I have picked up a 98 mauser rebarrelled to .458 Win Mag. The problem is that the (1) the magazine will not hold Remington 500 grain soft points as loaded and crimped from the factory, and (2) it really doesn't like to smoothly feed those 500 grainers into the chamber. Right now it's more a less a single shot.

Can I or should I have the feed ramp cut and smoothed to accept these bigger slugs? Is it possible to replace the existing magazine with a longer one? And is it worth the trouble verus buying a different rifle.

The rifle is marked GEW 98 on the left side of the receiver. It is stamped SPANDAU 1917 with a crest on the receiver ring and 1920 above the crest. It has a Douglas barrel. Shot accurrace for three rounds this afternoon was touching cloverleaf at 25 yards with those Remington factory loads, one at a time of course.

The rifle will feed lighter weight bullets at 300 to 405 gr range, but I do want the option for the 500 if I should ever want to use it.

Right at the moment, it would get any of us killed in a gunfight with something nasty in Africa or Alaska or Montana either.

Thought I would asked the sage advice on AR before I go see my friendly gunsmith.

Awhile back I idid a series on "Making it feed".

You might look it over and see if anything might help.

Yellowstone, here is Duane's thread.

http://forums.accuratereloadin.../9411043/m/843106779

Thank you gentlemen. I did a search before I posted this thread but missed the details. Will get to studying. The rifle has some nice wood. I hope I can do something with it. Thanks again.

If you decide you don't want to try the alteration, I can highly recommend Dennis Olson in Plains, MT to do the work. He's reasonable on price and the rifle will feed like it was made for the .458 from the factory.

I'm not anywhere near qualified for this so I now have two good leads in Duane and Dennis. I don't much trust the local talent here in Billings to do this right.
Thanks