Hello all

I've seen a couple of posts now on switch barrel rifles; I've been flipping back and forth between calibers for my Mauser-in-the-works, and now realize I could have all three! But, are there any special considerations in setting up a Mauser 98 for this?

I realize this isn't necessarily practical, but then, neither is building a custom gun on an old military action. It's a lot of fun though.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Todd

Sorry guys --

This was meant to go into the Gunsmithing forum.

Todd

No it is a very easy conversion. Just need an action wrench and barrel vise. You would also need to keep the choices in the same case family and for looks use the same barrel contour.

Nice idea but in the real world why. Having two rifles is much nicer works better. Every gun that I own that I could put a diff. barrel on when I priced the other barrels it just about as cheap to buy another rifle. When you look at the use gun prices. You normally can find what you need. Then if one breaks the other one works. Plus the more the better.

Thanks for the replies;

Ramrod: Does it work okay if you have iron sights on one of the barrels? Or would you have problems in tightening the barrel "just right" to get them to index properly? Seems like the shoulder inside the receiver ring should stop the barrel in about the same spot, every time.

P dog shooter: I agree very much that more is better; however at present, my funds are divided among school loans, house, and car -And darn little else! I could not buy a [decent] gun for the price of an extra Adams & Bennet barrel.

BTW, this is not meant to be a quick / easy in-the-field swap. I doubt if I would ever travel with extra barrels, wrench/vice, etc. All three chamberings would be in the short magnum (Win) family, to minimize any feeding problems.

Todd

I've never done it with a barrel with iron sights but, don't see it as a problem. Make and index mark and tighten to it. You will be able to see if things don't line up. But, when the shoulder hits and you tighten it it pretty muchs stops at the same place. I have one action,stock,scope that I have 4 barrels for. Do I change them out every weekend nope nor do I take them with me on a hunting trip. If I'm going after antelope I'll leave on the 25-06 but for elk add the 338-06 sight in and I'm ready to go. Like you I first did because funds were tied up elsewhere and I really wanted to play with other rounds.

Switch barrels in a Mauser standard action makes no sense. First, the price of the action is the least expensive of all parts. Second, the short and coarse threads is prohibitive for a reliable position and tension of the changed barrel.
Switch barrel is possible with a so called intermediate Mauser action. Here you can change the thread to a longer and finer, same as used in the bench rest rifles.

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Todd,

Switch barrels are real easy. Never used mauser but it should be fine since it has an integral recoil lug and the front screw tension is almost in the center of the beddig flat. For a switch barrel you can't have any bedding under the first part of the barrel.

Usually the gunsmith faces off the action so it is real square to the barrel shoulder. You may not believe this but you can virtually "spin" a hevy barrel in tight enough. They get tight with shooting. I would think on a Mauser a gunsmith might butt the barrel shoulder against the front of the mauser receiver rather than the inner collar.

You don't need to index barrels or anything similar.

Actually a true switch barrel rifle lets you change barrels without taking the rifle apart. This is standard with benchrest rifles. This becomes from hard to impossible with sporting rifle barrel contours.

What you are talking about is no different to taking your rfile to a gunsmith to get it rebarreled. Except in this case he has already supplied and fitted the barrels and you just do the screwing in and screwing out.

Naturally point of impact will be different with each barrel and usually by quite a large amount.

Mike

Would an interrupted thread design better fit the mauser? Would it be strong enough with the mauser thread count and pitch? It seems like the easiest way to change barrels to me.

Hi

Some questions for those of you who already have similar set-ups, especially on Mauser 98 actions:

How does feeding work with the different calibers? My main concern in this area is that my choice of calibers would be 458WM, 416 Taylor, and 338 WM; if I alter the rails to feed the straight-walled 458, am I correct in guessing that 416/338 may pop free of the rails before they are under control of the extractor?

I really like the interrupted thread idea, but suspect that all the machining involved would equal the cost of several Mauser actions! Like an idiot, I have lost the only contact number I had for a retired machinist that did great work in his home shop, at ridiculously low rates -- his special interest: GUNSMITHING! I have spent hours trying to track him down on the 'net, to no avail.

Good weekend to all,
Todd