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The Mauser Legacy WvZ

Dear David,

Your 98 Mauser in 8x57 can be useful as is, given its sporter stock and receiver sight. As you’re aware, the cartridge as commercially loaded in the U.S. is about on par with the 30-40 Krag. European companies offer stouter loads.

The 98 action is strong and is among the best choices if you’re out to build a custom rifle. However, if the gun was mine and I had only a few bucks to play with, I’d leave it alone. Here’s why:

The 8mm bore limits rechambering to wildcat cartridges only – the 8mm/06, for example. The action’s too short for the 8mm Remington Magnum unless you want to remove some of the lower lug buttress. You’d have to lengthen the magazine and open the bolt face for the magnum as well. Even the 8mm/06 would require a longer box.

Rebarreling to 280, 30-06 or 35 Whelen would be another option. You’d still need the longer box, and the fitted barrel would cost at least $200. Drilling for scope bases, altering the safety and installing a new trigger will jack the cost above the price of a commercial sporting rifle.

No matter what you do with that 98—even if you handload 8x57s above factory specs— you’ll do well to have it Rockwell tested for hardness. Unlike Winchester 70s and Rem-ington 700s that are built of chrome-moly steel, Mausers were of carbon steel, heated to harden the surface. This "shell" around the soft steel action core may be only .004" thick, Mauser Legacy and its hardness will vary. Some parts may not be treated at all. Mausers built late in the war are notoriously unpredictable in this regard. Your receiver should test 38-42 on the Rockwell C scale. The bolt is best treated to Rockwell 42-46, so it operates smoothly.Thickness of the hardened surface should be .015", according to a gunsmith friend of mine.If your 98 doesn’t make the grade, you can have it heat-treated, another expense.

You may want to keep your 98 for those foul-weather days in deer cover when a receiver sight and century-old cartridge are all you need. That would be my inclination.

Sincerely,

Wayne van Zwoll

I wrote that note more than a decade ago. Many hundreds of similar responses to similar questions had no doubt chattered off the carriages of manual typewriters for decades previous. The fall of the Third Reich brought a flood of battle-bruised Mausers stateside. Soldiers had learned to respect this rifle, not as quick to repeat as a Garand, but sturdy, reliable and accurate. Returning G.I.s properly looked upon it as the sound basis for a custom rifle. They set about rechambering, rebarrel-ing and restocking. The best work could turn a pitted veteran of the Ardennes into a veritable work of art. But in their haste to revamp and refurbish, to make American rifles of war trophies, American shooters overlooked the merits of both the rifle as issued, and the cartridge that conquered Europe. While Mauser 1898 infantry rifles lack the refinements coveted by hunters, it now seems a shame that so many 98s were sacrificed in crude attempts to make them like sporting rifles that were easily affordable. Beaten-up Mausers may have served no better purpose, but not all rifles liberated had been beaten up. American cartridges naturally had more appeal to soldiers on the lookout for a cheap hunting rifle. But the 8x57 was no pipsqueak round. In fact, developments in military 8x57 ammunition set the evolutionary course for our ‘06.

The rimless, smokeless 8x57 clearly outperformed the 30-40 Krag. Beginning in 1900, when Army Ordnance set out to design a new infantry round, it fashioned the 30-03 after the 8x57. The original loading of a 220-grain, full-jacket 308 bullet at 2300 fps was essentially a match for the 8x57’s 236-grain load at 2100 fps. About a year after the 30-03 entered service, however, Germany came up with a new bullet and load: a 154-grain spitzer that rocketed downrange at 2800 fps. The U.S. had to respond. Its Ball Cartridge, Caliber 30, Model 1906 featured a 150-grain pointed bullet at 2700 fps. Because the bullet was somewhat shorter than its predecessor, case dimensions were changed. The 30-06 that resulted has a hull .07" shorter than that of the 30-03: 2.494 inches. Pursuant to the change, all 30-03 rifles were recalled and rechambered. In battle, the 8x57 and 30-06 proved deadly equals. Hunters who’ve since loaded or sought out commercial high-performance 8x57 ammunition will tell you it’s as versatile as the ‘06 on big game. Sadly, the standard loads most accessible to sportsmen in this country feature round-nose bullets at modest velocities. They’re good deer killers but hardly show the potential of the round.

If you were to start a book on bolt-action rifles, you could start it with America’s first, or the earliest evidence of a turnbolt breech, but you’d run into lots of short dead-ends. The story really begins with Peter Paul Mauser and his brother Wilhelm, whose struggle to develop acceptable bolt-action rifles for the Prussian army resulted in the 1898 rifle. From there, and from the 8x57 cartridge, has evolved the modern bolt-action rifle in its myriad forms and chamberings. Soldiers, hunters and target shooters the world over have confirmed its utility. Even now, when gas-operated autoloaders shoot sub-minute groups at long range, sportsmen and snipers remain loyal to the bolt action and its powerful cartridges. Here’s the story, distilled, from the beginning.

Wayne’s 358 Norma Magnum is a rebarreled Mauser with Leupold scope.

Wayne’s 458 has a Mauser action with receiver sight mounted on the bolt release.

The Mauser has taken many forms. This sleek safari rifle in 416 Rigby shows Mauser heritage.

Mauser

A hundred years ago Teddy Roosevelt was spurring his Rough Riders up San Juan Hill, while Alaskan gold tugged prospectors, nose to heel, over Chilkoot Pass. On the other side of the Atlantic, a German inventor finished work on a firearm that would outlast memories of both the Maine and the Klondike. Almost all bolt-action sporting rifles now in use can be traced to Paul Mauser’s Model 1898, a design that capped two decades of invention and refinement.

Peter Paul Mauser was born the youngest of 13 children in 1838 in the Swabian village of Oberndorf in Wuerttemberg. Brother Wil-helm, next oldest and four years his senior, would later work with him as a partner. Wil-helm’s business acumen complemented Paul’s mechanical talent. Unfortunately, the union was to be severed by Wilhelm’s untimely death in 1882.

Unlike manufacturers now, Paul Mauser did not merely fashion a rifle to function with existing cartridges — for several reasons. First, the self-contained metallic cartridge was still relatively new in the 1860s when the young entrepreneur began his work in earnest. Secondly, blackpowder would soon be supplanted by smokeless, which radically altered the requisites and opportunities in rifle and cartridge design. And finally, the standardization we take for granted did not then exist. At the turn of the century, many sportsmen had more ammunition options than their counterparts have today!

The Mauser cartridge line began with the 11.15x60R, a 43-caliber blackpowder round designed for the Model 71 single-shot Mauser rifle that became a repeater as the 71/84. Loaded for a time by Remington and Winchester, the 11mm Mauser fared poorly against the 45-70 in the States, though it had an enthusiastic following of sportsmen in Europe. In 1887, just 16 years after the German military establishment adopted the 11mm, Turkey equipped its army with the last Mauser-designed blackpowder cartridge: the 9.5x60R. Chambered in the 71/84, which soon gave way to the Model 1889-pattern Mauser rifle and the smokeless 7.65x53 Mauser cartridge, the 9.5x60R was also used in Peabody-Martini single-shot rifles.

In 1892 Paul Mauser developed what is still the darling of deer and sheep hunters and for a time became the most popular military round in the world. The 7x57 was first chambered in a limited number of Model 92 Mausers by the Spanish government, which shortly replaced the 92 (a modified 1889) with the improved 1893. This rifle and cartridge soon popped up in arsenals all over South and Central America. The 7x57 Mauser is the only 19th-century military cartridge still commonly chambered in sporting rifles.

Oddly enough, the most famous Mauser cartridge of all, the 8mm, came not out of Paul Mauser’s shop, but from German Infantry Board engineers at Spandau Arsenal. Initially designed for the Gewehr 88 (a modified Mannlicher, not a Mauser), the 8x57 was really a 7.92x57, with a round-nose, 226-grain, .318-inch bullet at about 2100 fps. In 1898 the superior Mauser rifle supplanted the Mannlicher derivation, but Germany did not change cartridges. Seven years later the 7.92x57 became the 8x57 when ordnance people boosted bullet diameter to .323 of an inch. At only 154 grains, the new pointed (spitzer) bullet reached a speed of nearly 2900 fps. Both cartridges are now known as 8x57s, the early version the 8x57J, and the .323-inch round the 8x57S.

Smaller, faster bullets and higher breech pressures relegated most 19th-century rifles to the scrap heap — and gave Paul Mauser a chance to show his genius.

Anybody could have designed a breech mechanism that worked like a door latch. In fact, one of Paul Mauser’s first experimental firearms derived from the turn-bolt action of the Dreyse needle-gun that had served as the primary German infantry weapon in the Franco-Prussian War. No, Mauser’s main contribution to hunting rifles was not in the lock-up, but in cartridge feeding. Even now, no one has improved on the Mauser method for whisking rounds into and out of rifle chambers. Attempts at either bettering this clever German’s accomplishments or making cheaper mechanisms that work as well have been notably unsuccessful. But magazine form and function remains a crucial element of any bolt rifle. Differences in feeding are among the primary ways to distinguish one modern bolt action from another. Only triggers are as disparate; and they’re easy to replace with aftermarket versions.

This 1950s-era Mauser was marketed by Sears.

While Paul Mauser’s redesign of the Dreyse went unappreciated at the Wuerttem-berg, Prussian and Austrian War Ministries, it intrigued Samuel Norris, an American visiting Europe as an agent for E. Remington &Sons. Norris offered to bankroll the Mauser brothers if they agreed to convert the French Chassepot to fire metallic cartridges. In 1867 they moved to Liege, Belgium and began work. But when Norris failed to interest the French government in the effort, he broke the contract. Since they had no money to do anything else, Paul and Wilhelm returned to Oberndorf, where they opened shop in the home of Paul’s father-in-law.

Fortuitously, the Royal Prussian Military Shooting School had been testing a Mauser rifle submitted earlier. Ordnance people asked the Mausers to change a few things before resubmitting the design for consideration by the Prussian infantry. In 1872 the Mauser Model 1871, a single-shot breechloader firing an 11mm blackpowder cartridge, became the o arm.

Even with this coup, Paul and Wilhelm found riches elusive. The Prussian army paid them only about 15 percent of what they’d been led to expect. Furthermore, the new rifles were to be manufactured in government arsenals, not by the Mausers. To keep their shop solvent, the brothers contracted with the army to produce 3000 sights for the Model 1871. Later, a Bavarian order for 100,000 sights financed a new Mauser factory in Oberndorf. Then the Wuerttemberg War Ministry negotiated with Paul and Wilhelm to build 100,000 rifles. To fulfill that contract they bought the Wuerttemberg Royal Armory—with help from the Wuerttemberg Vereinsbank of Stuttgart. The last of the 100,000 Model 71s left the Armory in 1878.

After Wilhelm died, Mauser Bros. & Co. offered stock. Ludwig Loewe & Co. of Berlin gained controlling interest. In 1889 Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre (FN) became established near Liege to produce Model 1889 Mauser rifles for the Belgian government. The 89, Paul’s first successful smokeless-powder rifle, incorporated elements that established him as the dominant firearms designer in Europe. Subsequent improvements included a staggered-column, fixed-box magazine (in 1893). By 1895 the action had evolved into a prototype of the famous Model 1898.

The German Army adopted the 98 Mauser on April 5 of that year. It immediately became the most popular military arm to that point in history. France, Great Britain, Russia and the U.S. designed and produced their own battle rifles, but none surpassed the 98 in function or durability. Many other countries either imported it or obtained license to build it. Among its most endearing features is its magazine. Unobtrusive and commonly taken for granted, this device more than any other shows Paul Mauser’s genius. When modern versions fail it is generally because in efforts to pare production costs, rifle makers have dismissed as unimportant the details Paul Mauser and his 19-century German colleagues so carefully worked out.

If the box is properly proportioned, a Mauser bolt smoothly laps cartridges from the magazine.

The late master riflemaker Maurice Ottmar crafted this Mauser after German tradition.

Unlike firearms companies now, Mauser designed each magazine for a specific cartridge. Box and follower dimensions were predicated on case dimensions. Paul figured that a staggered column would enable him to fit more cartridges in the belly of a rifle action than would a single vertical column. But they surely wouldn’t feed if stacked like scrap lumber in a box of indeterminate size and shape. Each round needed support, from the box on one side and a cartridge or the follower on the other side and underneath. He decided the stacking angle should be 30 degrees, so when viewed from the end, three cartridges in contact would form the corners of an equilateral triangle.

Paul Mauser may have determined proper box width by trial and error. He may also have multiplied the cosine of 30 degrees (.866) by the case head diameter, then added the diameter to that product. For example, an 8x57 case measures .473 of an inch across the rim. So .866 x .473 = .410 + .473 = .883. Theoretically, that’s the correct inside rear box width for any cartridge deriving from the 8x57 case. But cartridges taper, and so must a magazine. The same formula yields proper box width at the point of shoulder contact. Adding an extra .003 of an inch or so for oversized or dirty cases makes sense.

A box designed for one cartridge works for others with identical front and rear diameters and the same span between them. Interchangeability is limited according to Mauser’s thinking. A 7.65mm rifle rebarreled to 30-06 needs a longer magazine, and also one that is wider up front. A 7.65 box measures .80l of an inch wide at the shoulder of an ‘06 round. A properly-engineered 30-06 magazine is .822 of an inch wide there. Triangles between cartridge centerlines get steep when the box is too narrow, and rounds tend to cross-stack.

Paul Mauser also relieved the box sides slightly, from just ahead of the cartridge base to just behind the shoulder, so there would be no contact between box and case body. He lavished equal attention on the follower, which on an original 98 mirrors the box taper. The width of its lower shelf matches that of the case, with a 61-degree step between upper and lower shelf. The top shelf is high enough to touch the next-to-last cartridge without lifting it off the last round in the stack (it’s half a diameter above the lower shelf at base and shoulder). The follower has a slope to follow case taper and keep the cartridges level in the box.

Side clearance for a follower is crucial. Custom gunmaker D’Arcy Echols, who is careful to follow the Mauser doctrine in lockstep, makes his followers .060 of an inch narrower than their boxes so they can wiggle. That’s especially important for the last cartridge. "Floorplates machined to hold the Mauser magazine spring tightly don’t work," he says. "I made one once – figured Mauser’s machinists were just sloppy in cutting spring slots .180 of an inch too wide at the rear. They most certainly were not! Those springs are supposed to shimmy back and forth. If the spring can’t shuffle a bit as the bolt strips a round, it twists; and the follower tips or ends up sideways or both." He adds that while follower length is not critical, a follower that’s too short "dives." A follower with too much end-play in a magazine can also bang the front of the box sharply enough to mar it under recoil.

Receiver rails position the cartridge for pickup by the bolt. Because Model 1898 rails are of machined steel, only severe damage or alteration will affect their function. The lower edge of the 98’s bolt face is milled flush with the center of the face so the case head can slide up into the extractor claw. Thus begins "controlled-round feeding," with the cartridge snatched to the face of the bolt as soon as it pops free of the magazine. At the turn of the century, this arrangement made sense because it prevented infantrymen from double loading, or stripping a second round after chambering one and, in the press of battle, reflexively cycling the bolt again before firing. An extractor that grabbed the case right away would eject it on the pull stroke, clearing the chamber.

This Mauser in 404 Jeffery is ready for fitting and finishing. Note the classic straight bolt handle.

Checking the feeding of a Mauser in the shop of D’Arcy Echols, Wayne doesn’t expect malfunctions.

Two protrusions bracket the ejector groove on the left side of the 98’s bolt face. They’re cartridge support lugs. The lower lug is precisely angled to guide the rim of the cartridge as the magazine spring pushes it up into an open breech. This lower lug must herd cartridges from both sides of the magazine into the center of bolt travel and coax the case rim into the extractor claw. Once there, the case head is held tight against the claw by both lugs.

Case extractor grooves vary in depth. Weatherby brass from Norma is .010 of an inch deeper there than Remington’s Weather-by brass. Mauser extractor claws should spring .004 of an inch under tension, so on a custom rifle, a claw fitted to Norma cases will prove too tight for Remingtons, and one fitted to Remingtons will fail to grip Normas. In neither case will the extractor provide positive controlled-round feed.

Paul Mauser purposefully did not engineer his extractor to jump over the rim of a single round loaded by hand. But the 98 has about .030 of an inch extra clearance broached in the right lug raceway of the receiver ring. The extractor claw, which subtends about 20 percent of the rim’s arc, jumps the rim when the rear of the extractor is pinched to the bolt body. To prevent cases from slipping from the extractor’s grasp, Mauser undercut the extractor tongue and its groove in the bolt so that force applied during difficult extraction would sink the claw deep into the extractor groove.

The Magnum Mauser remains queen of the long actions and a popular if costly choice for big-bore custom rifles. It is roughly .375 of an inch longer than the military 98 Mauser action. For many years before the Second World War, Magnum Mausers were exported to Britain, mainly through Rigby, which supplied other London gunmaking firms too. The actions were machined in Oberndorf for specific magazines. Chambering determined not only internal box dimensions but also the width of the receiver recess. Fat rounds like the 416 Rigby couldn’t be stacked in regular fashion because the receiver wasn’t wide enough. The huge 11.2x72 Schueler and 500 Jeffery (12.7x70) could not be placed in a double column at all. They rated a four-round, single-column magazine.

After World War II, Mauser "Werke" (works) became "Waffenfabrik" (arms factory), and Mauser’s business shifted toward the sporting trade. U.S. agent A.F. Stoeger, Inc. of New York assigned numbers to the various Mauser actions. By the late 1930s there were 20 in four lengths: magnum, standard, intermediate and short (kurz). The short action had a small receiver ring and was factory-bar-reled for three cartridges: the 6.5x50, 8x51 and 250 Savage. Magnum and kurz actions were made strictly for sporting use. Mauser did not adopt the Stoeger numbers 1 through 20, but they remain popular designations among collectors. Some Mausers had a square bridge, the hump serving as a scope mount base. Those not machined to take scope rings were checkered on top. "Double square bridge" Mausers feature a second hump on the receiver ring.

Many military 98s have been barreled to long belted rounds like the 300 H&H, but this practice has few advocates now. Lengthening a magazine means trimming the feed ramp, even after moving the magazine back as far as is practicable. The short ramp forces steep entry angles on the cartridges. Ramp work takes metal from the bottom locking lug abutment, weakening it. Moving the magazine rearward reduces the length of the bridge, robbing the bolt body of support and increasing bolt play. Additionally, a long bolt throw reduces contact at the bolt stop.

The Mauser bolt face, left, shows its signature split lug, claw extractor, and open bottom for controlled feed.