K98 recoil lug
- Thread starter Noshow
- Start date
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Not real certain about the words that you are using? A Mauser 98 has one recoil lug - it is machined under the front receiver ring - the front action screw goes up into it. On some heavier caliber sporting rifles, a second recoil lug is installed under the barrel - say 4 inches or so ahead of the receiver recoil lug - solidly bedded to the stock to help transfer the recoil to the stock without splitting it - often that barrel recoil lug is also a "boss" for a rear sight, but not always. That barrel recoil lug was not on any military K98 that I have worked with, nor can I find reference to any military rifle that had a second recoil lug in my reference books. The purpose of a recoil lug is to transfer the recoil pulse from the barrel / receiver to the wood stock, from there to the shooter's shoulder. I do not know how a recoil lug could be removed on a K98 - if it was sawed off, then for sure only the action screws would be holding the receiver to the wood - and if the recoil lug was removed, nothing for the front action screw to hold to - so, yes, would be very dangerous to the shooter to fire a K98 that had no recoil lug.
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- Location
- Western Manitoba
Looking again at your picture - is the barrel almost all the way out of the stock at the front of the fore-arm? If so, something may be assembled incorrectly - for a Mauser, almost all the time the top edge of the wood stock should be close to the centre diameter of the barrel - so pretty much "straight" all the way from the rear action screw through to the fore-arm tip - mid-line on the front receiver ring and along the barrel. Remove floor plate, mag spring and follower, then open the bolt and insert a mirror or feeler gauge - you do not want the mauser magazine box to be touching the underside of the receiver - should be an "air gap" - even the thickness of a sheet or two of paper, but not hard contact. I have several examples here of poor attempts at "epoxy bedding" that have left the front receiver ring much too high - resulting in the barrel rising nearly all the way out of the barrel channel in the stock at the fore-arm tip.
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OkayShooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nova Scotia
Unless you are talking about the lack of the cross bolt in the stock? Other than maybe they didn't inlet the stock, for the rear sight block.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Maybe OkayShooter has got it! I assumed that I was looking at the end of the cross bolt. Many mauser cross bolts are rectangular inside, that the recoil lug on the receiver are supposed to make contact with that rectangular section - if it is not there, and not replaced with epoxy or wood, then nothing for the receiver recoil lug to work against - I would not be firing it, if that were the case.
OkayShooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nova Scotia
I just so happen to be working on a K98 stock. Went to check, Yeah I don't see the end of the recoil lug.
OP when you get one, which is wise you do, or you'll crack the stock. You can make a tool for the 2 holes with a simple set of snap ring pliers.
The seller did not disclose it's missing?
The proper factory recoil lugs are available from Western Gun Parts and Numrich, as well as a few others, online.
I personally wouldn't be putting any more cash into that rifle, if its been put into a different stock from its original.
I have a very similar rifle, with the same rear sight and tapered, non stepped barrel. It was rebuilt between WWI and WWII by European companies for offshore sales.
Some of them have dual set triggers and are actually very good shooters.
The stocks, usually aren't cut down military types and often have Schnabel fore end tips.
Your stock appears to be a military stock that was cut down for sporting purposes. I can see it happening. The commercial stocks had very thin wrists and the inletting was often sloppy as well, without the cross bolt. This lead to the wrists cracking and breaking.
BSA, Mauser variants often had similar issues, if they weren't glass bedded. They tried to get away cheap, by leaving out the cross bolt and installing a tapered wood dowel through the stock, right in front of the mag well. When the glue dries out, the dowel loses its grip and might even fall out.
This doesn't mean your stock isn't useable for your purposes. All you need to do is a bedding job. Lots of different but appropriate materials available to do the job for under $20.
That little rifle in your pics is old school, before scopes were cheap and readily available. Sort of the Rem 783 or low end Savage/Mossberg of its period. Just like the other rifles I mentioned, that rifle is very serviceable and will do everything you need it to do, within your shooting limitations, with open sights. It's hardly mentioned anymore but back in the sixties, when scopes started appearing on more hunting rifles, comparisons were made, utilizing proven skilled shooters on rifles with both types of sights.
It was established that the naked eye, looking over iron sights was just as accurate, out to appx 150 yards as a scoped rifle. Diopter type sights were equal out to and past 200 yards.
Here's the conundrum. Can you afford to get the rifle's receiver properly drilled and tapped, purchase and mount bases, rings and a scope that will stand up to the generated recoil? Is it worth the extra expense to you?
Commercial sporter stocks for 98 type receivers, often show up at gun shows and on EE exchanges on this site and others. There are all sorts of polymer stocks available for them as well as laminated. Depending on your budget again.
Your rifle could quite easily become a very decent sporting rifle.
OkayShooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nova Scotia
Some people are not that educated on what stuff is. Probably someone trying to sell a 303 Mauser ( When it was a Pattern 14 )
