I hear a lot of reference to "alloy" M98 actions.

Which actions are alloy and which are the so called "case hardened" or "carbon packed" whatever.

Is this a time line thing?

Are all "milsurps" the pack hardened type?

I own 2 M98K rifles cica WWII. The action marked "44" has had close to 1,000rds of 8mm-06 AI out of it @ quite stiff pressure loads, probably in the high 50,000 to 60,000psi range with no aparent ill effects. The barrel was pulled recently and I could detect no "set back". Headspace always stayed tight as the partialy resized cases offered some resistance when closing the bolt handle the last few degrees. As I never changed the die settings there did not seem to be any change in headspace.

The other is a like new action marked "42". I plan to rechamber this one to 8X68S.

Are these the so called "pack hardened" type actions? Both of the rifles where all matching #s with no rust.

To be quite honest, some of the actions I see being rebarreled scare me. Some are mismatched and corroded. I even saw a 1909 Argie that had the crest ground off of the receiver ring. That one really scared me!

Wildcatjunkie---

Pre 1924 actions were almost all case hardened. the commercial Mauser Werkes actions were cased up to 1931.

The Mauser folks preferred case hardened actions to alloy for those seven years, but FN perfected a heat-treat for alloy that finally won over Mauser Werkes and others.

There are MANY exceptions.

Both your actions are alloy.

I'm curious why you're scared of a ground '09. The crest comes off with the standard .015 surface grind.



Here's one.

[ 11-30-2002, 05:01: Message edited by: JBelk ]