Mauser 98 action question

For a sporter the commercially made action will get the nod. A military one will require modifications if you want to put a scope on it. Mods would include drilling and tapping, altering bolt handle, changing to a low swing safety.
 
Commercial may lack the thumb cut out and charging clip groove. This will make the receiver have more material and in theory be more stronger.
 
I gotta give the nod to the commercial action. Within reason. I like the idea of a clean sporter action with all the work done. But just about all of the aftermarket goodies are geared for the military action.

Many commercial actions differ length between screw holes and have their own style of bottom metal, many also use aluminum. The way the trigger attaches may differ also, but I don't recall at this moment.

I would decide what I want the finished rifle to look like and verify that the parts are available for the action you are looking at. If you are buying a complete rifle, just treat it like any used, obsolete rifle.
 
I have used a couple of military actions for my builds, but now use commercial actions only. Commercial actions require a lot less work, and most use modern alloy steels. FN, Zastava, and Santa Barbara are all good commercial actions.
 
That is a very broad question. The M98 was made in many factories and with a varying quality of metal/workmanship. Is expense an issue? Do you want a full length magnum action? Single/double square bridge? Large ring or small ring? And so on.
 
Commercial.

Have a look at Tradeex's Husky/FN's. Superb actions, accurate barrels.
They have one piece forged low scope bolt handles, which you may well appreciate the first time a welded on one cracks or falls off on you in the field.
You won't beat their price if a fine sporter is what you want to build.

The bottom metal often differs in commercial actions. The tang in front of the action screw is usually shorter than on the mil. actions. The Husqvarna's commonly have a stained 'whitewood' stock, so care must be taken to ensure a replacement
stock is not inletted for Mil. long tang bottom metal.

Those beautifull 1600 series rifles are worth a long look , as well.
 
Thanks guys, I'm interested in a sporter with a military action but already drilled and taped. vviking the main concern with the 1600 is most of them has aluminium trigger guard and a lot of them has a problem with cracks behind the tang.
 
Buster95 said:
Thanks guys, I'm interested in a sporter with a military action but already drilled and taped. vviking the main concern with the 1600 is most of them has aluminium trigger guard and a lot of them has a problem with cracks behind the tang.
Click to expand...

You're going to restock anyways. Trust me. I bought a semi-finished stock from Brownells for my Husky 98 and after a bit of fitting and cutting the bolt cutout it fit nicely.
 
Some of the early 1600s have steel bottom metal. Almost all mauser actions could have a crack behind the tang,since they don't have enough recoil lug for the quality of the wood or beddding of most stocks.Glass-bedding is a must,Brownells Gel works great,it has mini fibers in the epoxy or add them yourself.
 
I have been looking to make a modern copy of my .275 Rigby. Just so I can drag it through the woods without feeling guilty. A Zastava action makes sense, I would like it to look like the original so I may need a mil spec reciever. Do Zastava still make them with the thumb notch?
 
Ah just been on their website, I know who their importer is and will drop them a line, either the 98 in a single trigger or the M48 will be used to build the first one.
 
Most of the post WWII "commercial" actions are made of alloyed steel, wich is usually not the case for the previous ones (most are made of low carbon steel). That's the main difference between the two types.
 
I believe the majority of the PH commercial actions were made by Santa Barbara. The SB actions are made of a modern alloy and I have seen one take some tremendous over pressure abuse.

If building a rifle with a magnum or modern high pressure round, I'd still go with the commercial action.
 
Early PH rifles were made with surplus captured military actions. When supplies got a bit low, they had Santa Barbara in Spain make their commercial actions. SB's were also sold under thier own name. They are a good action, though when the company was finally bankrupt a bunch of untreated actions were sold and built into rifles of dubious quality. - dan
 
I have read that all of the SB actions that were not heat treated properly were sold "in the white" as actions only. They supposedly had a reddish tinge to them. Of course this wouldn't be visible after they were built into rifles and blued.

From what info I could gather, it was a small batch, and most would have been sold to individuals wanting to build custom rifles. I doubt PH ever received any of these actions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom