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Mauser Competitors & Derivatives WvZ

While the 98 was still teething, military establishments around the world began designing mechanisms for the new smokeless smallbore cartridges that were obviously superior to traditional infantry rounds. The conversions came as quickly as engineers could come up with functional bolt rifles. U.S. ordnance officers by-passed Arthur Savage’s lever-action rifle to adopt the Krag-Jorgensen, a Norwegian-designed bolt gun with a single right-hand locking lug, recessed bolt face and long, top-mounted extractor that grabbed the 30-40 case upon chambering. The ejector was a foot pivoting up from the belly of the raceway. Norway’s 6.5x55 Krag had a similar action and side-box magazine, but a third of the bolt face rim was cut away to allow the case head to slide into the extractor. Both actions work smoothly with loaded cartridges, but only the Norwegian Krag offers controlled-round feed.

Britain’s 303 Short Magazine Lee Enfield also appeared in the 1890s. An improvement on the 1888 Lee-Metford, it featured dual rear locking lugs and a flush bolt face with a short claw mounted at 10 o’clock in a detachable bolt head. A pin in the left receiver wall served as ejector. Despite their stamped, detachable box magazines, SMLEs feed smoothly and reliably. The little extractor grabs the 303 case rim as soon as it pops free of the magazine. A well-used SMLE that I examined recently slicked up empty cases from the battered feed lips like a cat gulping sardines. Slamming the bolt home or closing it gently, I couldn’t jam the open-mouthed hull. Few rifles of any design will function flawlessly (if at all) with empties.

The 1903 Springfield rifle featured Mauser’s dual locking lugs and an external extractor that grabbed cases immediately from the magazine. Its coned breech was something new. The first successful Winchester bolt rifle, the Model 54, showed Mauser and Springfield lineage. Its ejector derived from a Charles Newton design and eliminated the need for a slotted locking lug. Meanwhile Remington developed its Model 30, a sporting-class 1917 Enfield that also evidenced German ancestry. Winchester’s Model 70 appeared in 1937. It retained the coned breech, dual locking lugs, Mauser extractor and offset ejector of the Model 54 but wore a much better trigger. The 54 trigger, like the Mauser’s, doubled as a bolt stop. Sturdy and reliable, it had a long, heavy pull that could not be adjusted. The Model 70 trigger, still widely acclaimed by aficionados as the best ever for a hunting rifle, is bomb-proof and features adjustments for weight of pull and over-travel. A separate bolt stop interrupts the left lug.

Model 54 rifles stayed in Winchester’s line until 1941, but production slowed to a trickle during the last 5 years. Shooters were quick to embrace the Model 70’s trigger and its low-slung safety that, unlike the Mauser-style 54’s, swung horizontally under a scope. Misfires that had plagued the Model 54 disappeared when Winchester added 1/16 inch to striker travel (though lock time increased 20 percent). On the Model 70, bolt-head gas ports got help from a vent in the right side of the receiver ring. The 70’s low, swept-back bolt handle mandated a receiver slot that served as a safety lug abutment. The bolt shoulder was later eliminated. Machined bottom metal included a hinged floorplate and looked classier than the 54’s stamped assembly. Winchester did not fit new barrels to the 70 because the 54’s hook-rifled tubes had earned a fine reputation. Fact is, the first M70 barrels had the same threads and contours as the 54’s; they were interchangeable.

The Mauser’s British counterpart in the Great War was the Short Magazine Lee Enfield.

In 1937 you could order a Model 70 in one of nine chamberings: 22 Hornet, 220 Swift, 250-3000 Savage, 257 Roberts, 270 WCF, 7mm Mauser, 30-06 — plus 300 or 375 Holland and Holland Magnum. Between 1941 and 1963 nine more rounds were added, though only eight appeared in catalogs (they omitted the 300 Savage). With only one action size, Winchester used fillers and blocks and, in the case of the Hornet, a special magazine to adapt the 70 to short cases. Its magazine had been designed to accommodate the 300 and 375 H&H cartridges, introduced to American shooters in 1925 but then available only in costly custom Mausers. The M70’s long action featured a magnum-length magazine, properly engineered to hold four cartridges. Shorter boxes tailored for the 30-06 held five. Incidentally, though the Winchester 70 emerged a Cadillac among factory rifles, it cost less than a commercial Mauser. In 1939 the 70 retailed for $61.25, while a Mauser sporting rifle listed from $110 to $250!

Vern Woosley shot this dandy Oregon buck with a reworked 1917 Enfield.

Remington’s 721-722 series, announced in 1948, differed in two important respects from the Model 70. First, receivers came from tube stock and wore a separate recoil lug sandwiched between barrel shoulder and receiver ring. This was a cheaper approach than the machining of a receiver from a 7 ½-pound slab of chrome-moly. Stamped bottom metal and a trigger assembly comprising stamped parts gave the Remingtons a bargain-basement look, though barrel and stock contours resembled those of the Model 70. The other chief difference was in the bolt face, which featured a small half-moon extractor clip secured in a groove cut into a thick lip surrounding the recessed bolt face. This lip fully enclosed the case head, prompting Remington to boast of "three rings of steel" (bolt head, receiver and barrel) supporting the cartridge and protecting the shooter. There was no ejector slot; the plunger-style ejector operated through a hole in the bolt face.

A recessed bolt face did not allow for controlled-round feed because the cartridge had to be chambered before the extractor could engage its rim. Cost savings were substantial. These Remingtons lacked a coned breech. Despite their cheap appearance, the Reming-ton 721 and 722 handled high-pressure cartridges with ease. They shot accurately and fed reliably. Triggers were adjustable for engagement, weight and over-travel.

During the early 1940s Roy Weatherby had no rifles in which to chamber his peppy 257, 270, 7mm and 300 Magnums. In 1948 he began using commercial Mausers. A decade later he and Weatherby engineer Fred Jennie developed the Mark V, a new rifle that would handle higher pressures and accommodate the huge 378 and 460 Weatherby Magnums. The Mark V bolt had a recessed face like the Remingtons’, but the small extractor claw was fastened on the side of the bolt head. The round receiver wore an integral recoil lug. Roy added three gas ports to the bolt body and enclosed the bolt sleeve to prevent gas escape to the rear. Breaking with tradition, he used three sets of three locking lugs in an interrupted-thread design. This lowered bolt lift to 54 degrees. The "push feed" Mark V is essentially the same rifle now that it was in 1958 (the year Savage also introduced its Model 110 bolt rifle). A recent lug version proportioned for standard cartridges weighs about a pound less than the original Mark V.

Husqvarna sporting rifles appeared in the U.S. around 1954, first with steel bottom metal, then with alloy. Essentially a Mauser, the Swedish Husky had the 98 extractor and a Model 70-style ejector that did not require a split left lug. Early Husqvarnas (also marketed as the Sears 51) were later supplanted by the Model 8000, which had a Sako-style extractor and plunger ejector.

The 1952 Mannlicher-Schoenauer, which to my mind was the best of the series begun in 1903, had a rotary magazine. Its short, side-mounted claw looked like a Mauser’s from the front and offered controlled-round feed. The ejector was an intricately machined foot fitted to the bolt face in a slot that allowed it to kick forward at the end of bolt travel.

In 1962 Remington replaced its 721-722 (long- and short-action) rifles with the new 700. Two years later Winchester revamped the Model 70 to pare costs. By 1965 all major American rifle manufacturers had abandoned Mauser extractors and controlled-round feed. Plunger-style ejectors had replaced mechanical kickers. In 1968 when Bill Ruger announced his Model 77, the aggressive claw reappeared, but it only looked the part. Those first M77 extractors were made to hop the rim of a chambered round, not suck it from the magazine. The Ruger 77 Mark II, first available in 1992, featured controlled-round feed. It joined a new Winchester Model 70 that had sprouted in the New Haven custom shop under the eye of Winchester engineer Ed Var-tanian and custom rifle maker David Miller. This Model 70, while retaining some post-64 features (notably the anti-bind bolt rail), had a Mauser claw extractor that worked like the original but was beveled to jump the rim of a chambered cartridge. In 1990 Winchester put this action into its production line, cataloging the rifles as Super Grades. By 1994 most Model 70s had controlled-round feed. The Mauser-style extractor is now the visible mark of a Model 70 Classic in its various forms.

Savage and Weatherby have stayed with the externally-mounted snap-over extractors, and Remington 700s still wear a clip in a bolt-face groove. Browning, which in 1972 abandoned its lovely High Power series based on Sako and FN Mauser actions, equips its popular A-Bolt with a three-lug push-feed bolt and plunger ejector. Sako has switched from a two-lug to a three-lug bolt, retaining the mechanical ejector and a claw extractor that has earned such plaudits that some gunsmiths routinely install it on Remington 700s. (I don’t see any merit in that because the Rem-ington works fine and actually has more claw surface.) Kimber Model 770s had a three-lug bolt and a plunger ejector. As on the Weath-erby Mark V, 770 bolt body and lug diameters are identical. Kimber installs a Mauser claw on its followup to the 770, the Model 84M.

Arnold Arms offered a choice of feeding in its Apollo action. The bolt featured a two-lug head with a split in the left lug for a mechanical ejector. Instead of a Mauser extractor, the Apollo made only for controlled-round feed had no separate claw. The cartridge slid up against the open lower section of the bolt face (per the Mauser 98) then into a groove machined inside the righthand locking lug. Single loading into the chamber was impossible. For that, Arnold manufactured a "combination" bolt. Its extractor was similar to a Sako’s except that it slid at an angle instead of pivoting to accept the case rim. The design offered controlled feeding and the option to close the bolt on a cartridge in the chamber.

Controlled-round feed remains a strong selling point for some shooters. The Dakota 76, a refined and handsomely-stocked rendition of the pre-64 Model 70, includes the Mauser extractor. So does the round-action Dakota 97. Little-known, relatively high-cost bolt actions such as the Olympic Arms BBK-01 and the Belgian Fortress Herstal have the feature as well. But hanging a long slab of spring steel on a bolt and listing controlled-round feed as a selling point don’t guarantee smooth, reliable bolt operation. Under pressure to build rifles that will profit the company, designers and assemblers must compromise. It’s not economical to fashion separate magazines for the 308 and 257 Roberts, or for the 7mm Remington and 300 Winchester magnums, though Mauser doctrine would so dictate. Neither can mass production be delayed for rigorous function testing—or stopped because one rifle sticks a bullet nose from the left rail once every 30 cyclings. Shooters who want sure-feeding guarantees won’t get them from any factory, though mechanical integrity is commonly assumed for every rifle shipped.

I recently returned to the maker a new rifle with controlled-round feed. It jammed almost every time from one side when I stroked the bolt gently. It needed work on the feed ramp and rail. I can’t say if every rifle of its type behaves that way. I doubt it. Small irregularities in individual rifles can cause malfunctions.

When short magnums appeared in the late 1950s, Model 70 magazines for these rounds accepted only three. Winchester’s early magazine boxes had been tailored to Holland &Holland rounds, but the new short-magnum guns got 30-06 boxes minus the rear rib. Some shooters still insist on a pre-64 70 in 300 or 375 H&H Magnum as the basis for a custom rifle chambered for a long case. But D’Arcy Echols, who designs and builds his own magazines in the Paul Mauser tradition, says you’re better off with a 30-06: "Pre-64 Winchesters have pretty short ramps when they’re hogged out for long magnum cartridges. But when you machine the rear of a box recess back to the center guard screw hole, you get more ramp up front. If you start with a ramp already shortened for a box Winchester extended forward, there’s no advantage to moving it back." The new Model 70 magnums may be best of all. They’re about .187 of an inch longer than early 70 magnums.

The current trend toward detachable box magazines would give Paul Mauser the willies. Stamped steel feed lips cannot guide cartridges as surely as machined rails. Detachable boxes are also more susceptible to damage. In truth they feed as smoothly as many fixed magazines on modern rifles because few match the slick feel of an early Mauser or M70 or 1903 Springfield.

Rifles without controlled-round feed seem to hold their own at market, partly because this feature matters little to most hunters and partly because bolt-face extractors keep a lid on prices. That beefy claw offers an extra measure of confidence when the game is big and close and dangerous, but most of the time it isn’t. Over the years I’ve found push-feed mechanisms as reliable as controlled-round designs, if not as smooth. There’s no accuracy advantage to a Mauser bolt. In fact, the smallest groups come from rifles with puny extractors and recessed bolt faces. A Mauser magazine and extractor simply cost more.

About as many Model 700 Remingtons as Model 70 Winchesters fill my rack now. It is also peppered with Savage, Ruger and Weatherby rifles and a couple of Mark X Mausers. I used to have some custom-built 98s, which I foolishly sold. One of them, a 300 H&H, collected my first bull elk. A 270 kept me in venison during college. Another 270 reached across a deep canyon to down a bighorn ram. I don’t miss these rifles so much for their fine accuracy or handsome lines or smooth function as for their character. They showed a genius that perhaps only John Browning among gun designers has matched and in modern rifles hides beneath many refinements—only some of which qualify as improvements.

Paul Mauser got a good thing going.

Big Three: Top to bottom, Winchester M70, Remington M700, Ruger M77.