this question is about safety primarily not how much work. i am going to buy a few fn mauser actions and was wondering what was the largest safe caliber to put on them? i am going to do 9.3mm on two i heard a .416 taylor would fit.

Drew

An FN action (as you don't care how much work) can handle the .375 H&H, the .458 Lott, the .470 capstick, and even the 404 Jeffery.

Some will even make you a 416 Rigby but IMO that's too much!

Basically that action will be comfortable with anything based on the 30-06 case.....the 458 win mag case.....and the .375 H&H mag case....the latter requiring a bit more work.

many 98's have been done in .458 win. bill439

don't get me wrong work equals money but my first concern is the gun not blowing up in my face and i know that real magnums have been done on the 98 mauser action but what by today's standards of gun building would be a safe gun.

550 express
585 nyati (arguable as to position of these 2)
500 jeffe
500 AR
470AR

quote:

Originally posted by aturner:
don't get me wrong work equals money but my first concern is the gun not blowing up in my face and i know that real magnums have been done on the 98 mauser action but what by today's standards of gun building would be a safe gun.

If the Mauser action is properly done (and it's not hard) it can easily and safely handle anything on the 458 Win Mag case.....and the .375 Ruger case as well.....this is what I'd use to build on a Mauser.....either the .375 Ruger or a modification of it!.....such as the 416 or 404 ruger.......a hell of a round!

Please unserstand that the action don't have a clue what it's shooting.....as long as the bolt face don't change and the pressure stays the same it's the same to the action. So, a .300 win mag will be the same to the action as a 458 Mag or a .375 Ruger....or any of it's derivates!

That said....the magnum cases will deliver a bit more force to the bolt than the 30-06 based cases....but the '98 mauser is fully capable of that force.

In the Mausers I personally recommend a commercial or a post 1924 action such as the VZ-24.......but a lot of very high intensity rounds have been built on 1908 and 1909 actions!

Also one needs to understand that they don't fail in a blow up....they fail as a stretch and the action will not open.....even if the action fails it won't blow in your face unless you subject it to something that would have blown up a Winchester action as well!

500 Jeffrey, if you want big, you start at 50

hell looks like we'll do .458 lott. thanks for the info gentlemen.

drew

458 Lott is a great round.
Just be sure to use the Jeffery case for it!

With Mauser 1909 I have .458 WM; .375 H&H; 9,3x64 and .416 Rigby (this last in standard commercial action; rifle made for H. Mahillon).
All from the last 20 years without problem and with great satisfaction.
Hector