Guys any1 ever used the mauser 98 (do they come single shot)? for long range shooting? they are much cheaper than the rem 700's and heaps available. I just need it to do the job.

Any other cheapo but reliable enough actions that you guys would recommend.

thanks

I have a 22-250 built on a mauser action, that works great for groundhogs out to about 600yds.

Gotta agree with AZWriter, today the M98 is not the best choice. Even if you can do the work yourself, you may not end up with a very good rifle. Many of the M98s left have soft receivers, I've seen several with the bolt lugs set back into the cutouts. There is no way to fix this, lapping the cutouts just cuts through the surface hardening and the headspace opens up quickly. Too, many I've seen are warped and while this can be countered, why bother with a poor action? In the 50s, 60s and 70s lots of wonderful rifles were made on M98s, but its a poor choice now. Nineteenth century technology just doesn't cut it with todays high pressure cartridges and accuracy expectations I'm afraid.

Not to say you couldn't make a nice looking rifle out of an m98, but the end result would not be as good a shooter. Invest in a well-used Savage M110 or Remington 700 for the actions; there are lots of good parts for both rifles, and lots of gunsmiths who can make a superior custom rifle out of either. You can even buy barrels, etc. through Midway and do it all yourself!

It's funny, I was just flipping through an old issue of Precision Shooting earlier this morning. There was an article about High Power Actions, as in building rifles for High Power competition. The author named several different actions to use, but he only mentioned one *not* to use, and that was the M98. He had some good reasons, but they basically said "yeah, it's a good action, and reliable, but leaves a bit to be desired when building a rifle for top accuracy".

I'll go get it & post more details later today...