A 7x57 in a Win70 FWT would be a sweet gun. Your daughter could hunt with that for the rest of her years. I have two girls of my own and although they won't be hunting for some years I think I would go with the 7. Very interesting forum on this subject!

Don Martin 29. You mentioned going with a 30-06 length action. Not all mausers originally in 7X57 or 8X57 will accomodate the 06 length cartridges. The magazines are too short. I have two 1912 Steyr Mausers right now, one in a custom .308 Win. and the other unaltered or made into anything yet. Neither action will take a 30-06 length round unless you seat the bullet deeper than standard.
My Oberndorf Mauser (.35 Whelen) and 1909 DWM (.280 Rem.)will take 06 length rounds, but I don't know if the gunsmith had to open them up or not. The rest of my Mausers are all an commercial action that came in 30-06 or .270. This is something that should be looked into when picking a Mauser action to build a custom rifle on.
Paul B.