I know a bloke whom has a whitworth .243 he wants to sell and while the bore is rough the cation seems ok but looks like it could do with a good clean, what where these guns in .243 like ?? and what 98 action was generally used, was wondering about a re-barrel to 30/06 or .458 in mag etc. would not go longer than .458 win mag length.

I have no $$ at the moment and thats also a dampner but it could be put away for the future

"Whitworths" used Yugoslav (Mark X-type) actions. They are OK, but some had some pretty heavy-handed polishing jobs before being blued. You can detect these by looking along the surfaces of the receiver, and see the wavy lines!

Yep watch for the heavy polish. I think the earlier ones with the floorplate release in the triggerguard were better than the later ones with the cross pin.

I have an early one in .243 it's amazingly accurate. The action is best suited to the 30-06 sized cartridges though.