Lengthen a Mauser 98 receiver?

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Potashminer

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I was following the discussion in another thread regarding the length of the Mauser 98 action and modifications necessary to convert to "long" - H&H length - cartridges.

I have been reading Roy Dunlap "Gunsmithing". He made a "mini" Mauser 98 by cutting out 1/2"(?) or so of side rails, re-welded, then shortened the bolt body in similar fashion. Text says all important "strength" of Mauser 98 is in the front ring, recoil lug and the bolt locking lugs - the remainder of the action does not see the strain of firing / plays no role in Mauser action "strength". Why couldn't reverse be done - off-set the cuts on two receivers - re-weld together to make 1/4" or 3/8" longer than standard, with rear of one action joined to the front of another? Would need nothing touched on lug recesses for H&H length cartridges. Lengthen mag box / trigger guard accordingly. I am curious why this does not seem to be done?
 
They have been done. They are called streched mauser or a streched action. I was thinking about doing it on ine of my next builds but then realized a p14 has as big of opening as one would need from factory.
 
It is not done often because of the cost and practicability. I think it may be done more for a challenge and uniqueness.

Two actions used to make one action, custom bottom metal has to be fabricated, alterations to this new action and bottom metal so it will feed properly, A custom stock is required for this different action length... when there are more suitable existing actions and stocks...
 
Jason Spencer at Gunco made a pair of custom Mausers for himself. Started with two Argentine actions, cut and had them welded to create one long magnum length action and one short one, appropriate for say .22-.250. Impeccable workmanship. Receivers, bolts, magazines were altered. Because the front ends of the receivers and bolts are not affected by the welding, there is no safety issue.
I shudder to think what it would cost to have such a pair of rifles made.
 
^^ i have never considered making a mini mauser with the other parts. I like the sounds of this. I may revisit it after i get some projects cleared up.

Seems soooo obvious now lol.
 
guntech said:
It is not done often because of the cost and practicability. I think it may be done more for a challenge and uniqueness.

Two actions used to make one action, custom bottom metal has to be fabricated, alterations to this new action and bottom metal so it will feed properly, A custom stock is required for this different action length... when there are more suitable existing actions and stocks...
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I find that quite interesting. Did they cut and weld two bolts together? Seems hard to get that dead straight, almost easier to build a new one on a machine. Youd think that having a bolt together first would be good to help align the two pieces of actions before welding them together. Would be a real finicky project.
 
Turn a small slip fit spigot/bore on the 2 parts and silver solder then together.

Same way one extends a barrel say on a rare cut mill surplus
 
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In Dunlap's example, he turned down the bolt body to make a tenon, then cut it off to the rear, then turned a socket in the rear end and pressed them together, then perimeter welded and dressed all nice. From his pictures, can not see how or where the bolt or actions were re-joined. I suspect a lot more than a bolt is needed to align the two halves of the action when joining them - pure speculation on my part since the whole project would be way over my head, at this point!!
 
Just re-read it - I believe Dunlap's joint on the bolt was the rear edge of the extractor collar groove, the guide rib also shortened. Action was an FN Commercial, and he used a "custom" made mandrel for aligning. His welding was done with a torch and water soaked asbestos as heat sinks. pp. 604 to 608
 
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cody c said:
I find that quite interesting. Did they cut and weld two bolts together? Seems hard to get that dead straight, almost easier to build a new one on a machine. Youd think that having a bolt together first would be good to help align the two pieces of actions before welding them together. Would be a real finicky project.
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There are much better things to use to align the cut action parts than a bolt ( a threaded mandrel usually) ... and aligning bolt 'halves' is quite easy... the whole project though is quite finicky and time consuming.
 
I colour case hardened the Mausers for Jason. The welding spots were almost invisible. It was as easy to cch his action’s
as any standard Mauser action. He is in my opinion one of the very best gunsmith I know.
 
Potashminer said:
I was following the discussion in another thread regarding the length of the Mauser 98 action and modifications necessary to convert to "long" - H&H length - cartridges.

I have been reading Roy Dunlap "Gunsmithing". He made a "mini" Mauser 98 by cutting out 1/2"(?) or so of side rails, re-welded, then shortened the bolt body in similar fashion. Text says all important "strength" of Mauser 98 is in the front ring, recoil lug and the bolt locking lugs - the remainder of the action does not see the strain of firing / plays no role in Mauser action "strength". Why couldn't reverse be done - off-set the cuts on two receivers - re-weld together to make 1/4" or 3/8" longer than standard, with rear of one action joined to the front of another? Would need nothing touched on lug recesses for H&H length cartridges. Lengthen mag box / trigger guard accordingly. I am curious why this does not seem to be done?
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this has been done numerous times by Bevan King and Ralph Martini has done it also with the Mauser action
 
Well, if this is what has to be done to get rid of the thumb notch. If you have a choice of donor actions, I would suggest working with two commercial Mausers without the military thumb notch. I can't think of a more effective way of weakening an action that milling a big hole out of the left side wall.
 
tiriaq said:
Jason Spencer at Gunco made a pair of custom Mausers for himself. Started with two Argentine actions, cut and had them welded to create one long magnum length action and one short one, appropriate for say .22-.250. Impeccable workmanship. Receivers, bolts, magazines were altered. Because the front ends of the receivers and bolts are not affected by the welding, there is no safety issue.
I shudder to think what it would cost to have such a pair of rifles made.
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I know those guns well. Jason also had the receivers case colored. All the fixings were custom fab, no new england customs semi-custom type stuff, jason milled it all from scratch. Horrendously expensive to have this work done. The labour in the action and bolt welding jigs alone was frightful.

Then he hand carved custom stocks from extremely high grade european walnut and custom made bases to flow seamlessly with the receivers.

Work of art, but not affordable by mere mortals;)
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
Well, if this is what has to be done to get rid of the thumb notch. If you have a choice of donor actions, I would suggest working with two commercial Mausers without the military thumb notch. I can't think of a more effective way of weakening an action that milling a big hole out of the left side wall.
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I would disagree here.

No matter how good you are, when you tig the actions together, you very likely will heat affect the front ring.

Custom builders prefer the early low carbon receivers because they were case hardened to begin with and you can annealed and re-case harden them easily.

Post war FN actions are medium carbon steel or nickel steel and have complex heat treatment that varied in process over time. I would not weld commercial mausers together in a magnum cartridge, and neither will Holland and Holland, or any other bespoke builder I've worked with or heard of.
 
Where you would weld is over 2 inches away from the front ring... pretty lousy set up if you could not keep the front ring cool while welding...
 
guntech said:
Where you would weld is over 2 inches away from the front ring... pretty lousy set up if you could not keep the front ring cool while welding...
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It's not just the ring. You dont want to leave the welded area untreated or it's a stress point in use.

Either way, if someone wants to use fn actions have at it. I'm not here to convince you of anything. Just be aware I would not do it personally. Ymmv.
 
Claven2 said:
It's not just the ring. You dont want to leave the welded area untreated or it's a stress point in use.

Either way, if someone wants to use fn actions have at it. I'm not here to convince you of anything. Just be aware I would not do it personally. Ymmv.
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I have no interest in doing any of this either.

But I find it hard to believe with the locking lugs engaged in the front ring how any stress could be induced to that particular area far rearward of the receiver ring.
 
guntech said:
I have no interest in doing any of this either.

But I find it hard to believe with the locking lugs engaged in the front ring how any stress could be induced to that particular area far rearward of the receiver ring.
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what happens when the firing pin hits the primer ? BOOM where does the shock wave go ? where does the felt recoil go?
 
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