Mauser actions?
- Thread starter toebako
- Start date
98 actions have two different lengths. There is the short Yugo action and the "Standard length" action. They also have two different ring sizes. As in standard length but small ring Mexican Mausers. All are good tough actions.
Just about any 98 parts, from either type will interchage, other than the bolts, trigger guards and stocks.
Google the action specs on the Internet, or go to a Mauser site. They will give you all of the dimensional specs.
At first glance, they are identical.
Unless you can do the work yourself, building a custom rifle on a surplus Mauser action will cost a lot more than a commercial action. At todays prices, commercial sporting rifles are cheaper to buy for their actions than surplus Mausers.
A 1909 Argentine Mauser is a "Standard" length action and has a hinged floorplate, if it hasn't been swapped out by a gunsmith or bubba. They are very nice actions. There are some well worn dogs out there as well.
If it were economical to bring in stripped actions or complete barreled actions, there are importers in Canada that would do so.
If you are looking for a decent milsurp to keep as is to shoot, there are a lot to choose from and at least 5 popular chamberings available, 8x57, 7x57, 7.62x51 Nato, 30-06 and 7,65x53. There are a few odd balls out there as well chambered in rimmed cartridges Like 303 British and Siamese Mauser. There are also special competition chamberings.
Go to milsurpknowledge.ca there are picture and descriptions of most of them as well as lots of other surplus rifles. That will give you a place to start. You don't mention which city you live in or are close to. Most places of any size in Alberta have a firearms store. Wholesale Sports, won't have what you're looking for. Single owner retail stores are what your looking for. In Edmonton, there is MilArm, in Lethbridge there is Precision Sports and in Calgary there is the Soldier Shop and a couple of others like The Shooting Edge.
Check out the banner advertisers on this site at the top of the page as well. Tradex has some decent 1912 Mausers for sale in 7x57 and some 7.62x51 conversions. Check out some of the others as well. There is also a list of advertisers section to check out. Have fun and before you know it, you will have put in several hours in front of yhor computer.
Just about any 98 parts, from either type will interchage, other than the bolts, trigger guards and stocks.
Google the action specs on the Internet, or go to a Mauser site. They will give you all of the dimensional specs.
At first glance, they are identical.
Unless you can do the work yourself, building a custom rifle on a surplus Mauser action will cost a lot more than a commercial action. At todays prices, commercial sporting rifles are cheaper to buy for their actions than surplus Mausers.
A 1909 Argentine Mauser is a "Standard" length action and has a hinged floorplate, if it hasn't been swapped out by a gunsmith or bubba. They are very nice actions. There are some well worn dogs out there as well.
If it were economical to bring in stripped actions or complete barreled actions, there are importers in Canada that would do so.
If you are looking for a decent milsurp to keep as is to shoot, there are a lot to choose from and at least 5 popular chamberings available, 8x57, 7x57, 7.62x51 Nato, 30-06 and 7,65x53. There are a few odd balls out there as well chambered in rimmed cartridges Like 303 British and Siamese Mauser. There are also special competition chamberings.
Go to milsurpknowledge.ca there are picture and descriptions of most of them as well as lots of other surplus rifles. That will give you a place to start. You don't mention which city you live in or are close to. Most places of any size in Alberta have a firearms store. Wholesale Sports, won't have what you're looking for. Single owner retail stores are what your looking for. In Edmonton, there is MilArm, in Lethbridge there is Precision Sports and in Calgary there is the Soldier Shop and a couple of others like The Shooting Edge.
Check out the banner advertisers on this site at the top of the page as well. Tradex has some decent 1912 Mausers for sale in 7x57 and some 7.62x51 conversions. Check out some of the others as well. There is also a list of advertisers section to check out. Have fun and before you know it, you will have put in several hours in front of yhor computer.
Rigby's are definitely a class act. Definitely a best quality rifle it they are in good condition.
I know why they called the chambering .275 Rigby but I just don't understand why they didn't just call it a 7x57 Mauser. The actions, are commercial, standard length Mauser 98s. The parts will interchange with their military cousins.
I think what your calling the thumb notch is the thumb clearance notch on the left side of the receiver? Since the US allows thousands of Mauser 98s into the country every year that have these notches, why do they differentiate between them and the Rigby modified rifles? I'm not saying they don't, because I don't know.
I know why they called the chambering .275 Rigby but I just don't understand why they didn't just call it a 7x57 Mauser. The actions, are commercial, standard length Mauser 98s. The parts will interchange with their military cousins.
I think what your calling the thumb notch is the thumb clearance notch on the left side of the receiver? Since the US allows thousands of Mauser 98s into the country every year that have these notches, why do they differentiate between them and the Rigby modified rifles? I'm not saying they don't, because I don't know.
2 years ago when I bought my Rigby the auctioneer announced that Export to the US wasnt allowed as BATF had declared actions with the notch unsafe. It has been a subject on a few of the US forums. Rigby anglicised the 7x57 to .275 as a selling point, apart from possible bullet design early on there is no difference between the two!
Remember that we still struggle with Metric here (a lot of resistance) hence imperial measurements especially when we had an empire was a good marketing ploy.
Remember that we still struggle with Metric here (a lot of resistance) hence imperial measurements especially when we had an empire was a good marketing ploy.
Despite it benefitting those of us outside of Obamaland its about as sensible as demanding all lee enfields are reproofed as the standard is now 20 tons per sq inch instead of the 19 tons when they were sold.
That came from the UKNRA via the NZNRA.
There is a whole lot more drivel out there, the recent win against this was not needing to reproof a rifle barrel when its been screw cut for a sound moderator. Its no more likely to blow up than before is it?
The whole unsafe action thing is about as sensible as not firing .308 in a rifle chambered for 7.62 x 51!
They ruled that a charger clip equiped receiver is a military one. My understanding of the rule is that you can't import into the US any of the sporterized arms using ex-military receivers wich do not qualify as Curio and Relics (so, the conversion must be at least 50 years old to be C&R).
If I were to build another rifle based on the Mauser 98 action would take a very close look at the Husqvarna FN 98's offered by Trade Ex Canada Ltd. The advantage it that they already have scope-friendly safeties and bolt handles and they are drilled and tapped for scope bases.
That's not to say that the military actions should be ignored. my 9.3X62 was build on a Brazilian M1908 that I bought of the CGN exchange. I like the look of the stripper hump and gas notch in the left wall. Also, if having a full C-ring is important, military is the way to go. Most FN Mausers don't have the C-ring.
Not all of the HVA M/98 are d&t. In fact, most were not (from factory). Most Parker-Hale ones are, though. The 1640 also makes a VG action for a custom rifle. FN started using the H-type actions somewhere in 1947, so all the previous ones are "C".
I'd caution against this because you may end up receiving a rifle that is too nice to mess with. I bought a 940 from them in 30-06 with the intention of turning it into something else, but I just couldn't do it.
Lots of good replies here.
Go to gun shows, there you will find some and handle them.
I picked up a sporterized, full stocked Persian 98 that had all the work done to it for $300.
Any FN, Husq, early browning, brno zg 47, even early PH's ...there are alot of them. The advantage of these are the work has already been done to them and they are all excellent quality.
There are a lot of Zastava's and Santa Barbara's (commercial) around too but quality varies between batches it seems.
Tradex always has some all types.
Go to your local gunsmiths shop, they always have some 98's lying around.
IMO the problem with finding good quality military 98's is that they are too nice in their original configuration to break apart for the actions.
There are still bubba'ed "sporters" around. A military 98 that has had the fore end shortened, basically. They make a good start, but the milsurp guys will roast you. There are actually four lengths of 98 that have been made, but two of them (true kurz and true magnum) are exceedingly rare, so the odds of coming across one are pretty slim. I suggest buying Kuhnhausen's book on the Mauser (or there are others, his is pretty detailed though) and getting an education before you spend money and get out the torch and hacksaw. - dan
