israli 98 action

[ddhotbot]

is this a good action to build a 308 bench/hunt rifle on?

 

[lefty o]

the israeli rifle is just a scrubbed german K98. they make fine hunting rifles. as far as a bench gun, i wouldnt even mention it around here unless you want 10 pages of responses telling you no.

 

[mike in co]

the israeli rifle is just a scrubbed german K98. they make fine hunting rifles. as far as a bench gun, i wouldnt even mention it around here unless you want 10 pages of responses telling you no.

NOT NECESSARILY SO.

MY 7.62 israeli is/was a built new fn . yep there are lots of converted 8mm's but they also bought new from fn.

yes it will work fine as a base for a 308 hunting gun. i will be shooting mine tomorrow in a vintage mil rifle BENCH REST match.... 4x scopes/200 yds/20shots/10 min.
last year i did a 197 for 4th place.

mike in co

 

[GaCop]

I've got a Czech VZ-24 action barreled with a Parker Hale heavy barrel that will shoot lights out with 150 grain SMK's and 155gr Sierra Palma's. This is the heaviest bullet I can use due to the PH 1 in 12 twist.

 

[clowdis]

Just to add confusion, a good friend of mine won the long range nationals at Camp Perry a few years ago. What did he use? A 300 Win Mag based on a single shot Mauser action.

 

[Tesla]

I've got a Czech VZ-24 action barreled with a Parker Hale heavy barrel that will shoot lights out with 150 grain SMK's and 155gr Sierra Palma's. This is the heaviest bullet I can use due to the PH 1 in 12 twist.

Some people shoot 208 a-max out of a factory 1-12 twist 308 out to a mile with great success.

 

[Old Gunner]

Some Israeli 7.62 Mausers are rebarreled Swedish or Norwegian, forget which, M98 actioned mausers originally bought on contract and chambered in a long cased 8mm round once used by a special long range version of the Browning Machinegun.
The original round was similar to the 8mm/06 wildcat.

I'd much prefer one of those in its original form. They came with a milled in muzzle brake due to heavy recoil, I don't think they could be clip loaded but may have still had a clip guide.
The rifles were of the highest pre WW2 commercial export quality.

I suspect these were the first to be rebarreled because the original ammunition was not available so the rifles couldn't be used otherwise.

I think some were fitted with surplus 7.92 98K barrels while others were barreled for the 7.62 NATO.

I've heard of a few of the 7.62 conversions being restored to original configuration.

They are probably a small percentage of the total but they are worth keeping an eye out for.

 

[Travelor]

Original Israeli Mauser

I have a 98 Mauser with the Israeli crest which appears to have been made by Mauser originally for Israel. It is in 7.62 and the stock is "branded" 7.62 to avoid the attempt to use 8mm ammo.

It appears to be all original with no changes after it was made for Israel. It is interesting in that it also has a larger "winter" trigger guard. Go figure that out.



George

 

[mike in co]

I have a 98 Mauser with the Israeli crest which appears to have been made by Mauser originally for Israel. It is in 7.62 and the stock is "branded" 7.62 to avoid the attempt to use 8mm ammo.

It appears to be all original with no changes after it was made for Israel. It is interesting in that it also has a larger "winter" trigger guard. Go figure that out.



George

what dia is the forward end of the action ?
most 7.92(8mm) actions had just a portion of the action turned down to remove the "7.92" numbers and add 7.62.........maybe some early ones had the entire forward end redone.

mike in co

 

[Old Gunner]

I'd be leery of any Mauser that showed signs of the receiver ring being ground down to remove markings. While looking for info on the Norwegian K98 rebarreled to .30/06 I found postings by several owners telling of some of these rifles failing at the place where markings had been ground off, the grinding having gone deeper than the carburized surface exposing the softer core metal.

 

[mike in co]

old gunner,
first i do not have any of those, BUT i'd like to see some pics of failures, and listen less to internet "facts".
not questioning you , just the source of the stories.

lots of mis-information on the net....

thanks
mike

 

[Old Gunner]

old gunner,
first i do not have any of those, BUT i'd like to see some pics of failures, and listen less to internet "facts".
not questioning you , just the source of the stories.

lots of mis-information on the net....

thanks
mike

No photos with the posts I saw. One poster had a friend who'd nearly been blinded by a action failure, the gun later examined and proven defective due to the ground away metal. That rifle was fired only with match quality milsurp .30/06.
The mechanical facts aren't in question, cutting through the hardened carburized layer of a Mauser receiver ring can weaken the receiver drastically. The fact that some of the Norwegian rebarreled rifles had been ground too deeply was something I had not heard before.
If you get one that hasn't been ground too deeply it should be okay, if whoever did the grinding got carried away sooner or later the ring could crack at that point.

Personally I won't invest time or money in a receiver that shows evidence of having been ground that much.
Some action types, such as the Lee Enfield use a different method of heat treatment, the main body of the action tempered much like a sword blade and only the locking surfaces hardened by induction. They don't depend on a hardened shell with softer core, so minor surface grinding isn't removing a hardened layer necessary for strength.

I haven't heard of any of the ground Mum Japanese rifles suffering failures, but Japanese metalurgy was somewhat different, and the Mums were generally just defaced rather than ground completely away.

Another thing to look for since FN Mausers were mentioned earlier.
At least some FN manufactured Mauser bolts lack a radius at the cut of the split lefthand lug. These bolts sometimes end up with a broken away leg of the left lug. None of the incidents I've seen mentioned over the years resulted in damage or injury , but its been recommended that FN Bolts that lack the radius be replaced with surplus German K98 bolts.
I have no way of knowing which FN Mausers were affected by this manufacturing flaw, but it should be one easy to spot by close examination of the lefthand lug.
Milled cuts are radiused for good reasons.

Contrary to popular belief a proof test can't gaurantee that a rifle will never suffer a failure sixty years down the road after who knows what sort and how many rounds have been fired through it. A manufacturing flaw might not show up for decades and only affect a small percentage of the rifles.
The low Number Springfield is an example, less than 100 of 800,000 were known to have failed in service. Some suffered from overheated forgings while hundreds of thousands did not. Unfortunately there was no non destructive method for testing the receivers to find out which were safe.

The basic Mauser design allows for a great deal of leeway in quality of metal and how well heat treated. The thickness of the Carburized shell varies greatly, as does the quality of steel used.
If not messed with the Mauser isn't likely to have any problems, its overbuilt to avoid problems, but when someone starts grinding and filing on one they best know what they are doing.

 

[dirtyjim]

i wouldn't consider a scrubbed crest on a israli action a problem.
the norwegian reworked rifles had a deep groove milled down the entire left side of the receiver ring where they were renumbered.
you can always send the receiver & bolt to blanchards to be re-carburised. they charge about $100 & if you going to surface grind the receiver & lap the lugs, etc. i consider it cheap insurance.

 

[Butch Lambert]

I have sporterized Mausers with different types of machine work done on them. I've had double square bridges welded on, a front receiver ring ground from large ring to small ring, and so forth. They have all been sent out to be re case hardened or carburized.
Butch