptance marks on the receiver, which is all matching. May even have been done in Canada as the European cottage builders would have had to get it certified to sell.

There's nothing special about this rifle other than the chambering and the alterations to the bolt face, extractor and cartridge guide rails of the receiver.

At first appearances it looked to be just another GEW 98 that had been sporterized but very well by someone that definitely knew what they were doing.

This rifle was put together before scopes were almost deemed to be mandatory and isn't drilled or tapped for the mount screws, but the receiver has been milled to remove all martial markings or country of origin, other than the serial number and acceptance stamp/model stamp.

The trigger was done by an expert and breaks crisply and repeatably under three pounds.

The major groove diameter measures at .315in and the minor diameter measures at .307 so it should be a good shooter.

The chamber is right on minimum spec dimensions and I had to root through my die sets to find one that would set back the shoulder and reduce the diameter above the rim to minimum factory specs to get the resized cases to chamber properly, without having to apply force to the bolt. Factory rounds chamber well but a few of the PPU rims with thicker rims were a bit snug, not enough to cause any issues.

The bore is excellent. Looking forward to play with this old hunter and maybe, if it wants to shoot the .312 bullets I have on hand well, get drilled and tapped for a scope for my old eyes.
 
I'm a computer challenged old fart and I just somehow managed to figure out how to send photos from my phone.

I've go the rifle apart right now and found that the stock maker, who was meticulous with the inletting was "to meticulous''

The stock has split under the receiver and was never bedded or had pillars added, not even a recoil bar behind the receiver lug. Thankfully it had been stored in such a manner it didn't get rusty, but the stock has checks all through it. Not really a great piece of Walnut that likely wasn't fully cured when it was shaped and inletted.

The stock, sadly isn't salvageable IMHO, so I'm going to look around for something appropriate or modify something I have on hand to ''look and feel right"

First I'm going to clean everything up and mount it in another stock I have on hand that's much more modern but sound. It will need to be modified for the rear receiver sight to clear the stock, just in front of the bolt recess. Ugh a weak spot.

I will see if I can get Paul T to upload some pics as he's very computer literate and has an imgur account he know how to use.

Give me a few weeks to get it all together.
 
CamparyTon said:
Sounds cool. Sucks that .303 is still so expensive.
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It's no more expensive than any other commercial loading. The surplus ammo has mostly dried up and in many cases that's a good thing as the vast majority of it was corrosive and far to many "new'' to the game shooters have ruined some very nice rifles because they didn't know how to clean the bores properly.

Thankfully, whoever owned this rifle knew how to clean the bore properly. Still, even though the bore is close to excellent there is a bit of nitriding damage to the leade albeit minor.
 
Thanx Paul, much appreciated.

For those that wanted pics.

It's pretty obvious that the recoil shoulder was built up with weld then drilled and tapped OFF CENTER.

This rifle was put together by someone with reasonable skills. The off center retaining screw hole is about the only poorly done job on it. Even the King Screw was hand made and it's threaded on a lathe for 1/4NF.

The stock was one I had in the bin and from the design of the original, it's about 10-15 years newer.

Now to see how well it shoots. If it proves to shoot well, then it will get a new set of holes drilled and tapped in the receiver for scope bases and it may even get an after market adjustable trigger.

The mag holds three rounds and feeds flawlessly.
 
bearhunter said:
Thanx Paul, much appreciated.

For those that wanted pics.

It's pretty obvious that the recoil shoulder was built up with weld then drilled and tapped OFF CENTER.

This rifle was put together by someone with reasonable skills. The off center retaining screw hole is about the only poorly done job on it. Even the King Screw was hand made and it's threaded on a lathe for 1/4NF.

The stock was one I had in the bin and from the design of the original, it's about 10-15 years newer.

Now to see how well it shoots. If it proves to shoot well, then it will get a new set of holes drilled and tapped in the receiver for scope bases and it may even get an after market adjustable trigger.

The mag holds three rounds and feeds flawlessly.
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The feeding part is important. rimmed cases and 98's aren't usually a good mix. That looks like a cool project, I hope it shoots well for you. - dan
 
dan belisle said:
The feeding part is important. rimmed cases and 98's aren't usually a good mix. That looks like a cool project, I hope it shoots well for you. - dan
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The receiver rails have been very carefully and evenly stoned to get the proper contour, especially on the underside, which is usually where the hang ups occur. If this isn't done properly, the cartridges can pop out when the bolt is opened quickly. I've seen this happen on the Siamese Mauser actions that were converted for the 45-70

The ways and guide rib have also been stoned and the action is very smooth.

Hopefully I can get it out this weekend.

This action appears to be sound and with the tight chamber dimensions should be capable of stouter loads.

I'm OK with the bore on this rifl but would have been super pleased if it had a standard 30 cal bore. Oh well, I've always wanted a K98 chambered for the 303Brit so beggars can't be choosers.
 
Just an update.

Took the rifle out today and put twenty rounds through it, ten at fifty yards and ten at one hundred yards.

The first fife shot group was very promicing, around 3/4in at 50 yds

The next group of five showed me there's a bedding issue. The vertical dispersion is around a half inch but the horizontal opened up to two inches.

The next five shot group at 100yds the vertical dispersion is about an inch and the horizontal dispersion spread out to six inches.

The last five shot group was identical

The load I'm using would be considered to hot for No1 or No4 rifles.

It's fine for my GEW98 or an Enfield, but don't attempt to use it in other types of firearms chambered for the 303 British.

It's 48.0 grains of IMR4320, over CCI 200LR primers, under Speer 180 grain flat base, round nose bullets

YES, it's an OVER MAX LOAD and I don't suggest anyone else should use it unless they have a rifle that is built on an action strong enough for it.

My mangetospeed tells me the velocities are just over 2740fps over a ten shot average and there are no signs of pressure or case stretching

As mentioned in the original post, this rifle has a very tight chamber.

I believe he horizontal dispersion is coming from the receiver ring retaining screw. The fact that it's offset doesn't help anything but there may not be any clearance between the base of the recoil lug on the bottom and the top of the trigger guard pillar. Or maybe the rear retaining screw pillar, which I installed is a bit to long. I'm going to tear it down and make some adjustments on both of them.

That it has very little veritical dipersion is an extremely good indication that it will shoot well when it's sorted out.

When I get it running properly, I will post again.

I'm planning on using this rifle with the above load from a couple of my blinds that are located in fairly open timber on the edge of old clear cuts.

The shots are seldom more than a hundred yards and that's about all my old eyes are good for with irons.
 
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They were quite popular for sporting conversions, both high and low end, between the wars. David Lloyd seems to have preferred Gew98 actions right into the 1960s and 70s. No so surprising: probably better quality machining than most WWII era actions. There may have been other features that appealed, but not my area of interest. The Lyman 48 says 30s or 40s and North American probably? Still inferior to the P14/M17 action IMHO, but the grass is always greener east of the Rhine for some people.
 
RRCo. said:
They were quite popular for sporting conversions, both high and low end, between the wars. David Lloyd seems to have preferred Gew98 actions right into the 1960s and 70s. No so surprising: probably better quality machining than most WWII era actions. There may have been other features that appealed, but not my area of interest. The Lyman 48 says 30s or 40s and North American probably? Still inferior to the P14/M17 action IMHO, but the grass is always greener east of the Rhine for some people.
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This thing is smooth as oiled glass to operate and the trigger breaks crisply at three pounds.

It still has the two stage military trigger.

The fellow told me his grandfather who died in the 60s had the rifle built before WWI. I'm with you on later, post WWI.

The original stock was checked and cracked full length and non repairable so I put the other stock onto it which is a take off from a sixties built rifle.

I don't believe the job was done by anyone famous but other than the King Screw hole, overall it's been quite professionally done as far as skill.

The chamber is so tight that I need to use a small base die to reload the cases. It won't chamber some types of factory fresh brass or ammo. Privi is about a 30% no go because the rim thicknesses and the length to shoulder aren't as consistent as they could be.

Even the once fired cases need to be FL resized or they won't fit into the chamber on the next round, but that may be due to the load I'm using.

Right now, I have a few hundred old Dominion Brand cases from the fifties on hand which are almost as heavy as military stuff. It all chambers easily.

As for the old Mausers being converted to a lot of things, I agree, but it's very unusual to see one converted to 303British unless it came from one of the cottage or one one of the more famous English gunmakers on special order.
 
Maybe Gramps picked it up on the fields of France or Belgium. It wasn't unknown for Canadians to turn them against the previous owners. Think of all those ex-Imperials in the First Contingent: a lot of them were ex-Boer War men with a distinct impression of the Boer Mausers still in their minds. In fact we only got the Patt.14 because of that experience in South Africa and the War Office's interest in a cartridge with similar ballistics to .280 Ross, but with no Sir Charles Ross attached. ;)

What did it look like in the old stock? And what explains that off-center hole/hacked up recoil lug?

So Gramps was no fan of oversize chambers? Maybe he had his fill of those overseas as well? Or maybe he had his fill of undersized chambers and soft cases and so got the rifle he thought had the most powerful primary extraction?
 
bearhunter said:
......

The stock has split under the receiver and was never bedded or had pillars added, not even a recoil bar behind the receiver lug. Thankfully it had been stored in such a manner it didn't get rusty, but the stock has checks all through it. Not really a great piece of Walnut that likely wasn't fully cured when it was shaped and inletted.

The stock, sadly isn't salvageable IMHO, so I'm going to look around for something appropriate or modify something I have on hand to ''look and feel right"

.....
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Why throw out hours upon hours of the man's labour? Splits, checks and other wood faults can be repaired with Acraglass, brass rods and rubber tubing. Flick out any splinters. Drill hydraulic passages to flow the bedding compound. Drill and place the rods. I have been entertained by the YT channel Anvil by stock maker Mark Novak. He's long winded but always entertaining and informative. I even remember an episode where a pencil sporter foreend had to be relief cut into left and right halves and bent back into alignment.
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
Why throw out hours upon hours of the man's labour? Splits, checks and other wood faults can be repaired with Acraglass, brass rods and rubber tubing. Flick out any splinters. Drill hydraulic passages to flow the bedding compound. Drill and place the rods. I have been entertained by the YT channel Anvil by stock maker Mark Novak. He's long winded but always entertaining and informative. I even remember an episode where a pencil sporter foreend had to be relief cut into left and right halves and bent back into alignment.
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Because ''someone else'' got to it over 50 years ago and by the time they were finished doing their magic any of the original stockmaker's work was buggered.

The original stock had pins/glue/ bits added on and taken off and the drop at the comb would have required more shaving down.

The original recoil lug has been built up with weld to be at least twice as deep as it was originally. I don't know by whom.

My guess is there is a broken off King Screw bolt in the original hole or it was stripped out. The new King Screw is lathe made and threaded 1/4NF. as is the hole on the bottom of the recoul lug.

For me, this rifle is just fine as it is right now. Other people turned it down before I found it. Now it's going to do what it was built to do and it's chambered for a cartridge not often encountered in a 98 action unless it's a custom one off.

It may have been a real jewel in it's day but most people just wouldn't appreciate it for what it is or what it can do.

I'm not changing it's role by any means, just making it useful again and if push comes to shove, salable, should the need arise.

I posted this because it's an interesting rifle with all sorts of questions intimated by it's present condition as to its history.

The fellow I bought it from had it stored in a closet since he was fifteen years old and he's in his mid seventies now. The only time he handled it was when moving to a different home. He wasn't a shooter, hunter etc.

It was his grandfather's rifle and he kept it as a keepsake to remember him.

That's all I know about the rifle, the rest would just be speculation.

The previous owner's wife passed away and he's not in good health, so liquidating everything and moving to a partial care facility.
 
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