I have Mauser98 / VZ24 action that I picked up to build up a .308 hunting rifle.

I already have a syn. stock that accepts the stepped .308 barrel. So if I have to, it will drop in just fine. But I was thinking the steps are kinda of ugly and I got to wondering if I was to turn the steps out to lighten the barrel a bit, would it affect the barrel's strength and accuracy ?

Edited to add: I did a little searching my question and found that the majority of the responses were NO !!! to removing the steps. However, any additonal comments pro or no will be appreciated.

My first bolt action rifle was a bubba'd Arisaka 6.5. I used a 1X30 (all I had at the time) belt sander to remove the steps, cleaned it up by hand with emery paper, then cold blued.

It worked out OK back then, at least to my teenaged eye. If you have a lathe to do yours with it will be infinitely better than my early efforts. You can use an epoxy putty to fill the steps in the stock of yours after you have the barrel tapered. If the steps on the barrel bother you, I'm guessing the gaps in the stock will do the same thing eventually.

Recontouring the barrel (within reason) should not effect it's strength. As far as effecting the accuracy, it may or may not. The 3 or 4 that I've had done never shot worse after the recontour.

I read somewhere along the line that the steps were put in the barrel contour to control vibrations and increase accuracy. But we and the Brits did not do this with our military rifles and they shot at least as well as the Mausers.

Fit a barrel band to that spot instead.

Rich