I recently obtained a GEW 98 Mauser in 300 H&H. The receiver has a 1918 date and a serial number of 6XX. Assuming the work on the action was done correctly, which does appear to be the case, is this action considered safe enough for this round. I have no intentions of hot-rodding this to the maximum point, but try to duplicate the factory loads or slightly more.

If the receiver is in question I do have a new commercial receiver I can substitute for it but I would like to keep this one as I bought it if possible. What are your thoughts?

Many thanks

IIRC, original factory English loadings for the Super .30 were loaded to ballistics about like today's hotter American .30-06 factory loads.

With the larger case, that suggests to me that even lower pressures were developed generally.

As your rifle is dated back to close to the time of those original loads, it is possible the rifle was intended for, used with, and might be best served by staying with that level of pressures. Of course, we don't actually know when it WAS converted,but it never hurts to make asumptions which are safer, rather than those which might be riskier.

So, if it was my rifle,I'd look around for the lowest pressure loads that develop the original English ballistics. Then I'd put together several rounds of each such load, shoot them, and find the most accurate.

After that, I'd load up a couple of hundred rounds of it, and just plain enjoy having a nice older rifle.

Gew's are soft as lead. It probably has lug set back already. Send it to me to dispose of properly.

Those are hardened only where needed in the lug area. The rest of the reciever will test soft.

I'm now only using actions post 1924 as the number of posts about heat treating have scared me off a bit.

Further the GEW Mausers were WWI guns and the 300 H&H has to remove a bit of steel from the front receiver ring. All this adds up to the question:....how was it done?....was it heat treated after the metal was ground from the front ring?.....it's hard to tell!

This may be a superb piece of workmanship and a real gem or may be a piece of junk in the future with setback!

Take it out and shoot it....it's not dangerous in all likelyhood as it will lock up before it fails in a dangerous way.

In short.....there is little way of knowing.....but it's very unlikely to be a dangerous gun to shoot.

The heat treat of an 1918 mauser won't be a lot different than any up to and including WWll. They are basically a case hardning called carborization. The only portion that has the heat treat removed is just where the feed ramp was altered. I would not be afraid to use todays loads in that 300 H & H. If it is marked as 300 magnam and not 300 H & H then it was made before the 300 win mag was introduced.

Rad