Spainsh 98 Mauser fallowed me home , Now what?

[dh2]

Once again I went looking for a 98 Mauser action for my next project a 35 Whelen, a cast boolit shooter of course. At a local shop I ask for if they had any thing I could use for a 98 Mauser action. and was told no. just looking around I found a tag maked 8mm Mauser it is a Spainsh 98 Mauser in as close to mint condition as I have ever found a 98 Mauser, now setting at my house , I have servile 98 Mauser's that I have made costume rifles out of, but have never worked with the 8mm Mauser.
Is this rifle to go of a find to take apart for the action? or should I drill and tap it for a scope and give the 8mm Mauser a try?
My eye condition don't do well with iron sights.

[Beagle333]

I can't help you on that decision. I bought a VZ-24 with the idea of making it a 35 Whelen as well. 'Even bought the barrel from Midway for it. But I'm really liking it as a 8mm and now I need another one to break apart! :shock:

[flounderman]

I have used the Turk actions for years. Large ring, small thread. Sarco has the receivers for 20.00. The advantage with the Turk is you can rethread take off barrels. Some are standard 98, also. They sent me one of those by mistake, so if you want the ones with the small ring threads, tell them to be sure it is before they send it.

[WILCO]

Is this rifle to good of a find to take apart for the action? or should I drill and tap it for a scope and give the 8mm Mauser a try?

I think you should keep it as is and shoot short distance with iron sights. 8MM at 50 yds. is still a hoot!

[WILCO]

Couple of links regarding mounts and sights:

http://www.mojosights.com/

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?159304-Scope-on-Milsurp

From post 13 of above mentioned thread:

http://images31.fotki.com/v1084/photos/2/28344/6806565/DSCF1765k-vi.jpg

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?993-Dutchman

[MBTcustom]

The Mauser cartridges are among the best ever made in history. They are perfectly balanced and if there is such a thing as "inherently accurate" the Mauser cartridges are that.
However, in reality, the cartridge has very little to do with accuracy in comparison with barrel condition and harmonics.

Concerning mounting a scope, the best way is to drill and tap for Leupold rings and bases IMHO. It's the original sporting rifle.

[390ish]

Sounds like you should be shopping for a savage long action rather than a 98 Mauser. If you just want a scoped, cast bullet gun, destroying a nice 98 is going to end in something less accurate than a savage rebarrel.

If you really want a mauser action and are just shooting cast, you can find lots of 93 and 95 actions for next to nothing.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

If the rifle is in that nice a condition I would look for another and preserve this one as-is. I'll bet you could resell it for enough to buy 4 or 5 '98 actions. So the answer to your questions is: NO! NO!

[troyboy]

Your rifle. Your money. Do as you wish.

[UBER7MM]

The Mauser cartridges are among the best ever made in history. They are perfectly balanced and if there is such a thing as "inherently accurate" the Mauser cartridges are that.
However, in reality, the cartridge has very little to do with accuracy in comparison with barrel condition and harmonics.

Concerning mounting a scope, the best way is to drill and tap for Leupold rings and bases IMHO. It's the original sporting rifle.

+1 GoodSteel Truth!

[dh2]

I have had some thoughts of getting a small ring 93 or 95 Mauser and putting a 45ACP kit on it (just for a toy) I will find one at some point.
I have been very Happy with the 98 Mausers I have done in .338-06, 25-06 AI, .280 Rem. AI and 9.3x62mm Mauser. and have factory rifles on mauser action in .458 Win. Mag. and .375 H&H Mag. This started out as another project, but always before I found striped actions or rifles that was sporterized long before I got them. very few I have ever seen was in this condition. I am any thing but fast when working on guns this one may set a while before I get to it. If I find another action before I get any thing done , I may just mess with it to see what the 8mm Mauser is all about, but the Spanish action is a good 98 to build on.
I think the man running the shop I found it at knew nothing about it , when I ask if he had any thing with a 98 Mauser action he said he had none. I will keep pecking around to see what I find.

[fast ronnie]

I just finished an argentine 1909 in .30-06. All I got was the action to start with, so didn't break a collector. Shilen match barrel at 26 1/2 inches. With no load workup, first time out it was 1moa. will now start working up loads. Also have an Iranian from Brno in 308 norma mag. Good action, but it takes some work to make a REAL good one. Is it worth it? It depends on what you like. I also have an original vz 24. 8 x 57 is a good round, and this one is a shooter. One drawback that can be fixed for $50 is the trigger. Military two stage triggers drive me nuts.

[Moonie]

I have a Spanish '98, I had thought exactly the same thing but have decided to keep it 8mm, it shoots well and is fun to shoot as well.

[azrednek]

Spanish 98 Mauser receivers and bolts are notorious for their inconsistent strength and 2nd rate metallurgy. The receiver could be anywhere between soft to brittle. Same for the bolt. Before considering putting your time and $$'s into one, shoot a few hundred rds of mil-surp ammo through it then check the headspace. There are plenty of Turks out there and despite most being non-matching. They are much more reliable than the late 40's through early 50's Spaniards.

I was hard-headed in my 20's and despite advice from numerous sources. I failed to listen to recommendations of heat treating to finding another donor action. I sported and re-barreled two early 50's Spaniard 98's. Both developed headspace problems. I sent away the second to a rifle builder after developing headspace problems. Two in a row, thought the problem was my doing. I got it back with a handwritten letter saying it had receiver set-back, not fixable and was unsafe to shoot. If you just have to use a Spaniard made 98 Mauser. Spend the extra bucks and have the receiver heat treated.

I've seen gunshow vendors claiming their post WW2 Spanish 98 Mausers were German manufactured. Hitler did send Franco plenty of Gews and K98's but they all retained their German stampings. Walk away from any vendor claiming the Germans stamped the Mausers with Spanish markings or they were re-stamped in Spain.

[bob208]

all matching mint 98's are few and far between now. it will increase in value faster than any modified one will.

[azrednek]

all matching mint 98's are few and far between now. it will increase in value faster than any modified one will.

Can't argue with that, facts are facts. I've destroyed the $ value of a few Mausers but the satisfaction of a completed project is hard to put a monetary value on.

As an alternative to butchering up an original Mauser or any complete mil-surp rifle. Shop gun shows and even the online auctions for incomplete or half-assed projects.

[GooseGestapo]

I'll second the "keep it as it is" if it's in good condition.
If I'm not mistaken, it's not the late-post WWII Spanish Mausers that had problems, it's the pre-WWII Spanish Revolution era guns that have the heat-treating/alloy issues.
It's the LaCorouna (sp?, the markings have been ground down, polished, blued and covered with a scope base on mine now for 30+yrs.) that had the problems. IRRC, there was another arsenal making Mausers in Eibarre (sp?) that were the beautiful works of art that have the "good" reputation.

I have a 1939 LaCorouna M98 that my brother and I aquired in the pre-'68 GCA 6-month "grace" period where all retailers/vendors had to dispose of all stock or start paperwork with the now infamous 4753 form. The rifle was one of dozens stacked in garbage cans in a Mason's Dept store and were: $3.99 for an Italian Carcano, $4.99 for a '93 or '95 Mauser, and 7.99 for a M98. My brother knew enough (I was 12 at the time) about the rifles to get the M98. It belonged in the garbage can!!!
Barrel was like a '44 Moscow sewer pipe.... rusted and no rifling visable. It took us 3 bottles of Hoppe's (the good stuff back in the '60's, smelled good, but the ammonia would bring tears to your eye's) to get the patches to quit coming out green.
Firing some what I now know was Turkish surplus ammo, it key-holed at 25yds, Couldn't hit a coffee can with it at that range.

A coworker of my dad at AOD (Anniston Army Depot- they car pooled together) worked in the ordinance department. He was also a "basement gunsmith". He had gotten a German GEVWR M98, un-issued, still in factory packing, pre-'40 "Orbendorf",irrc, through the DCM, and removed the 8mm barrel and installed a 26" Douglass XX barrel in .22-250, before Remington/Browning announced it as factory in '65-66. Rifle would be a museum piece today if still original.
He installed the barrel after he got it shooting for us by installing a new firing pin. Most of the "Revolution" guns had the firing pins broken/ground down to keep them from being fired, again irrc....
We "bubba'd it by current definition of "sporterization". Cut down stock, ect. But, it shot "lights" out. My two; older and younger brothers shot their first deer with it. It was "EFFECTIVE" on deer with the Remington 170gr RN Corlokts.

But, it was UGLY. In 1983, I had an aquaintance who worked for the Alabama Marine Police, who also a part-time gunsmith. He and I reached a deal where I would cast up a 5gal bucket of 148gr .38cal wadcutters in exchange for the labor. He provided the parts at my expense. I provided the lead and labor for the ~50,000 wadcutters I cast for him... Great deal for both of us as he was loading/selling them to local police departments.

We/he; installed an E.R.Shaw #2 taper (roughly equivalent to barrels on Interarms MkX sporters) in .257Roberts. A Bishop "Classic" "Semi-fancy" walnut stock which he reduced to feather-weight conformantion, checkered with a point-pattern 22line/in. checkering, and rosewood grip cap and forend and a Danish Oil hand-rubbed finish (by me!). I talked him out of a Neidner steel butt-plate as I was running out of money for parts. It has a Bueler safety and is drilled and tapped for Leupold 1-piece base, which is where we ran into problems !!!

The reciever is SO HARD he wore out/broke a half dozen carbide tipped drill bits drilling the action. Fortunately, it's not so brittle that I've had problems with it. I've killed over 100 deer with it, as well as my wife and youngest daughter killing their first deer with it. In ~1999 I cut down the stock to fit the "girls". I now have a slip-on pad on it (yeah, it looks out of place and beautiful rifle!) so that it still fit's me...

If you have a "dog", take a chance on it, but if it's a looker in original dress, keep it that way and see if it's a "shooter".
There's not enough difference between the 8x57, .338/06, and .35whelen to get up out of the chair for.

Over the years, both my brother and I speculated we should have kept it with the 8mm barrel and had Larry "the gun guy" just lathe turn the barrel down to roughly Win. Mod-70 FW taper. As much as I like the flat-shooting, easy recoiling "Bob", I really like the "smack down" of the 8mm, .338, and .35's.
What if, what if ??? !!!! (if a frog had longer legs, maybe his butt wouldn't bump the ground !!!).

[UBER7MM]

I'll second the "keep it as it is" if it's in good condition.... If you have a "dog", take a chance on it, but if it's a looker in original dress, keep it that way and see if it's a "shooter".....There's not enough difference between the 8x57, .338/06, and .35whelen to get up out of the chair for. ....

Argument for 8mm'06
I'd add 8mm'06 to the GooseGestapo's agrument. IMHO, the 8mm'06 is a poor man's 35 Whelen. The OP might consider the reamer job on the 8x57 barrel in lieu of re-barreling. Would be cheaper if the barrel is in good shape. The down side is no factory ammo!

Argument for 8x57
It'll be hard to change your Mauser once you get it dialed in. Lot's of tried and proven cast loads for the 8x57. This cartridge holds its own. If you think that 8x57 is a "ho-hum" cartridge, try some European spec jacketed ammo.

Just a thought,

[atr]

if it were me I would not tamper with a near mint condition Mauser. Shoot as is
have fun
atr

[UBER7MM]

if it were me I would not tamper with a near mint condition Mauser. Shoot as is
have fun
atr

That's good advise!