Occasionally I run across mauser 98's that for whatever reason have had the crest ground off of the reciever. Does this remove the heat treating or weaken the reciever in any way? Also, does it cause a misalignment of the scope/bases if the gun is then drilled and tapped? Thanks....

Not exactly the same: I have a Norwegian Mauser. This means that after the German surrender Mausers were converted to 30-06, patridge type front sight added.

For markings on the front ring of the receiver at the left side there was materiel removed so as to get a flat surface, ~ 7 mm wide.

Does this considerably reduce strength of the action?

Would be very sad about this, as it shoots great, has a fine front sight, is easy to load for and has a great trigger ( seems somebody who knew what he did worked it over ).

Good Shooting! H

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Typically removing the markings does not adversely affect the strength of the action in a significant fashion. I will look it up in Kuhnhausen, he gives allowable limits on metal removal.

If you are rechambering to high pressure cartridges you should have the hardness checked or just re-heat-treat after lapping the lugs and truing the action.

Carnivore, you are somewhat close to Craftsman, you could have him look at it if you are worried.

The effect on scope geometry should be negligible.

Don

I can't seem to find it in Kuhnhausen.

He gives typical large ring dia as 1.396 to 1.425 with 1.41 being average.

Small rings are 1.290 to 1.318 with 1.3 being standard.

HTH,
Don

People that might know this right off the top are Ray Atkinson here, and J. Belk, on Huntamerica.com.

From my [limited] knowledge of Mausers, the strength of the action lies in the carburizing/case hardening of the locking lug recesses; since this process is only a few thousandths deep, and on the INSIDE of the receiver, I don't see how removing a small amount of metal from the outside would weaken it.

The few Mausers I have worked on were pretty soft outside anyway -- all could be easily smoothed with a file, indicating they weren't super hard.

Hope this helps,
Todd

[This message has been edited by Todd Getzen (edited 07-31-2001).]