Not only were pierced primers a problem but so were weak cases. Mauser very simply and cleverly addressed that with the flange on the bolt sleeve.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Here is what no one bothers to point out about that notch's gas venting capability.

If you are a right handed shooter shoulder the rifle and look at the notch with your LEFT eye.
So now which eye do you want gases dumped into because that notch is set up to blast your left eye?

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
Alf and Michael have adequately pointed out that the original Mauser patent specifies that the thumb cut was for gas relief, but the fact is that, even today, an overwhelming number of serious users still find it a help during rapid reloading. I seriously doubt that additional benefit escaped the fertile mind of Paul Mauser.

I keep telling you all that the M98 was designed with lefties in mind venting any escaping gas on the opposite side from where the lefties head is and the thumb cut sure aids charging the magazine. We may only be 10-12% of the population but in Paul Mauser's mind, the most important percentage.

Now go all you righties and fumble with your magazine charging and pray you never have a pierced primer or ruptured case, yeh

Anyone else hunt DG with strippers?

I keep trying too---

Mauser put the gas vents in the bolt body to prevent the firing pin and gas from blowing back.

Because he did that he dumped the gas into the left lug race way. That dumps the gas back at the shooter in another path but prevents the firing pin from being blown back.

Like one of the more astute posters here said about gas handling. The Mauser and similar small diameter bolt actions have a built in gas handling defect when compared to fat bolt designs.

I have read and observed considerable tests on blowing up rifles..
My only take on the subject is I hope to hell if a gun ever blows up on me that its a Mauser, they just handle bad stuff better than the rest..
I have placed a t shirt over a Mauser action and blown or almost blown it it up and no powder burns at the sight of the thumb cut but was at the front ring hole and at an around the gas sheild on the cocking piece, In some tests the barrel swelled and one out of 5 split, but never in any case did even the softer 95 or 96's fragment..I know that a mod 70 Win or a Rem 700 for instance will fragment under extreme high pressure, and it has to be extreme with most any modern action, they are not easy to blow up and it takes a case full of bullseye and sometimes several trys. Todays proof loads are said to be 180,000 PSI I am told?? thats a lot.

Can't afford to blow them up anymore, those old $2.00 to 5.00 surplus junk actions are a thing of the past...Lots of experminters back then tied them to a tire, pulled the trigger with a string just to watch them blow..Springfields Rock Island Arsnals were supposed to be bad, but I saw guy try to blow them up and they didn't seem all that easy to blow IMO...

I have yet to see anyone blow up an old Jap Arisaka up, they just won't blow, those guys would take a small sledge hammer and open the action and stick another round in them packed tight with bullseye and all manor of powders and never did see one blow up and fail to work.Ugly but stong IMO..still wouldn't own one.

Dang! From the many posts deriding the thumb cut as a gas disaster waiting to happen or tantamount to nearly cutting the action in half you would think that they all would have been discarded long ago in favor of something better!
I myself once shot a Mauser '98 with a perfectly acceptable load for another rifle which for some reason generated extreme pressure and after wrenching the bolt open saw that the primer was totally gone!
No ill effects to me or my face or the gun.