I have several custom 98 Mausers. Nothing fancy, just good, solid meat & potato rifles that are excellent in the field. I am thinking of changing safety's from the Military style to either a 3 position safety or the one that is similar to the Remington Safety found in the Timmney Trigger/Safety combination. Any thoughts about the two. Would appreciate some advice. I like the 3 position safety but it sure is expensive. I have hear pros and cons about the side safety. Thanks for your time. pete
The two or three position side swing safeties are, simply put, safer and stronger. Their design blocks the cocking piece from moving forward. You would have to shear off a decent sized chunk of hardened steel to get the cocking piece to move forward.
The Timney style is a trigger/sear block safety, and it works, but is the weaker of the two designs. You are relying on the thin contact of the trigger to the sear to keep the cocking piece in place. This works, but is not as robust a design as the above. The stock has to be cut to fit the safety lever as well.
Since your rifles have military bolt shrouds, the Wisner 2-pos safety retrofit is a good option. I don't know the price difference between a 2 or 3 pos safety, though.
Jeremy
Posts: 1492 | Location: Indiana | Registered: 28 January 2011
Having your standard Mauser bolt shroud modified to add a 2-position swing safety is a good, lower cost alternative to the 3-position safety. Jim Kobe does a lot of these.