Another Mauser 98 feeding question

[shawnba67]

Ive got a 98 and a 6/284 barrel and it wont feed. Ive fussed with the follower and even removed the extrractor and have found the problen to be the feed rails arent wide enought to allow the shoulder to get past.

NOW HERES THE REAL QUESTION IF I OPEN UP THE RAILS JUST ENOUGH FOR THE BIG FAT 6-284 TO GET BY HOW LIKELY WILL IT AFFECT THE FEEDING WITH 30-06 BASED ROUNDS LATER ON? (my 8-06ai feeds great now)


I intend to do a 6-06ackley and a 375 hawk once i burn out the 6-284(barrel does not have enough meat to rechamber once i cut past that fat shoulder!)

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Opening feed rails is a delicate job. It is cut and try, cut and try until it just works, and then polish them a little. Once the metal is gone it's very difficult to put back again. It can be done by welding, but then you're back to the cut and try phase again, and usually with more to do. So I believe that the practical answer to your question is that if you get the rifle to feed the 6-284 satisfactorily, then leave it alone and dedicate it to those cartridges. On the other hand, if you intend to go on to the .30-06 based cartridges and aren't in a position to obtain another action, then leave this one alone and either use it as a single shot, or un-barrel it and get on to the other cartridges you wish to try out.

[nekshot]

Yup, if you remove metal and want to go back to the original size cartridge get a savage type switch barrel. I messed with a lot of cartridges in 98 mausers(because that's what I had) and all I can say is they are a dream in original type cartridges.

[nekshot]

I got to thinking about this and realized I do have a loaded 284 cartridge some where and I found it. I presently am working with my personal rifle a vz-24 BRNO in 7 mm mauser. So I tried the loaded round and it fed and got on extractor easily. Then I tried it as the second round in magazine and it fed almost as nice as when loaded on top of follower, in other words the staggered magazine worked with it. So I will say in my 98 it works.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I'd be more inclined to regard it always as 06-based or always .285-based. It isn't like there is anything wrong with either of them. But as nekshot tells us, you might get a versatile action. I'd probably only try for that if the rifle was going to have Savage-style ease of interchanging, and I'd remove the absolute minimum of metal, avoiding a step where the rails meet the magazine.

You might find that widening the magazine from the inside would be of some help, and with most bottom metals you can do that a little. In this case it might be worth widening the follower slightly, to locate it precisely. Gluing a piece of plastic strip to it would probably tell you whether this is worth doing in some permanent form.

[Texas by God]

On a Gew98 .358 Norma and a P14 .450 Marlin all I did was widen the receiver walls under the rails a bit and polished taking care to be flush with the mag box. I left the rails alone and both guns run smoothly in any position. I'm not saying this is YOUR answer- but worked for me. Best, Thomas.