Over the years I have come across varying degrees of blot slop in 98s'.
I had an israel 308 that was like a grandfatherclock pendulem. 2 custom argentine 09,that were reasonable,and a brazilian 08 obendorf,that was superbly tight even at full bolt drawback. Even some of the premium new manufacture 98 that I looked at at SCI Reno,were rather sloppy,yet they claim superior tolerancing in their manufacture. If the 08 Oberndorf that I had ,had it good ,why not new ones these days,and how much clearnce is really needed between bolt and reciever to allow it to function reliably in field conditions. Do they really need to be so sloppy? are people having problems with R700,M70,Sako,etc,(which are much tighter) and Im just not hearing about it,or are manufactures of new 98 just unnecessarily following tradition too much?

It doesn't matter really how much slop there is at the back of the stroke, rather how much there is when the bolt is in the closed position.

Sure a better made gun will usually have less slop, but as far as function goes, there is no reason to worry about it, so the factories don't.

-Spencer

rear slop...

is there for a purpose, and also in all mil bolt guns...

this is to allow for junk to be in the action.

it matters how much it locks when in battery, imho, not how it rocks (and they will ALL rock eventually.. winnie, remmie, all) in the back

jeffe

It’s pretty hard to find a design that is smoother and tighter than a Krag...and even those have a bit of “wiggle†in the bolt when its fully retracted.

If things were so tightly fitted that there was no movement at all when drawn back the bolt would be a pain in the ass to operate.

The '98 do seem to have a lot of slop in the fit as the bolt is totally retracted.....but they don't bind!!!!! It seems that unless there's some amount of slop they bind upon trying to close.

IMO you should learn to appreciate the slop.

Are you sure the 1908 Brazilian was an Oberndorf. Most were DWM. The 1935 Brazilians were Oberndorf.

Thinking now ,I am not entirely sure if it was 08 or 1935,but it was Oberndorf, it was a few years ago,(10).
It was though a close tolerance action with absolute minimal bolt slop,it functioned perfectly, never gave any binding problems whatsoever.

i'll second that Vapodog!!

Zubin